ROCCAT Valo Quick setup guide

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MANUAL

IMPORTANT

DOCUMENT

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CONTENTS

Limitation of Liability

Safety Instructions

Introduction

What’s Included

System Requirements

Connecting

Installation under Windows

Swapping Keys

Manual Conﬁguration

• In-game Macro Recording (Mrec key)

Conﬁguration Menu

Main Control

• Standard keyboard layout

• Changing key functions

• Macro Manager

Game Proﬁles/Proﬁle-2-Go

Brightness Control

Advanced Settings

• LCD Display Output

• Restore Defaults

• Enable/Disable Keys

• Windows Keys

• On-Screen Display

Update

Warranty and Support

Troubleshooting

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LimiTATiON Of LiAbiLiTy

ROCCAT GmbH shall not be liable for damages such as damages to or loss of property, proﬁt or turnover

losses, costs for spare parts, expenses for inconveniences arising from the interruption of a service or

any other damages. Claims which exceed the purchasing price of the product may not be asserted under

any circumstances.

SAfETy iNSTRUCTiONS

Troubleshooting/repairs

Do not attempt to service or repair the product

yourself; leave any maintenance to qualiﬁed

experts. Do not attempt to modify the product in

any way as doing so will invalidate the warranty.

Moisture/heat

Only use the keyboard in dry, interior rooms. Do

not operate the device near water and keep it

away from damp areas and areas where liquids

are likely to drip or be sprayed in order to prevent

damage occurring.

Physical harm

Some experts are of the opinion that the using a

keyboard may lead to health problems with the

hands, wrists, arms, neck and/or back. Please

seek specialist medical advice if you notice any

pain, numbness or weakness in any of these

areas.

Disposal

The markings on the product and on the

associated literature show that this product

must not be disposed of together with normal

household waste at the end of its useful life.

Please dispose of this device separately from

other waste in order not to cause harm to

the environment or human health through

uncontrolled refuse disposal. Recycle the device

to facilitate the sustainable recycling of material

resources. Private users should contact the

dealer from whom the product was bought, or the

authorities responsible for recycling, to ﬁnd out

how to recycle the device in an environmentally

friendly way. Commercial users should ask their

suppliers and consult the sales contract terms.

This product must not be disposed of together

with other commercial waste.

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Welcome to the ROCCAT™ Valo

Congratulations! You’re now the proud owner

of the ROCCAT™ Valo – the versatile gaming

keyboard with a clever design. It has an

unparalleled range of features that’ll help you

improve your performance and become an

outstanding pro.

The keyboard can be fully customized to suit

both your game play as well as individual games,

delivering a level of ﬂexibility that is unmatched.

The 41 macro keys can be assigned macros

quickly and easily. Program your own command

sequences to suit your own needs and those of

the game. At the same time, you’ll never need to

leave the game once. Even during the game, you

can record and save macros – and even assign

them to keys. As a result, you’ll no longer need

to think about which macros might be useful in a

particular situation before playing a game. Just

use them and record them directly during the

game.

You can even store a complete proﬁle, comprising

four layers, on the keyboard itself. This Proﬁle-

2-Go allows you to take your macros and conﬁgs

with you wherever you go – without needing

to take your computer with you. Just plug the

keyboard into any computer and you can call up

and use your Proﬁle-2-Go.

You’ll never lose track of your macros, despite the

unbelievable number that can be programmed:

using the on-screen display and LCD, you

can see which layer of the ﬁve proﬁles you’re

currently in at any time. In addition, you’ve got

45 interchangeable keys in three colors at your

disposal. These allow you to split the various

functions of your macros into three categories. To

ensure the keyboard doesn’t suffer any damage

when you’re swapping keys, a practical Key

Releaser is included allowing you to swap keys in

no time at all.

iNTROdUCTiON

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• ROCCAT™ Valo – Maximum Customization Gaming Keyboard

• ROCCAT™ Gaming Mikrofon

• 45 additional colored keys

• ROCCAT™ Key Releaser

• Inari Case Mission Book with ROCCAT™ ID Card

• Valo driver CD including user manual (pdf)

• Quick Install Guide

WhAT’S iNCLUdEd

SySTEm REqUiREmENTS

• Windows® XP/Windows Vista®

• 1 free USB 1.1 port

• CD-ROM drive

Optional:

• Soundcard with headphone and

microphone jacks

• 1 additional free USB 1.1 port

Note: The software for the ROCCAT™ Valo

Maximum Customization Gaming Keyboard

comprises the driver and ﬁrmware. Regularly

check via the ‘Update’ tab to see if a new driver

or new ﬁrmware is available.

