I got the 2 pc KVM (5gb version) and I’ve been trying for days to get my K100 corsair to work with my laptop to no avail.
At first my issues was that it has 2 USB connections and it has to be in the usb3.0 port, so I got a USB hub and connected it, so now the keyboard and mouse (razr naga) work fine on my PC, but don’t work at all, not recognized on the laptop. I tried using a usb A > C cable connected to the laptop dock, as well as to the lightning port on the laptop. that made no difference. Got a USB A > B cable and tried it to the dock and directly to the laptop - no difference.
If I connect the usb hub directly to the laptop it detects both keyboard and mouse and they work fine, but through the KVM they are both DoA. I did try the BIOS mode for Corsair keyboards, but none of the 3 ways seemed to do anything. I’m not too concerned about the keyboard shortcuts, or even the mouse, I just really want the keyboard to work on both my PC and laptop.
I also have my headphones connected through the kvm and I get a buzzing sound when I open a game on the PC. That’s weird, right? I tried getting a ground loop noise isolator and it does seem to decrease it a bit, but it’s still present.
I tried a few different cables to see if I had a bad one and that didn’t seem to change anything.
If anyone has ideas on things to try here, I’m open to them. I haven’t made any progress on getting either the Corsair keyboard or the Razer mouse to work. The Laptop is my work laptop so i’ve just been bringing over a second mouse/keyboard during work hours which is super inconvenient.
I’ve been considering getting a replacement for the Corsair keyboard, but I really like it and I’d like to do whatever doesn’t cost an additional 200 bucks.
For sure these work fine in usb3 ports, especially in bios mode. When you moved the device from hid to usb3 ports, did you unplug the power and usb3 cables for about 30 seconds to reboot the kvm?
What laptop specifically? What usb3 hub? A powered usb3 hub should work better, generally. Some cheap hubs are designed to be “the” root hub so dont work if plugged into another hub (the kvm). Reputable brands like anker generally are fine though.
USB3 A to B cable (blue ends) is what is required. A regular A to B cable won’t work either.
Thanks for the response, Wendell. I bought this powered USB hub on Amazon:
Wasn’t able to include a link here - here’s a summary from the amazon listing
Powered USB Hub, Rosonway 7-Port USB 3.2/USB C Hub with 10Gbps USB-A 3.2
The laptop is a dell Precision 5530.
To reboot the KVM, I hadn’t been removing the usb cables, so the green lights were still active in the front. I just tested removing them for 30 seconds with both USB3 A>B and the USB3 B>C cable that I have both into the laptop dock and straight into the laptop (The laptop doesn’t have a usb C connection other than the lightning port, so I’m trying both - since i do need the dock for the monitors.)
That didn’t appear to have any effect.
Here’s the cables I’m using:
USB A>B
Amazon Basics USB-A to USB-B 3.0 Cable
USB B>C
CableCreation USB 3.1 C to USB B Cable
If an anker hub might be a better option I could grab one and test it. Would be cheaper than replacing the keyboard at least. I verified on both the dock and the laptop that I’m using a usb3 capable port as well.
I’ve tried plugging just the keyboard into the USB hub (which is connected to the usb3 port on the front) and the mouse into the other usb3 port on the back. works great on my PC but not recognized on the laptop.
You might try to use some USB hub tree software to see about that hub. 7 ports is maybe also too much. Internally that is sometimes a USB hub connected to two more 4 port USB hubs. Sometimes it’s fine … sometimes not. Just depends.
Everything else doesn’t sound unreasonable so maybe a good idea to mail it in for diagnostics/repair.
The buzzing you might need two ground loop isolators. Are they going in on kvm side or PC side? Tried putting the isolator in different spots?
Man, I didn’t even consider it should be between the KVM and computer - that completely got rid of the buzzing sound in my limited testing just now.
As for the usb hub tree, I grabbed some software to take a look at it, and on the laptop it shows the KVM as a 4 port hub (if I’m reading it right) where port 1 has another hub under it that’s handling my working components and everything else is blank.
For my PC, I see the same thing at first - port 1 has my mouse, mic, keyboard, etc
Port 3 is another 4 port hub with port 4 of that that hub having another 4 port hub nested in it.
Interestingly I don’t see the first 4 port hub of the double nested hub at all on my laptop, I expected it to at least show up there.
Before I send it back, because that does sound like a huge pain in the ass for everyone involved, I’m considering trying a smaller usb hub first, maybe if I get a 4 port one it won’t have anything nested and my laptop won’t complain. It’s surprisingly hard to find a good one with less than 8 ports though.
OK, so I got a new usb hub and it didn’t seem to a make a difference - then it occurred to me that … maybe it’s the PC2 slot that is being a pain and not just my laptop.
I swapped PC1 and PC2 on the KVM and sure enough, now my laptop can use both my mouse and keyboard, and my PC can’t see them at all.
I’m thinking there might be an issue with the KVM afterall. Do you mind sharing the process to send it back to get looked at?
I left the cables where they were, so a known good cable was connected to the PC, but when that known good cable moved to port PC2, it no longer worked.
I then tried the A > B cable I had on the laptop on the PC with the same results. Then I moved the known good PC cable over to the laptop and it still worked, so I’m pretty sure it’s the PC2 port. I’ll send an email over, thanks
so we tested your KVM, sure enough, you’re not crazy! Something is definitely up with those PC2 3.0 ports. Thank you for bringing this up to us!