Trying to narrow down keyboard issues before buying a new KVM

Hi L1Tech Forum,

First post here so please pardon any formatting issues, as well as that disclaimer I will also say that this issue has had me pulling out hair so if it sounds rambley it is because it is.

My end goal is to get to one of two answers: windows issue (and possibly what I could do to resolve it, or KVM issue (ditch current one, buy l1tech KVM)

So, setting the scene: I got a new job that requires me to use the a work laptop. With the laptop I was given a docking station with three display outputs. I purchased a KVM from amazon.ca (tried to add a link but the forum didn’t like that, here is the product code B0DKH72KWS, didn’t see a rule against it but will be removed on request) as a starting point and things did seemed fine until I started running into an intermittent issue.

Actual issue: All keyboard devices stop working on my home rig after a few swaps of the KVM. I specifically say all keyboard devices since plugging in a new keyboard directly to the PC does not work, and the keyboard buttons on my mouse (in device manager as HID Keyboard Device) do not work either. The keyboard will still works fine when I KVM swap back to my work laptop

Attempted fixes: Unplugging the KVM nor keyboard fixes it, the only fix is a restart. A shutdown and reboot does not work unless I also unplug PC power, I am guessing here that the PC is not actually shutting down but just going into a deep sleep. I also tried using powershell to disable and re-enable all HID keyboard devices with Get-PnpDevice, didn’t work.

So to end this all, I am lost. After a bunch of reading I was thinking that maybe the USB emulation or Intelligent USB HID passthrough that the L1KVM has may help here but I was unsure and looking for another opinion.

Any help would be greatly appropriated, thanks to any that can.

1 Like

…what keyboard? lots of keyboards color outside the lines. even the really iffy devices will work on ours on a usb3 port most of the time but not on the hid port if its not truly hid

2 Likes

Oh Hi Wendell!

Happening with a G710+, Keychron K5 Max, but also on a generic no name USB keyboard. What really confuses me is how while the issue is happening plugging any other keyboard in directly to the effected PC (not into the KVM) still doesn’t register presses.

That is what lead me to this post, if I could some way narrow it down to being the KVM’s fault I would gladly order yours, but if it is a windows issue then that would put me in an awkward place.

The current KVM I can return to Amazon, I would not want to put your support team through that especially shipping cross border to Canada.

Posting this here for if anyone finds this in the future. Issue has been found!

I used this: github/evilC/AutoHotInterception to setup a secondary macro keyboard way back when, but stopped since I ran out of desk space for more keyboards…

Part of that setup is this: github/oblitum/Interception, as it turns out if that driver(?) is installed if I unplugged and plugged back in any keyboard 3 times it would stop all keyboards connected from working. I only ever noticed this since getting a KVM. After uninstalling I had no issues anymore.

This is a shame since I was looking for an excuse to get the L1T KVM, but I guess I will just need to wait for my cheap amazon one to die so I have a good excuse!