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Fold out the keyboard feet and place the keyboard on a level surface.

Connect the keyboard to two free USB ports on your computer. The black connector supplies the

keyboard with power; the gray connector is used for transferring data between the keyboard and the

computer.

Plug the green headphone connector into your soundcard’s headphone output, and the pink microphone

connector into your soundcard’s microphone input.

To use the Gaming Microphone, plug it into the microphone jack (pink) on the right-hand side of the

keyboard. To avoid any loose connections, be sure to push the microphone connector and guide pin fully

into the intended sockets.

Alternatively you can plug a headset into the keyboard. To do that, plug the green headphone connector

into the headphone output socket, and the pink microphone connector into the pink microphone input

socket on the keyboard.

CONNECTiNG

iNSTALL ATiON UNdER WiNdOWS

XP/ WiNdOWS ViSTA

Insert the supplied CD into your CD-ROM drive and double click the ﬁle ‘setup.exe’. Follow the on-screen

instructions. Click ‘Continue Anyway’ if Windows logo testing is not passed.

Once the installation process is completed, restart your computer.

The ROCCAT symbol will now appear on the right-hand side in the taskbar. You can access the ROCCAT™

Valo conﬁguration menu by right clicking it.

Note: The driver will automatically uninstall older ROCCAT driver versions. It may take a while until the

driver is installed and ready for use.

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SWAPPiNG KEyS

Place the Key Releaser vertically above the key you want to swap and press down until it clicks onto both

sides. Pull the key out in a vertical movement. You can simply place the new key in the hole and press it

down into place.

You can adjust various settings directly on the keyboard without needing to call up the conﬁguration

menu.

The KEYS button allows you to deactivate/activate the Windows keys. For instance, you can avoid

accidentally calling up the Windows Start menu when gaming. When deactivated, the LED on the far right

above the Windows ﬂag will go out.

The LIGHT button is used to adjust the keyboard illumination settings. By pressing the button, you cycle

between the ROCCAT logo, to LCD brightness to LCD contrast through to key illumination. If you’d like to

change these brightness/contrast settings, use the ‘-’ button to reduce the brightness/contrast level or

the ‘+’ to increase it.

You can only adjust the brightness of the ROCCAT logo, the LCD and the keys via the conﬁguration menu.

You can adjust the master volume of your computer using VOL - and +. Press the MUTE button when you

want to completely mute the sound.

mANUAL CONfiGURATiON

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In-game Macro Recording (Mrec key)

The LEDs above the LCD indicate which functions are currently activated. Along with the standard LEDs

for Num, Caps and Scroll Lock, there is also a PROG LED. This illuminates when you press the Mrec key

and the keyboard is ready to record a macro.

The LCD guides you through the process of recording a macro. First of all, enter a name for your macro

(Enter set name) and conﬁrm this by pressing ‘Enter’. Then enter a sub name (Enter sub name) and press

‘Enter’ again. Now choose a macro key (Choose macro key) and enter the key combination (Macro key

input) which the macro should contain. To conﬁrm, press the relevant macro key again. The macro is now

saved to the key. To cancel macro recording, press the Esc key.

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mANUAL CONfiGURATiON

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CONfiGURATiON mENU

You can either launch the conﬁguration menu for

the Valo keyboard by clicking Start > Programs

> ROCCAT > Valo Keyboard > Valo Driver or by

double clicking the ROCCAT symbol on the right

in the taskbar. Please note that each ROCCAT

product you’ve installed will have its own ROCCAT

logo in the taskbar. Hover the mouse over the

symbols to display the name of each product – this

mAiN CONTROL

The ‘Main Control’ tab in the conﬁguration menu provides you with information on the functions of the

macro and additional keys and allows you to reassign functions to macro keys.

