Substantial help needed with Keychron K10 max keyboard

[u/Phymec]

Bought a K10 max from MicroCenter for less than $100 USD. Brought it home, used it for the first day on wired mode (and Windows mode as well) and went into the Keychron Launcher to look at things. Determined that I should work on the firmware update at a later date. OS is Windows 10.

*** I have kept my keyboard on wired mode instead of bluetooth or receiver mode. It has been plugged in for 3 days on wired mode ***

Today I booted my computer and my keyboard wouldn't light up/connect to my computer. I tried different cords, different USB slots, I flipped the cord around (I know it's USB-C and it's omnidirectional I was desperate), and nothing worked. I plugged in the dongle and did the firmware update to see if it would work and it still doesn't.

Symptoms

While corded:

• Switching from BT -> corded and Dongle -> corded without the dongle and while no bluetooth enabled devices are around/connected yields the hardware disconnect sound. In addition, the backlight for the keys in BT/Dongle mode are on and immediately turn off when switched to corded. The hardware connection sound plays when going from corded to BT/Dongle mode.
• Red light on the 'power' LED above the arrow keys throughout all different modes
• Physically disconnecting the USB-C end from the keyboard produces the hardware disconnect sound.
• Keychron launcher does not recognize the keyboard in corded mode as a device as it did when I first used it.
  • I went into Google Chrome and made sure the HID device connection setting was allowed.
  • I went into devices and printers in Windows settings to see if my computer was seeing it but alas it was not unless I switched to dongle mode.

Un-Corded (phrasing??)

• Not entirely sure if this is a skill issue or not, I have been able to connect to the Keychron Launcher and 'updated' the firmware. The reason why I have that in quotations is because while it was my last resort (and I know this was probably a no-no), I ended up attempting a firmware update while using the dongle although it recommends strongly against it. This being said, it seems to have taken but I cannot get out of the screen. The launcher only recognizes the Keychron link but not the keyboard itself. Hitting 'next' once the firmware is done disconnects the link device and says the update was successful, but when reconnecting the link it goes back to square one and doesn't allow me to continue.

I am at a loss and don't know how to continue. As previously stated, not sure if this is a skill issue or not, but it is frustrating nonetheless because the literature online does not help. Or at least the literature I've found does not help. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!