Steelseries Software Keyboard

[Marthe Bernskoetter]

SteelSeriesgaming keyboards are available with a variety of switch types: OmniPoint adjustable mechanical switches, red mechanical, brown mechanical, blue mechanical, hybrid mechanical, and membrane, all with extreme durability and performance.

The SteelSeries Apex 5, Apex 7, and Apex Pro series collection of mechanical gaming keyboards includes advanced features tailored for gamers. The mechanical gaming keyboards all come with a customizable OLED display, per-key RGB background illumination, and adjustable mechanical switches to match any gamer style.

All SteelSeries gaming keyboards have a built-in anti-ghosting feature that prevents the keyboard from failing when multiple keystrokes are pressed simultaneously. This is essential in many popular games. A must-have feature for any serious gamer!

SteelSeries gaming keyboards for consoles are adjustable multi-platform mechanical keyboards with a customizable OLED Smart Display made for all gamers and their various systems.Dominate your opponents on every platform with the Apex mechanical gaming keyboards from SteelSeries.

Both keyboards come with gaming-grade features such as anti-ghosting feature, remarkable build quality and durability, dedicated multimedia control buttons, and customizable background RGB background illumination.

SteelSeries offers the best budget gaming keyboards in esports by offering a combination of hyper-durable gaming keyboards at prices affordable to every gamer. Our gaming keyboards allow gamers to access the capabilities of esports pros without spending a fortune or sacrificing quality.

Every shooter needs customizable tools when perfecting their gaming strategy. Steelseries gaming keyboards include adjustable mechanical switches for customizable per-key sensitivity in various switch types, including: OmniPoint adjustable mechanical switches, red mechanical, brown mechanical, blue mechanical, hybrid mechanical, and membrane switches.

This keyboard is a hybrid keyboard. The switches in SteelSeries Apex 5 are a combination of membrane and blue switches. They are supposed to give you a clicky experience that many people love in a mechanical keyboard but have a soft activation at the same time.

This alloy is great. First of all, it is durable and very strong compared to any plastic. Secondly, it looks just amazing. It is not just a rectangle of aluminum slapped on top of the keyboard. This alloy is nicely curved and cut so it fits perfectly.

In most clicky switches this tactile bump is placed somewhere in the middle of the key travel. Here, on the Apex 5s hybrids, the click is on the top. That creates a very interesting typing experience. You can barely press the key for it to register.

I personally loved typing on this keyboard. From the feel of the switches, through the wrist pad, finally ending on the look of Steelseries Apex 5. This keyboard is reliable, affordable, and very nice.

I can honestly recommend this keyboard to many people buying their second or third mechanical keyboard. Or to those who just want a very good keyboard for a great price, not necessarily the keyboard hobby (or passion).

Thats a very detailed review! Im searching new keyboard, and this model caught my interest. Your review helped me decide to purchase it. Once again, a big thank you! Very professionally, thoroughly, and from various angles reviewed product! Happy that i found it!

Recently got the Windows 10 creators update for my PC. Aside from having to remove and rediscover my Sound Card, I am noticing this little annoying issue. This Keyboard (MERC SteelSeries by Ideazon) has an additional set of keys on the Left-hand side that offer the same functionals as a Gaming Pad Partial Qwerty, Numerpad Space, ETC. I am not getting this to work like it did before. Example Prior to Update the WSAD keys worked as they did in every other game, they were movement keys, there were combos setup IN GAME that would allow me to do other things. Post Update - Pressing the WSAD opens other windows features, most notably pressing the "W" open Microsoft Edge, and pressing the tab key opens Calculator. This has, of course, happened on the weekend when my downtime is most needed. Anyone have any suggestions on how to correct this?

I have the same keyboard and same problems. I find that the extended W key now activates WWW Home, the extended S, WWW Stop, extended A key, WWW Refresh, extended D key, WWW Forward. I have checked the Z engine driver software and WSAD extended keys are scripted for the WSAD keys. No idea why the extended keys have changed.

I just ran into the same issue today. The keyboard worked (special keys) yesterday and today it does not. The three updates made to the system where: KB4034674, KB4034662 and KB890830. I cannot locate what would have caused this in the updates but my left hand keys are now mapped wrong like yours. What's weird is that there are no driver changes made to the keyboard, so it has to be something in windows OS settings. If anyone figures this out please post the fix. I love this keyboard and don't want to lose it.