For instance, you can switch the functions of the Mrec and Esc keys so that you don’t accidentally press

the Mrec key instead of the Esc key out of habit.

Note: As soon as you’ve conﬁgured a setting you can assign the function to the keyboard by clicking the

‘Apply’ button without having to exit the ROCCAT menu. It may take a few seconds until the information is

transferred to the keyboard.

Once you’re done conﬁguring the keyboard settings, click ‘Ok’. You can exit the conﬁguration menu by

clicking ‘Cancel’.

will allow you to differentiate between the drivers.

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mAiN CONTROL

Standard keyboard layout

Located beneath the Mrec button is the macro pause button, which you use to pause and continue a

macro during playback, and the macro kill button which stops a macro.

Directly beneath those are the proﬁle keys M-1 to M-5 for proﬁles 1-5.

Layer keys L1 to L4 are located on the right beneath the LCD. These allow you to switch between the

layers within a proﬁle.

By default, the upper row of the 30-key macro block is assigned with Shift + characters and numbers

from the top-most row of a standard keyboard, and the lower row with Ctrl + characters and numbers of

the top-most row of keys.

Located next to those are the hotkeys for launching the calculator (M13), My Computer (M14), the email

program (M13) and the internet browser (M14) as well as six multimedia keys for opening and controlling

the multimedia player.

Changing key functions

It is also possible to assign different functions and macros to these 41 keys. In the conﬁguration menu,

simply click on the key which you want to reassign, search for the function you want from the dropdown

menu and conﬁrm the assignment by clicking ‘Apply’.

Available functions:

For Internet Explorer

• Search

• Home

• Back

• Forward

• Stop

• Refresh

• Favorites

For multimedia functions

• Open player

• Pre track

• Next track

• Play/Pause

• Stop

• Select player

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mAiN CONTROL

Proﬁles

You can also assign proﬁles 1 to 5 to one of the

macro keys.

Assign a shortcut

You can assign a shortcut to the selected key

using the ‘Assign a shortcut’ option. You can

combine the Ctrl, Shift, Alt and Windows keys

with any other key and assign it to a single key.

‘Assign a shortcut’ also gives you the opportunity

to remap keys. To do that, select ‘None’ and press

the key whose function you’d like to remap. For

instance, you can remap motion keys which you

need during the game, such as Y for run and

spacebar for jump, next to the macro keys for

your riding or ﬂying mounts, and so arrange all

the functions that are important to you into clear

categories.

Standard

Sets the key function back to its default setting.

Deactivate

Selecting the ‘Deactivate’ option for a key disables

its function.

Assigning the ‘Email’ function to a key allows you

to open your email program at a single press.

Calculator

The ‘Calculator’ function launches the Calculator

program on your computer.

My Computer

You can open My Computer by assigning ‘My

Computer’ to a key.

Assign Macro

You can of course assign a macro you have

programmed yourself to any key using ‘Assign

Macro’. To do that, either use the in-game macro

recording function described above or the Macro

Manager.

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mAiN CONTROL

Macro Manager

To access the Macro Manager, select the ‘Main

Control’ tab. Then click on the key you want to

assign a macro to and select the ‘Assign Macro’

option. The ‘Create New Macro’ option in the

dropdown menu that appears will take you

straight to the Macro Manager.

The Macro Manager consists of three areas: on

the far left you can select, add or delete a macro

set or an individual macro (Macro Select); in the

middle area the ‘Macro Basic Editor’ displays the

key combination; and ﬁnally, the start and stop

buttons (Start Record) are located in the right-

hand area.

To record a macro, you ﬁrst need to create

a macro set. A macro set is a group which

comprises multiple individual macros. The macro

set only serves to give a better overview of the

individual macros. You can only assign a single

macro to a key, not an entire set.

As soon as macros have been saved using Game

Proﬁles, it doesn’t matter which computer the

keyboard is connected to; the macros can be

called up at any time.

