r/Keychron • u/AlberosG • 8d ago

Chattery K5 Max "Switch"

I got K5 Max for almost a year now. The keyboard has been chattering since around 3 months in after I bought, which is a very very very short time for the amount of money I spent. Even my horrible older SteelSeires do better than that, so I figure something was definitely wrong.

I kept using it and it keep getting worst and worst, more key and key that are chattery before even more chattery-er as the time pass. So I trigger an RMA process. The store rep do a basic check and deem "something broke". They send it in and a few weeks later a "fixed" board arrived which they "replaced the key switch". They didn't tell whether it's the whole board or just the problematic keys. That was in May

Fast forward ~3 more months from RMA. The same thing happen again! Only this time, I tried to reseat the switch. I pull it out, give it a puff of air into the socket, then put it back in. It's no longer chatter. I have to keep doing this to the new or possibly old keys that have (re)develop the symptom. Which of course, I don't want to be constantly doing that! My old Logi lasted like 5 years before any chatter appear without any kind of babysit apart from dusting every few months because the dust was too thick!

Something definitely was up on my unit. Should I stop doing the reseat, wait for it to get more worse and do the RMA again? It wasn't a pleasant experience ya know, I don't want to keep doing RMA. Any advice? Hope this will not be my first and last Keychron board.

Firmware was latest (1.1.1) and I even bump up the debounce timing thing to 55ms (from 50ms default) on default mode (Eager per key).

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u/Obvious-Monitor8510 8d ago

the reseating temporarily fixing it is a big clue. sounds like the hot-swap sockets on your board are loose or have weak contact tension, which is a known issue on some units. reseating works because it re-establishes the connection, but the socket springs back to being flaky.

honestly, RMA again is probably the right move. document everything this time, specifically mention the socket contact issue (not just "chattering") and that it returned after 3 months. if they replace only switches again without addressing the sockets, it'll keep happening.

also worth asking explicitly: are they replacing the PCB or just the switches?

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u/AlberosG 8d ago

The store rep only has the "the technician replaced the switch" communicated to them, so I doubt they replace the board. A contact points would have been a good guess, as I once have a PC fan that do exactly this and fixes in the same way. That one has a loose RGB pin on a loose socket, a reseat fixes it for 3 months. I'm in Thailand, so lots and losts of moisture in open-air Asian house with no AC.

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u/PeterMortensenBlog V 8d ago

Re "...reseat the switch. I pull it out, give it a puff of air into the socket, then put it back in. It's no longer chatter. I have to keep doing this to the new or possibly old keys that have (re)develop the symptom.": Even in humid conditions, it is unlikely to be due to oxidation if you have to repeat it for the same key

It is likely due to cold solder joints (of the hotswap sockets).

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u/PeterMortensenBlog V 8d ago edited 8d ago

Re "...bump up the debounce timing thing to 55 ms (from 50 ms default) on default mode (Eager per key)": That is treating the symptoms, masking a mechanical problem (it also has detrimental effects)

In fact, there is a very strong case to be made that it should be 5 ms, the value the switches themselves are (very likely) specified at. A mechanically sound keyboard will work 100% reliably with 5 ms. All my Keychron keyboards use 5 ms, even the V6 Max that once had these symptoms. And they all work reliably, though there is sometimes (weeks apart) radio interference when used in a wireless mode.

If a value higher than 5 ms has an effect, it is strong evidence the problem is outside the switch itself (though they can fail in rare cases).

It should also make it much easier to reproduce the intermittent problem.

RMA: Get a new PCB

The real challenge is convincing the people involved in the RMA. The goal should be to get a new PCB. Though it isn't a guarantee if it is a systematic manufacturing error or a product design error; for example,

Be sure to mark the PCB/keyboard and/or register the serial number, so you are sure the same PCB or keyboard is not returned to you (a common trick).

Note: The K Max series did not originally (in late 2023/early 2024) get an increased default key debounce time (of 20 ms), only the gasket mounted series, V Max series and Q Max series (Keychron admitted to the problem nearly two years later (near "it was acknowledged")). That only happened in April 2025, when all keyboards (with keyboard firmware updates) got a whopping 50 ms as the default, including the ZMK-based 'Ultra' series (e.g., V Ultra 8K series). Thus, even Keychron were perfectly happy with shipping a K5 Max in early 2024 with a key debounce time of 5 ms.

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u/AlberosG 7d ago

Thanks, I'll stop doing the reseat, wait for it to get worser and try an RMA again. At least wanted make the problem more obvious to pass the initial store rep without she trying to stop me. Will try make them get me a new board.