We all know that frustrating feeling when you are in the middle of a boss battle and your keyboard suddenly fails and stops working.
Thankfully, however, if you have a Ducky keyboard, there are ways to troubleshoot any unexpected and rather annoying, errors you may stumble across. Some of the problems you may encounter could include certain keys or commands not being recognised or intermittent input lag.
A simple fix to this can be, updating your keyboard’s firmware to the latest one available. Whilst this may sound complicated, fear not! We’ve done the hard work for you and compiled this handy guide showing you step-by-step how to update your Ducky keyboard’s firmware.
Updating the Firmware
Our step-by-step guide will show you how you can troubleshoot and update your firmware.
Before we begin, it’s important to note that Ducky doesn’t recommend that you update your firmware if you’ve not found any issues with the keyboard. We recommend that you first find out what model your keyboard is, such as the One3 Daybreak, along with the model ID. The model ID will usually be found on the box the keyboard came in or on the back of the actual keyboard. However, if you don’t know your keyboard’s model ID, then you can head on over to the support page on Ducky’s website and follow the on-screen steps.
Step-by-Step
Once you know what model you have, on the product listing page you can find the latest firmware to download. Once downloaded, extract the files. You will most likely notice when trying to run the software, the ‘Start’ button on the program will be greyed out.
To solve this, there are a few extra steps you will need to take. Begin by right-clicking on the ‘Start’ button in Windows > Select ‘Device Manager’.
Once you are in Device Manager, locate ‘Universal Serial Bus Controller’ in the drop-down menu, and then ‘USB Composite Device’. There most likely will be at least two of these.
To determine which one is your Ducky keyboard, right-click on one > Enter properties > Details > On the drop-down menu, select ‘Device instance path’. It’s not always easy to spot the correct keyboard, we recommend you look out for ‘DK‘ (Ducky keyboard) in the device’s name – e.g. ‘DK-V1.11-220819‘.If you are still struggling to spot your keyboard, in ‘USB Composite Device’, you can select ‘Bus reported device description’ which should give you a clearer indication of which device is your Ducky keyboard.
Here you will compare the value listed to the name of the firmware software you have downloaded. This will ensure you have selected the correct device. If it doesn’t match, repeat the process on the next device. After you’ve selected the correct device, right-click and choose ‘Uninstall Device’. Once you’ve done this, unplug your keyboard! Don’t worry if you uninstall the wrong device, simply unplug and plug back in to re-register.
Once the uninstallation is complete, you can plug your keyboard in and open up the installation software. Hopefully, now the ‘Start’ button is no longer greyed out and you can begin downloading the latest firmware drivers. Once the installation is complete, that’s it!
(wipes brow… panic over)
Get Game Ready with Ducky
Looking to upgrade your battle station with a high-quality Ducky keyboard? We’ve got our top Ducky keyboard picks for you below, but you can also shop the full range of keyboards by clicking the button.
Ducky One 3 Mist USB RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
- Full-sized gaming keyboard
- UK ISO layout
- Hot-swappable PCB
- This model comes with Cherry MX Speed Silver key switches
- Double-shot keycaps
Ducky One 3 Cosmic TKL 80% USB RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
- 80% TKL form factor
- UK ISO layout
- Hot-swappable technology
- This model comes with Cherry MX Blue key switches
- Double-shot keycaps
Ducky Project D Tinker 75% RGB USB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
- Pre-built mechanical gaming keyboard
- Hot-swappable PCB
- PBT double-shot keycaps
- 75% form factor
- Integrated RGB lighting
- Includes Cherry MX Blue key switches
Still Experiencing Issues?
If so, it may be best to look into downgrading the firmware instead of updating it. We would recommend downgrading to the firmware version below the one that came with your keyboard by default.
If all else fails, our team of PC experts is also available for you to ring or talk to online Mon – Fri 9 am – 5 pm, to help troubleshoot or set up a return to us!
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- 5 min read
Ruth Rowley
Author
Ruth has been with Overclockers UK for over a year and has gone on to write about everything ranging from in-depth hardware guides to monthly game releases.
Outside of writing blog posts, she can be found wrapped in a blanket with her black cat, engrossed in a book or playing life-simulation games such as The Sims, Stardew Valley, and Animal Crossing.
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Hey thanks for that, worked a treat. Might be an idea to mention that when you are looking for your keyboard in device manager, when you click on Device Instance Path, for me anyway, it wasn’t very clear which one was my Ducky keyboard, the string for me was USB\VID_3233&PID_1311\DK-V1.11-220819, so it was just the last bit that tipped me off, the bit where it has DK-V1.11-220819, so the DK for Ducky Keyboard, or maybe just DucKy, IDK, anyway my point is it might not be that clear which 1 is the Ducky keyboard.
Further to my last comment, I have just found another string in in the USB Composite properties, that gives a clearer description of your keyboard, or mine at least. The string is called Bus reported device description, and for me it was to Ducky One 3 RGB.
Thanks for the great tip – we’ll be sure to include it on the blog 🙂
I have the same keyboard and a similar problem, I accidentally downloaded the Ducky one 2 mini firmware and after downloading it, I no longer can do anything on my keyboard, it won’t detect via usb or type or light up or anything.
Please help, is there anything I could do or possibly get some compensation from ducky or is this my fault? I feel like this is duckys fault.
Have you tried rolling back the firmware? Alternatively, you could contact customers services and they should be able to help.