Hi there, I’ve been watching Wendell for nearly 10 years since before he started Level1Tech, and appreciate his work.
Would greatly appreciate anyone who ends up reading this entire post, let alone giving any possible solutions (been waiting on this KVM to be available for nearly 5 months haha). Thanks in advance!
I just received my 2x4 KVM switch today. I have two computers (Win 10) and nothing seems to work smoothly. (Even the DisplayPort transition fails ~10% of the time). I connect to my:
LG Monitor (all cables 2m max for a total of 4m travel)
Razer mouse (USB)
G915 Keyboard (USB)
Monolith by Monoprice THX audio DAC/AMP through USB (Edit: Used USB 3 input connection on other corner of KVM and totally fixed the issue! Will try with the other devices. Realllllly hoping I can still get the keyboard with KVM hotkeys to work so I can place the KVM under the rear of my desk).
Lapel mic through 3.5mm audio jack (4-pole)
Display will sometimes show only the cursor but no image, I can move the cursor in the empty black screen no problem, but appears this might be the HP EliteBook (~2019 model) detecting something strange.
The Razor Mouse (Basilisk Ultimate Wireless) sometimes works, but often breaks when I change computers that are in use. When this happens the cursor will randomly react to a movement for a fraction of a sec several times a minute. (dis/reconnect sounds from all machines when removing/reconnecting mouse dongle).
Keyboard instantly becomes non-responsive when I transition computers (whether with button on KVM or ctrl+ctrl+(1/2)). I have to disconnect and reconnect the wireless dongle (not BT, which should emulate a standard cable) in order for the computer to react to the keyboard keypresses. When I disconnect and reconnect I can hear Win 10 Disconnect/reconnect sounds from BOTH machines. Not sure if this is by design or a symptom of the problem.
Neither computer detects the Monolith as a speaker whatsoever. Pretty strange. Not sure what’s up with that. (Fixed by using USB 3 ports on KVM!)
Assuming the 3.5mm audio jacks in the L1 KVM are simple circuitry, I should be able to send a mic signal through, but none of the machines can hear from it, which is strange. I am using 4-pole 3.5mm, maybe the KVM uses 3-pole? That would likely be the cause of this issue, but would like to confirm.
Edit: Looks like the keyboard (and audio DAC/AMP) work perfectly in transitions when using either USB 3.0 ports (one on back and one on front of KVM). Tried all 3 HID ports on back and 1 on front and none allow the keyboard to survive the transition between computers Any other way to hotkey switch between computers without pressing the physical KVM switch buttons?
There’s no repeater in the KVm. If you have two long crappy cables then the GPU sees not one but two long crappy cables between it and the monitor. I recommend club3d.
The hid ports are meant for simple devices. I would uninstall the drivers for the keyboard from all devices plugged into the KVm. What’s probably happening is something like the keyboard works as a normal keyboard until some driver loads then it does a slightly weird protocol. When you switch inputs it keeps talking to the different pc in the slightly different protocol which the second pc doesn’t understand. Either make sure same software is on both machines or uninstall so the keyboard stays in bios/compatibility mode.
Corsair keyboards have an explicit bios mode which is exactly what I’m talking about. Ofc these keyboards work fine in the USB3 ports but the KVm can’t be expected to sniff the protocol in those circumstances.
Usb3 are straight passthrough. Are you using usb3 cables from the computer to the KVm?
For audio I’d use a $5 USB dac not the audio port on the KVm which is meant for speakers not a mic.
I also recommend Club3d cables. Been using them with the DP 1.4 l1kvm since last summer, no issues so far and have completed my home office setup. One of the cables I have is also quite long and thick: 4 meter, used with a desktop computer on the floor, and an adjustable desk. With such a long cable paired with a high refresh rate monitor, I did not want to risk running into trouble caused by a bad cable.
I day after Wendell’s reply I went ahead and bought a small 4-port USB3.0 hub which has worked perfectly with my DAC?AMP, mouse, and keyboard without any issues over the past month.
I also went ahead and bought a new DP cable with gold connectors to make sure. I haven’t had any problems with the display since (except what looked like little bits of static snow in the top-center of my screen once 2 weeks back). Restarting my PC fixed the issue.
Now the only problem is figuring out how to remotely send a proper 2-key signal to the HID port with the KVM under the rear of my desk haha.
Any other way to hotkey switch between computers without pressing the physical KVM switch buttons?