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JimmyH

2886 posts

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#183855 1-Nov-2015 17:21
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I am struggling a bit with something that should work straight out of the box.

I have finally replaced my aging and creaky vista box with a nice new machine (i7, solid state drive, Win10). Since I still want to access it, at least until I have migrated everything off it and replaced some legacy software, I have put the new and old boxes side by side and pulled a 4-port DVI KVM-switch out of the garage (Alltech MP4711 if that's useful).

Both boxes have been connected by plugging the DVI cable into the graphics out and the USB into a USB slot etc. The other end of the cables have been connected to the KVM; as have the keyboard, mouse and screen.

When I start the machine, The right lights appear on the KVM to show that I have active machines on ports 1 and 2. The keyboard and mouse light up in the normal fashion.

The Vista box works fine. When I push the right button, its desktop appears on the screen and the keyboard and mouse work correctly. I'm using that box through the KVM to type this right now.

The new box doesn't work properly. I get a splash screen and windows boot animation appear on the screen, then it goes blank, with nothing.

The screen works just fine when I connect it directly to the same graphics port on the new machine, but not when connected through the KVM. And it's clearly connected correctly or I wouldn't get the startup splash screen. The same keyboard and mouse also work fine when directly connected, but I have no idea whether they do through the KVM (as I can't see anything).

Any suggestions gratefully received.

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gzt

gzt
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  #1418225 1-Nov-2015 18:01
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Check keep kb and mouse in kvm and + plug monitor direct to pc using same PC output.



gzt

gzt
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  #1418240 1-Nov-2015 18:22
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Might be an unsupported refesh rate or resolution on the monitor / PC or kvm does not like it. Wind the PC down a bit to something basic and try again. Some kvms will not support hi res or refesh rates.

gzt

gzt
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  #1418242 1-Nov-2015 18:26
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3rd try. After boot you can plug the monitor direct to PC to see what is happening. Live change with monitor is OK if you are careful. I will guess if kvm does not support the rate/res then you will see it is OK.

Edit: yeah on mobile sorry grammar ; ).



jpoc
1043 posts

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  #1418640 2-Nov-2015 10:48
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Have you tried different ports on the kvm?

 



 

Can you try installing VNC on both machines and then boot them both on the kvm and use the vista box to log in to the w10 machine and see if you can spot anything there. That way, you could try to change video resolution on the w10 box from the vnc session and then flip the kvm back to the w10 box to see if it helped.

wasabi2k
2096 posts

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  #1418651 2-Nov-2015 11:02
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I'm going with unsupported resolution/refresh.

Are both PCs set to the same?


JimmyH

2886 posts

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  #1419211 2-Nov-2015 19:50
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jpoc: Have you tried different ports on the kvm?

Can you try installing VNC on both machines and then boot them both on the kvm and use the vista box to log in to the w10 machine and see if you can spot anything there. That way, you could try to change video resolution on the w10 box from the vnc session and then flip the kvm back to the w10 box to see if it helped.


Bingo! That was it. After trying out many different cables and connection options, it appears that port 1 on the KVM is flaky. Since it's a 4-port unit, and I only want to connect 3 computers, that's not a huge issue.

Many thanks for the suggestions.

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