So, overall I am very happy with my L1T KVM, I can game on a 4k monitor at 144Hz with DSC, no blackout, no dropouts.
I even solved the window restoration issue after switching with the open-source “Persistent Windows” app for Windows.
But the USB is providing me issues.
My setup is that the KVM USB is plugged into the Thunderbolt dock hooked to my laptop, and directly to a USB 3.2 port on my motherboard. I also bought a Brio camera a few weeks ago.
Initially, the camera worked fine, then (as others have observed) it started to sporadically lose the mic, and you’d have to unplug it from the KVM and re-insert it. I have a Keychron KB, a gaming mouse, and the camera plugged into the KVM. At least I did, as the camera stopped working 100% on both the desktop PC and the laptop when plugged into the KVM. Just, no dice - unplugged and shut down everything, plug the camera into the KVM and it’s not seen by windows and is not visible in UsbTree.
Plus the camera directly into the MB, works great. I know Brios seem finicky with the USB for whatever reason, but with the KVM USB I also notice that if I hot-swap plug on the KVM, sometimes the devices won’t be seen again, and I need to unplug / unpower the KVM, sometimes multiple times, to get the KB and mouse visible again.
Should I be able to hot-plug keyboard and mice into the KVM? I don’t normally do this, but it’s just something I noticed while moving things around and troubleshooting the camera.
The hid ports are all connected together. So one problem device can cause problems for others. The USB3 ports aren’t like that.
This is done deliberately to maximize device compatibility as much as possible. Some devices only operate with ddm and some only operate like as if it’s a hard switchbox.
These devices will behave differently in hid vs usb3 ports. The test machine has had a brio running for a week solid in a usb3 port without issue. Works most of the time on a hid port but, for example to give you an idea of the madness, if you use razer synapse and a razer device is down stream of the same root hub as a brio, the brio will drop audio intermittently.
It does this with a USB hub. As well as a kvm. So there’s a lot of variables most people don’t consider.
I actually have a little three-key keyboard that I have plugged into the HID to be able to switch the KVM. My keychron keyboard and gaming mouse are plugged into the regular USB 3 ports. Is it expected that I should be able to hot plug those in the KVM? Like I said, it’s not something I normally do I just noticed it when troubleshooting the camera. The brio cameras seem notoriously finicky anyway.
Hotplug should work. When it doesn’t it’s usually a sign something’s up with the upstream port especially if you see hotplug issues on the USB3 port side. Hid ports follow the hid/ddm standard but al mm ost nothing in real life properly follows those standards
Definitely have intermittent issues hotplugging on the USB 3.0 ports … the last time it happened, my desktop PC would not see the KB and mouse plugged into the KVM, but I would if I moved them directly to the PC. At the same time, my laptop WOULD see them plugged into the KVM. I had to unplug everything and power everything down to get the KB and mouse recognized by the PC again. Not a huge issue, as I don’t normally hotplug, but it was something I noticed.
I just gave up on making the Brio work in the KVM … it worked for a few weeks, and then just stopped being seen. At first, I had the intermittent “mic stops working” issue that others have reported, but one afternoon it just quit. Works great plugged directly into the motherboard OR the laptop. Apparently, Brio’s are fussy and other folks on the web have had similar issues. Maybe it’s the cables I am using between the PC and the KVM and the Dell TB dock and the KVM … not sure. If you have any suggestions on getting the camera to work, I’d appreciate it.