Tag: Razer

Razer is great for one product and that’s their Naga

Gaming

For a couple of years now, I have stayed as far away from Razer products as I could. I had no luck with the Razer Lycosa and the Razer Onza TE was another nightmare. In fact, only Razer product I ever “loyally” used after that fiasco was a basic Razer Lachesis mouse. My keyboard replacement for the Lycosa was a Logitech Illuminated keyboard and the Xbox 360 controller? Never used again (in general)! I stopped playing any console games and actually made the switch to PC gaming. Best decision ever too!

The main title I’ve been playing for the last few years has been an MMORPG called Rift. Actually, it’s weird saying “few years” because it still only feels like I’ve been playing this game for a few months. Anyway, so as my experience grows in the MMO world, I have come to realize relying on just your keyboard for some insane keybinding combinations is really awkward. There’s only so many ways to combine Shift and ALT with letters and numbers. So.. a friend of mine kept telling me that I needed to buy a Razer Naga. The price was the main factor that prevented me from investing in the Naga.

Eventually, I caved in. I bought the Razer Naga and I do not regret it at all. It’s made my gaming and work life much more productive and easier. I admit that I was completely hesitant to drop more money on a Razer product but so far, I am proving myself wrong. They might not have reliable keyboards (at least for the Lycosa series) or controllers, but damn do they make good mice. My Lachesis went through a lot of uh, abuse and usage. My Naga just gets a lot of usage from work and gaming but it’s held up really well. My only qualm? I wish it was a little easier to dismantle to clean it out (on the inside) but I can’t complain.

10/10 – Would buy another Razer Naga

Razer Onza TE and the issues it has

Gaming

I honestly was hoping I wouldn’t have to write another poor review on a Razer product but unfortunately I feel I have to. I’ve had my Razer Onza Tournament Edition for exactly one month now. I had been looking forward to it since it was announced at 2010’s CES. I pre-ordered it the second it was made available in January, so you can say I was definitely excited for it.

razer onza te

I got used to the controller fairly quick but the first issue that arose from the controller: Serious feedback from any mic being used with it. I tried it out with a pair of Astro A40s, Tritton AX 720s and then just the official Xbox 360 headset. Two of the three had severe feedback–it was bad enough that the feedback would output to people in my XBL party. The Xbox 360 feedback was only audible [to myself] when people were talking. It would pop/crackle when someone started talking and hiss/pop once they stopped talking. It was passive enough that I just did my best to ignore it. It sucked having to stop using headsets I dropped insane money on because of feedback.

That issue started the minute I used the controller unfortunately. If that was the only problem with it, I’d be content and deal with it. But it wasn’t. Two weeks ago both of the analog sticks started to have response issues. I should note that I had absolutely no slowturn issues at all. I ran the test and it passed 100 across the board. The issue I had was that the analog stick would just stop sending out a signal that it was still in use. While I was playing Modern Warfare 2 MP, a perk I often run with is marathon pro. That gives me endless sprint. So all I need to do is push/use the left analog stick and I’m running non-stop. Well, that definitely didn’t happen. I would constantly stop as if some invisible wall was spawned in front of me.

Then when I’d try to sprint again I would only be able to move what can be construed as 2-3 steps before I’d have to let go of the analog stick and then push it forward. This is frustrating because despite unplugging the controller (and eventually restarting my 360 Slim) the issue was still present. So not even 20 minutes later, I started to have issues with the right analog stick. It had the seem lack of response–it would stop accepting that I was moving the analog around and stick to the last position it was in.

Knowing all of the frustration I went through with my Razer Lycosa, I knew that I was not going to live with it and deal with it. I want a controller that works! I love the Onza TE, especially being able to map the buttons AND change the tension for the analog sticks is a GODSEND! The controller is slick, light-weight and response time with the buttons is amazing. I just am not going to use it with the analog stick issues. Whether or not it’s a bad controller or the entire batch, I’m hoping I can get an exchange for the Onza TE as soon as possible.

Going from the Onza TE to my old Xbox wireless controller is brutal!

