K95 RGB keyboard unrecognised/CUE software doesnt work

I have just purchased and tried to set up the K95 RGB keyboard but I am struggling to get it to work properly. The keyboard (hardware) works fine fortunately but the software isn't it seems. I have tried various methods described on this forum with no luck. At a guess it would seem either the driver isn't working properly or CUE isn't recognising the keyboard?



I've heard that updating the firmware on the keyboard is a good idea but not knowing what to expect as I can't get the software to work that is a little difficult. I'm not even sure what firmware its currently running on.



Here's a summary of what I've tried.



Running On

Motherboard: Asus Maximus VII Hero (Intel® Z97 chipset)

OS: Windows 8.1 64bit



Keyboard

- Works fine, all keys are lit, memory, brightness media keys etc work as intended.

- Have tried plugging the 'Keyboard' USB plug into a USB 3 slot.

- Tried plugging the 'Keyboard' and 'Pass-through' plugs into both USB 2 and 3 slots using the 'Pass-through' plug first method. Still no luck.

- Regardless of which slot I use I will randomly get a 'the device has malfunctioned' error message after a 10-30 minutes.



Corsair Utility Engine

- Will start up and will usually instantly exit with no reason.

- When it does run, there is an icon in the notification area with the pop out message - "Profile (automatic) : Default".



While the software is running I am unable to get response from it - ex. no window opens showing the GUI or keyboard graphics that I've seen in the guide. I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling CUE, updating drivers for the motherboard and other hardware with no luck.



Any advise please? Its been a little bit of a disappointment so far :(