Creating a macro (Basic Editor)

Step 1:

Click the upper line in the left-hand window. In the

following dropdown menu you can add a macro set

(Add Macro Set) or delete one (Delete Macro Set).

Click ‘Add Macro Set’.

Step 2:

Name your macro set. To make things clearer,

use a general name for the actions in the game

you’re playing. For example, you can name the set

‘Magic buffs’ or ‘Weapons arsenal’.

Step 3:

When you click ‘New’, which is located beneath

the left-hand window, you can assign a name to

the individual macro, such as ‘Arcane rotation’ or

‘Sniper riﬂe’. Conﬁrm the name by pressing the

return key.

Note: Two actions are performed when

pressing a key: pressing and releasing. For

example, the key combination Alt+Ctrl+t

comprises 6 actions.

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mAiN CONTROL

Step 4:

Now you can enter a macro. To do that, click the

‘Start Record’ button in the right-hand window.

Enter the key combination which you need for a

special action in the game.

The ‘Record delays between key commands’ option

is located under the record button. This option

allows you to specify how long a certain key should

be pressed for. For instance, this allows you to

create a macro which makes a character in the

game perform a speciﬁc action only after a pre-

determined time.

Step 5:

Click ‘Stop Record’ when you’ve ﬁnished entering

your key combination via the keyboard. You can

now either record an additional macro in the

macro set you’ve created or create a new macro

set.

Click ‘OK’ when you’re done. The macro will now

be available for each of the 41 keys. You can

assign the macro to a key by going to the ‘Button

Assignment’ window, clicking next to the key you

want to execute the macro with and selecting the

‘Assign Macro’ option from the dropdown menu.

All the macro sets you have created will now

be displayed from which you can search for the

individual macro you want to use.

Step 6:

You can assign the function to the keyboard by

pressing the ‘Apply’ button without having to exit

the ROCCAT menu. It may take a few seconds until

the information is transferred to the keyboard.

You can now store and save these settings under

one of the ﬁve proﬁles that can be stored on the

keyboard. Proﬁles will be easier to manage if you

name them after the game, gamer or program.

Note: If you’ve edited a macro that’s already

been assigned, you have to reassign it to the

desired key.

Note: A macro that is currently running can be

stopped at any time by pressing the key again.

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mAiN CONTROL

Integrated mouse clicks

Another special feature of the ROCCAT driver

is that it allows you to include mouse clicks in a

macro along with keyboard commands. You can

program a mouse action to be executed after,

before or between a key sequence.

To do that, in ‘Macro Basic Manager’ select the

key command before or after which you want to

insert a new action. A window with various options

will open when you click the right mouse button:

Start Record before: starts macro recording

before the selected action.

Start Record after: starts macro recording

after the selected action.

Insert Delay: manually lengthen or shorten the

delay between two commands.

Insert Mouse Event: Specify here which mouse

action is to be executed. The following options are

available:

Left Button

Right Button

Wheel

Side Button 1

Side Button 2

Down: keeps the button pressed

Up: releases the button

Click: executes the commands ‘Down’ and

‘Up’ in succession.

Edit Delay: you can manually lengthen or shorten

the delay here. You don’t need to enter the time

designation of ‘ms’ (milliseconds), just the desired

time.

Delete: delete the selected step from the macro’s

key sequence.

Note: Three actions are always available for

selection: ‘Down’, ‘Up’ and ‘Click’.

Note: Some games are unable to detect short

delays.

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mAiN CONTROL

Switch to advanced editor

In the center window you can manually change the

time intervals between the individual key presses

for a particular macro. Individual blue bars

indicate how long the respective key is pressed

for. Along with the duration, you can also change

the position of the pressed key here. The default

timeline is in milliseconds: (0.05 / 0.10 / 0.15 …

seconds).

You can change the time scale of the display for

increased accuracy. You can zoom into the scale

to conﬁgure the time values really precisely using

the plus button on the right-hand side above

the window. It is also possible to delete or add

individual macros. To do that, click the point in the

macro list where you want to insert an additional

macro and then click ‘Add’. If you want to delete a

key, click the key and then click ‘Del’. Conﬁrm the

process by clicking ‘Ok’.