Edit: Everyone should find that they have an error (876) in event viewer (system) with this file name displayed: Alpham164.sys. It will also be followed by another warn message (219) indicating that the driver Alpham1 failed to load. I was fine until this error appeared. The file is a Idealzon keyboard driver and it fails to load after one of the updates and a reboot.

My Merc keyboard is still working after having this problem. I had tried un-installing and re-installing the Mfg driver ZE_25030_NA_64.exe. I then tried the Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard software but it didn't see a supported keyboard. I had another gaming board installed at the time but have since removed it. I then unplugged the Merc and plugged into a ps2 port. It detected the Merc and installed. At that time it started working. It is still using the Microsoft drivers but the extended keys work properly. Also, in devices it shows up as 2 keyboards. I presume the one showing as Merc is the extended keyboard.

Thanks Dewey. I will try and use a usb to Ps2 adapter and see if that works. Based on what I looked at with the drivers, I have a feeling that useing a USB 2.0 port may also solve the issue. Unfortunatly, I dont have any usb2 ports on my system to test this out.

Here was my fix for this, after uninstalling the update(s) that blocked Alpham and realizing that's going to be a never ending task as cumulative updates keep rolling in (even with the wusho... "don't install this update" utility). My solution was to reinstall/install the driver but under a different name.

In device manager for the keyboard -> update driver -> Browse Computer -> Let me pick -> Have Disk -> Browse -> manually select your newly renamed .inf file. Click ok or whatever on the "Unsigned driver Warning".

It'll install the same drivers as Merc164.sys and windows won't flag it as contraban, the red Z will go green and yay - I play games again without buying some $200 orbweaver, taking 3/4 my gaming time uninstalling updates, or attempting to forego updates from now until forever. Solution might require restarting in the Recovery -> Start without driver signing enforcement after a reboot, but that's tolerable until a better option exists.

First, disabling signed driver enforcement only works until the next reboot; I'd wait until just before driver installation to disable it. (Once your driver is installed, you will no longer need it disabled, so future reboots won't re-disable your keyboard). A good step-by-step guide is here: -bell-uk.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/38288

Next, you need to create a new cat file from the edited .inf file. After renaming the alpham files to merc, delete the alpham12.cat (or after the rename, merc12.cat... it's the Security Catalog file). Now we need to generate a new security catalog for our edited .inf file using inf2cat from the Windows Driver Kit (found =845980). Of note, it's going to give you a number of warnings during install that you won't be able to develop drivers since you don't have an IDE installed. Just OK through them... you're not developing a driver.

Of note, make sure you add the WDK installation location to your PATH variables. Type path in search and select "Edit environment variables for your account" then select Path in the top window and click edit. Click new then add the directory of your inf2cat.exe file. Mine was in D:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\x86. Hit enter, then OK all open windows.

Final note: In device manager, my merc was showing up under Human Interface Devices, not Keyboards. You should install your new driver for both "Ideazon Merc MM USB Human Interface Device" and "Ideazon Merc USB Human Interface Device"

2 years on still got the same issue can anyone help me sort this out as recently came across this keyboard in my attic and works perfectly and is in amazing condition. I am trying to sort out the issue I have for it but likes like this was still a windows issue a year ago as well. If the fix has been done by now can anyone please lend me a hand and sit on teamviewer and skype with me? @Marvin J. McHardy

@Harry31

Microsoft Power Toys app somewhat solves the issue. The old unsigned drivers and side loading of drivers no longer seems to work. With MS Power Toys you can rebind many of the keys on the Zmerc and possibly the Merc and Steelseries. However, the ability to hold down multiple keys appears to be broken if you use Power Toys to rebind the dedicated butterfly keys. What boggles my mind is that no other keyboard manufacturer has bothered to bring these keyboards back, surely there is money to be made by selling dedicated gaming keyboards like this.

The Apex 3 gaming keyboard was built for the needs of gamers, with IP32 water resistance for protection against spills and accidents. Its whisper quiet gaming switches provide comfortable low friction performance for over 20 million keypresses. The keyboa

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