Hello! First day on the forums. I have a “1.4 Display Port KVM Switch - Dual Monitor - Two Computer” that I ordered October 4th of last year, received it promptly, and have been using it for a year.
First problem: out of the box my screens would have intermittent “seizures” upon switching from PC to PC roughly 80% of the time. It would range as low as one series of ~4 flashes lasting a few seconds, or multiple fits ranging from 1-4 of 2-10 flashes taking per fit taking up to a minute before it would settle out. I’m new to KVMs so I honestly thought this was just a part of the handshake process.
Second problem just started 3 weeks ago after I reinstalled Windows: USB functionality hangs up. I have my keyboard and mouse plugged into the KVM and now I will have moments lasting from 2 seconds to entire minutes where the KVM doesn’t send any input to my computers. I tried switching USB cables to no effect, and honestly nothing more past that.
Plugging the keyboard and mouse directly into the computer eliminates any freezing, plugging them back in reintroduces the freezing. I even had two keyboards and two mice plugged in, one for the PC one for the KVM, and PC input was fine but KVM input was a frozen mess. It got so bad that my keyboards will stop working for minutes at a time when plugged into the KVM, or do the opposite and rapid-fire whatever I last pressed causing Windows PIN to autofill over and over until I get locked out
Anyone have any advice on how to tackle this, or is mine giving out on me? It’s been invaluable despite the screen seizures, but this input failure problem is an obstruction so much so that even signing in to Windows is impossible when hooked up to it.
eh, you can mail it in for further testing and diagnostics if you want?
remember the hid ports and usb3 ports are built differently. Start with devices connected only to the usb3 ports. Any change? The way the hid protocol works is that all the devices are wrapped up together under the hid protocol. You get one hid device that goes rogue, or gets a firmware update, and its not-quite-hid anymore… it can interfere with other legit hid devices. whereas usb3 devices are more isolated and the usb3 ports act more like a plain vanilla usb switchbox.
what devices are in the mix here? its not likely reinstalling windows will cause the kvm to behave differently…
Answers are in reverse order.
Hardware/Cables interfacing with the KVM:
Mouse: Logitech G502 plugged into the rear USB 3.0 port.
Keyboard: Royal Kluge RK98, wireless dongle plugged into rear middle-most HID port of the 3. When it needs charged I’d wire it into the front 3.0 USB and leave the dongle plugged in the aforementioned HID port.
Video feed from PC 1: One Hotron DP cable, and one generic no-name DP cable
Video feed from PC 2: Club 3D CAC-2067 Display Port cables
Video feed to the monitors: (same as above) Club 3D CAC-2067 Display Port cables
USB feed: Level1Tech USB 3.0 A-to-B 6 foot cable (x2)
Hardware on the other end of the cables:
Monitors: Gigabyte M27Q (x2)
Graphics Card: ASUS ROG Strix 3060ti O8G V2 Gaming
Motherboard (USB hookup): MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon
Note: PC2 was returned to my previous place of employment mid-summer, so I don’t currently have anything long-term hooked up to it anymore. Just have it open for when friends/family members need diag or a PC built.
I’ll try running with the keyboard and mouse only plugged into the USB 3.0 slots for a few days or less here and see if the issue returns. The mouse is in the same 3.0 slot, but I relocated the keyboard dongle to the front USB 3.0 slot. I’ll reroute my charging cable so it uses my USB hub instead of the HIDs on the KVM going forward. Though playing devil’s advocate, would it be fine if I were to plug the keyboard into an HID port to let it charge overnight?
I’m wondering if getting 2 more Club 3D cables to replace the mix-match cables coming off PC1 could potentially fix the seizures thing. I was aware low-grade DP cables can be detrimental, but I never really put two and two together until now.
I can mail it in for diagnostics if need be, but for now I’ll roll with this slight change-up and see if this is a PEBKAC issue. Thank you for the input on this. It gave me a direction! I will confess I’m ignorant and still don’t fully grasp what makes HIDs so different from USBs. I just know my drawing tablets I’ve accumulated over the years are detected by Windows as an HID… and that’s really the extent of my understanding. I have some homework to do.
Thanks again! I’ll keep in touch on if the issue returns.