It is also possible to delete entire macro sets.

To do that, you need to select ‘Delete Macro

Set’ in the dropdown menu. Here too, you need

to conﬁrm ﬁnal deletion of the set, and all the

macros assigned to it, by clicking ‘Ok’.

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GAmE PROfiLES/PROfiLE--GO

Creating/saving a proﬁle

You can create one of ﬁve proﬁles using ‘Create a

proﬁle’. Here you can link four layers with the *.exe

ﬁle of the particular game. This allows you to save

all the key assignments, macros or LCD settings

that you’ve adapted to a game to a single layer.

This is worth doing for instance when you want

to create a proﬁle for World of Warcraft

with 4

different characters. Give the four layers a name,

such as Priest, Rogue, Hunter and Witchmaster,

link them to launcher.exe and save the macros

you need for the character in each layer. You

can now switch between layers in the game and

have all the macros ready to hand which you have

assigned to the relevant character.

Proﬁle Slot #5

Along with the four proﬁles that can be saved on

the hard drive, you can also save another proﬁle,

the Proﬁle-2-Go, on the keyboard itself. By doing

this, you always have a complete proﬁle with you if

you need to take your keyboard anywhere.

Simply click on the hard drive symbol next to

Proﬁle Slot #5 and select ‘Keyboard’ as the

‘Storage Type’ for the layer you want to save. It

usually takes a little while for your settings to be

transferred and stored on the keyboard.

If the drivers haven’t been installed, such as

on someone else’s computer, the keyboard

will automatically switch to the Proﬁle-2-Go.

Consequently, it isn’t possible to switch to one of

the other 4 proﬁles; to do that, the driver ﬁrst

needs to be installed and then additional proﬁles

created or loaded.

Load Proﬁle

You can load the proﬁles stored on the hard drive,

and also the Proﬁle-2-Go stored on the keyboard,

at any time either using this option in the

conﬁguration menu, or via the M-1 to M-5 keys.

Use the layers to switch between executable ﬁles.

It isn’t possible to switch between proﬁles within a

running application.

You can also save more than 5 proﬁles on your

hard drive and load ﬁve of these in the driver as

proﬁles 1-5 as you wish. For example, this allows

you to retain older proﬁles or your friends can

give you proﬁles which you can then use on your

keyboard.

It is only possible to switch between the ﬁve

proﬁles currently loaded in the driver.

Edit Proﬁle

Here you can edit the names and the links of the

selected proﬁle and your layers. Use the correct

links so that the keyboard automatically detects

the program you have programmed speciﬁc

keyboard settings or macros for.

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bRiGhTNESS CONTROL

You can adjust the brightness of the ROCCAT logo,

the LCD and the keys in ﬁve stages under this

tab. Slide the controller to the right to increase

brightness, and to the left to decrease brightness.

In addition, you can also save energy by using

the ‘Key Light Energy Saving’ and ‘Key Light Time

Out’ options. With ‘Key Light Energy Saving’ you

can set the illumination to dim by 50% after 5

to 15 minutes. With ‘Key Light Time Out’, the

illumination will switch off completely after the

deﬁned time.

Note: Don’t forget to conﬁrm changes by

clicking ‘Apply’.

AdVANCEd SETTiNGS

The Advanced Settings tab offers you numerous additional conﬁguration options.

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AdVANCEd SETTiNGS

LCD Display Output – Row 1/Row 2

Here you can select what should be displayed

on the Valo’s LCD. 6 items of information are

available for each row. You can select 3 of these

for each row and specify down to the second

under ‘Display Cycle Speed’ how long an item

of information should be displayed for until the

display switches to the next item.

The following information can be displayed on the

LCD:

Date/ Time

Under ‘Date Format Settings’, you can decide what

format the date is displayed in. Select whether

you want it displayed as Year/Month/Day or Day/

Month/Year, with or without hyphens.