Razer made me loyal again

Personal

Update 10/14/10: I decided that I am no longer going to use the Lycosa. Even with the new model (MT10) that Razer sent me I still experience the same issues with the keys randomly dying and/or ghost sticking on me. I’ve got the latest drivers for Windows 7 64bit and nothing helps. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not the keyboard itself but the horribly crappy drivers for the Lycosa. I’ll still purchase other Razer products but as far as their keyboard line goes: hell no.

A few weeks I wrote about how I was disappointed with Razer and their Lycosa. I was holding off on buying a new keyboard when I ended up receiving a message from cultofrazer on my Youtube account. Hilmar ‘Razer|Water’ Hahn, a Product Evangelist at Razer, handles the Razer Lycosa and contacted me after seeing my blog post about the issues I’ve been having. He wanted to make it up to me and renew the relationship. As a result he wanted to send me a replacement Razer Lycosa and send me a free Razer Orca as he thought it would be perfect for me.

Needless to say I was extremely grateful to see that a Razer employee has gone out of his way to ensure that I am once again a satisfied customer! This positive response from them definitely guarantees that I will no doubt continue using and purchasing Razer products. In fact I’m finally going to replace my poor, dirty, worn out Goliathis for a new Goliathus Fragged Control Edition surface pad… Now if only they’d release their damn Onza controller that I’ve been waiting on for eons!

Disappointed with Razer and their Lycosa

Personal

Last year I was on the lookout for a new keyboard and having already been using Razer products (Razer Abyssus and a Razer Goliathus), I decided to take a gander at their keyboards.

I went with the Razer Lycosa keyboard. I wanted something with laptop-style keys that would be quieter and of course the backlight was a plus. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t read up on any reviews on this product at all. I just went blind into the purchase as I was already familiar with Razer.

Razer Lycosa

The first few couple of months were fine; I used the keyboard on a daily basis for hours at a time. After awhile though I noticed that the occasional time a key would not respond (eg: the letter ‘g’ would not respond) and unplugging the USB cord would ‘reset’ it. This happened so seldom that I never thought anything of it. However, after awhile it turned into more than just a key here and there. Eventually the touch screen to change light settings (WSAD, all keys lit, off) would randomly stop responding and various keys would be ‘stuck’ despite not having even touched them.

It has gotten to the point where I would unplug the USB cord for my keyboard every few hours. A couple of months ago I finally researched a bit on the product and found various articles that this was a common problem with the Lycosa. Lycosa’s with serials that started at MT0803, MT0802, MT0801, and MT07 were those that were affected however Razer stated that “were limited to a small batch of customers” and since the problem was ‘so small’ no recall was necessary. My Lycosa starts with an MT09 serial number and apparently I should not be affected–but I am!

I finally decided to contact Razer last night as I was tired of putting up with the poor reliability of the Lycosa. I received a reply within a few hours asking for more details on the purchase. And finally around 10PM last night I received a response that they would not offer me an RMA on the Lycosa due to my purchase having only a 90 day warranty on it from November 2009 to January 2010. WHAT?!

The main article I read on the issue was from Tomshardware.com “Razer Responds to Lycosa KB Issue”

“Frick also mentioned that the problem was small enough that there wasn’t any recall performed, and that customers with affected serial numbers can get their boards replaced free of charge.”

So just because my serial isn’t specifically listed as affected yet those with MT09 keyboards DO have this issue, I’m screwed no matter what. I just think it’s poor that Razer knows of this issue yet has done nothing about it in the three years it’s actually been present. The sad thing is that the MT09’s are obviously affected because looking around online will yield tons of posts about the MT09 being affected just as well. I think that they really should have immediately taken my keyboard for an RMA despite the serial being MT09 and the warranty being up–especially when they’ve even admitted to the problem and stated that they would replace the boards free of charge.

I was really looking forward to continuing on being a loyal Razer customer. I’ve been waiting for the Razer Onza to release and after this issue, I’m not even sure if I want to continue using Razer’s products. Between the issue STILL being present and Razer failing to replace the obviously defective product, I’m already looking at picking up a Logitech Illuminated keyboard and a Xtrac pads for future mouse/surface pads.

Logitech Illuminated Keyboard