Dynex Optical Mouse and Multimedia Keyboard Combo

My wireless mouse and keyboard died last night. I replaced the batteries, and got nowhere with it; since I needed the keyboard and mouse for work today and this was the THIRD wireless mouse to die in the last two years for me, I made a quick trip to my local Best Buy to buy a wired keyboard and mouse combo. I sit near my computer, so it made sense (why keep wasting batteries?).

Wired keyboards and mice are hard combo to find; there was really only one option at the store, and it was the Dynex Optical Mouse and Multimedia Keyboard. I’ve never been a big fan of Dynex products (you’ll find out why in a minute), but since I really had no choice, I decided to pick one up. It was cheap (you get what you pay for), and the display model looked OK. I bought it, and left it on my desk for installation this morning.

Install went fine (mostly); I plugged in the keyboard and the mouse into the USB connections on my KVM switch, and I immediately had a basic keyboard and mouse functioning. However, this is a MULTIMEDIA keyboard and mouse combo; there’s extra buttons on both, and I wanted to make them work. Since there was no install disk, I headed over to the Dynex web site to find drivers. I’ve done this before for other Dynex products (hence my distaste for the brand), so I thought it was going to be relatively easy.

Well, the combo wasn’t listed as an option for download, so I looked for drivers for the individual components; the mouse was easy: DX-WMSE, and there’s the driver right on the page. Download, unzip, install. Done. The keyboard? DX-WKBD. No driver on the page. Hmmm. Click the Drivers link on the bottom left of the page, and then the Input Devices drop down. No listing for my keyboard; also, no listing for the mouse driver either. At this point, I begin swearing softly.

They have a support number, which I call, and I speak to a very nice representative named Mike, who proceeds to tell me that the keyboard doesn’t require a driver. I tell him that the basic functions are working, but none of the multimedia keys work; he asks me to uninstall the keyboard and reinstall, and then finally utters that panacea of support technicians everywhere – REBOOT. I tried all of those, and got nowhere. I thanked him for his time, and hung up. Since I don’t need the multimedia functions, I can make do until I need a replacement. When I do need a replacement, it probably won’t be a Dynex.

PROS: Cheap keyboard and mouse combo. Basic functions work well.

CONS: No drivers available for the multimedia functionality. Other reviews seem to indicate that it does work out of the box, but I couldn’t get it to work for me.

EDIT: I’ve revised my rating, because I determined that the USB switch on my KVM switch was interfering with the device discovery; when I plugged the keyboard directly into a PC, the functionality worked. I still think that there should be some sort of drivers associated with the keyboard, but it’s unfair to give this a low rating because of that.

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