You can also set the following under ‘Time Format

Setting’:

HH:MM

HH:MM (AM/PM) (12 hour clock)

CPU/RAM Load

Furthermore, you can also choose to have the

LCD display the ‘CPU Load’ as well as the ‘RAM

Load’.

Proﬁle/Layer

So that you never lose your overview, select

‘Proﬁle/Layer’ as one of the items to be displayed.

This shows you what proﬁle and which layer you’re

currently in.

You can display the number of emails you have in

your inbox under the ‘Email’ option. For this, you

need to enter your email account’s POP3 settings.

If you don’t know them, ask your email provider

for the relevant POP3 settings and your customer

number/user name.

‘Check Interval’ allows you to deﬁne how often the

Valo checks and updates the LCD if new emails

have been received.

Skype

Select this option if you want to see if someone

has sent you a Skype

message. When you ﬁrst

select this option, you will be notiﬁed that the

Valo is attempting to access your Skype

account.

Allow access if you want to display Skype

information on your LCD.

Deactivate

Select ‘Deactivate’ when you don’t want to receive

any notiﬁcations; the rows will then remain blank

for the deﬁned period.

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AdVANCEd SETTiNGS

Restore Defaults

This option resets the keyboard back to its default

settings. Every single proﬁle, macro and setting

saved on the keyboard will be deleted.

Enable/Disable Keys

This option allows you to deactivate the keys

that you like to press accidentally while gaming.

Uncheck the relevant box to disable the key’s

function. You can select from the following:

Left Windows Key

Right Windows Key

Context Key

Caps Lock Key

Tab Key

Windows Keys

The Windows keys aren’t just able to execute their

standard function or be deactivated; you can also

use them to open the Valo driver. Select ‘Open

Driver Menu’ and conﬁrm your selection by clicking

‘Apply’. Now, the Valo conﬁguration menu will open

when you click one of the Windows keys.

On-screen display

If you check ‘Enable On-Screen Display’, the proﬁle

and layer you’re currently in, and which macro

you’re currently executing, will always be displayed

directly on the bottom right-hand side of the

monitor whenever your press one of the proﬁle

keys M-1 to M-5, the layer keys L1 to L4 or one of

the macro keys.

Proﬁle and layer information will also be displayed

on the LCD at the same time, as many games

block on-screen displays.

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UPdATE

You can update your ROCCAT™ Valo Maximum

Customization Gaming Keyboard at any time.

By clicking ‘Check for Updates’, you can check

whether new software is available for your

keyboard.

WARRANTy/SUPPORT

We warrant the ROCCAT™ Valo Maximum

Customization Gaming Keyboard to be free of

defects in material and workmanship from the

original date of purchase for a period of two (2)

years. If you need additional help, just send us an

e-mail. Our Support Team will be pleased to help

you with any technical questions you might have.

Send the e-mail to: support@roccat.org

Note: All keyboard settings will be reset if

you install new ﬁrmware on your computer.

However, macros stored in the Proﬁle-2-Go will

be kept.

Note: A ROCCAT™ ID Card is included with

every ROCCAT™ hardware product. The

number on this card grants you access to our

online ROCCAT™ World insider zone – and

with that access to a whole world of valuable

pro-gamer info, fantastic server discounts and

exclusive competitions.

TROUbLEShOOTiNG

I’m unable to open the conﬁguration menu.

If the conﬁguration menu doesn’t open via the

taskbar or Start menu, open the folder where you

installed the driver and click on ValoOption.exe.

My keyboard is not detected.

Plug the keyboard into the same USB port it

was connected to when you ﬁrst installed the

driver. This ensures the computer can detect the

keyboard.

I can’t switch between proﬁles within an

application/game.

You can’t switch from one proﬁle to another while

inside a running application. You can, however,

deﬁne four layers in each proﬁle. It’s possible to

switch between these when in a game.

My on-screen display is no longer displayed in

games.

Many games block the on-screen display. However,

the same information provided by the OSD is also

displayed on the LCD.

The changes I’ve made have not been saved.

Be sure to conﬁrm every change in the

conﬁguration menu by clicking ‘Apply’.

ROCCAT Valo Quick setup guide

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