Home > Consumer Reviews > 2port USB KVM Switch With 2-cables Non-osd

I was quite frustrated with other KVM switches that are cheap or designed to look stylish. This one is just a little metal box, with an easy to use button on the front, and it just works. When pressing the button, there's an audible "beep", providing excellent feedback. Simple, but it works.

This switch also doesn't have the power issues other switches have because it has its own power source. Sure, I have an extra cable behind the desk and another wall wort on the power strip, but I don't care because this switch actually works.

Don't select a KVM because it looks cool or is cheap. You really do get what you pay for.

So why four stars instead of five? The switch is really tiny and doesn't weigh that much. The weight of all the cables behind my desk pulls down on the box, making it tend to flip up. I was able to carefully route all the cables to resolve this, so it is a minor issue.

I did a reasonable amount of research in choosing a switch. Previously, I have used high-end Avocent multiview switches supporting Sun/Linux/Windows mouse/keyboard/video combinations.

This KVM is best described as a pure USB 1.1 switch with video switching capabilities.

I have tried this switch out with 2 machines (Dell 400SC desktop and Dell Latitude D620 laptop with Port Replicator) both running Windows XP SP2 - so I cannot comment for other configurations (e.g. Linux). I have also had an XP SP2 VMware image machine running on one of the machines at the same time.

The switch works perfectly with the above configurations including multimedia keyboard buttons (the VMware machine does not support all multimedia buttons however). Each time the KVM is toggled (SELECT key pressed) to switch machines, the device disconnect and device connect sounds of Windows are played on the respective computers. There is a slight delay (2 seconds or so) for the keyboard and mouse to become active - presumably as Windows detects the keyboard and mouse being connected.

The Keyboard I am using is a Dell multimedia keyboard containing Mute,Stop,Rewind,Fast-Foward,Play and Volume Control toggle, along with browser buttons - back/forward/stop/reload/home, and email and calculator and explorer buttons. As stated earlier, all buttons functioned correctly on both machines! My standard Microsoft optical mouse with scroll button also works perfectly.

I hooked up the spare USB port on the switch to my Dell LCD panel which acts as a standard USB hub. The LCD (aka usb hub) in turn has connected my Canon digital camera, and Maxtor external hard disk. Both hub, camera, and external hard disk function correctly on both machines - albeit the external drive slow to initiate and become active (due to it being USB 2, loaded with files, and the switch only USB 1.1).

The included powerpack, much to my suprise is a 100-240v 50HZ/60HZ 5v switching power pack. This was excellent news for me, as I'm in Australia and were assuming I would need to purchase an external power pack. Instead, a simple plug converter was all that was required (USA to Australia).

One thing I did find with this KVM is that the default focus/sharpness of the LCD differs with each machine. Meaning, the output picture from my desktop machine will appear perfectly sharp on the LCD, but when switching to the laptop, the picture is less sharp. Switching back to the desktop again, and the picture is perfectly sharp. Alternatively, if I auto-adjust the LCD for the laptop, its picture will be perfectly sharp. Switching to the desktop, and its picture is less sharp etc etc.
I'm not sure if there a way to have the LCD perform the auto-adjust automatically without me having to enter its menu?

The only way this switch could be made better is as follows:
Add USB2 support
Add DVI support (The video card in my desktop machine only supports DVI output, so I had to get a connector to convert the DVI to HD-15.)

Finally, for international customers, I purchased 2 of these devices from Provantage for 57.53 each plus delivery to Australia - I'm pretty happy with that shopping experience. Devices arrived in less than a week via DHL. Not too many semi-reputable US resellers will deal with foreigners.. these guys are a welcome exception.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Update 18 Aug 2007 - I frequently run in to an issue with my configuration whereby the laptop (plugged in to the Dell docking station) display resolution drops to 1024x768 when toggling back and forward between the two machines.

The LCD display has a native 1280x1024 resolution, and when this resolution-drop occurs on the laptop, XP unfortunately will not let me switch back to 1280x1024 (I'm stuck on either 800x600 or 1024x768).

I have found that to correct the issue, I need to either undock the laptop from the docking station and re-dock it, or alternatively, keep switching between the devices, and evenutally Windows corrects itself and determines that 1280x1024 is valid. It is very annoying, but I have learned to live with it.

I'm not sure if the issue is driver related (the laptop uses intel 945g) - but the problem has never occurred with the desktop computer.

Has anyone run in to this before? Connexant guys had apparently "never heard of this problem" - even though I emailed them two different times (many months apart) stating the same problem using different email addresses.

Solid construction and function. This KVM switches between two computers with just a minor lag. I prefer manual switching to having a key-combo hot switch, so this device met my needs. Comes with a pair of cables that are really high quality. As a result, the video through the device is clear and has no problem meeting the bandwidth requirements for my 24" Samsung LCD.

We have searched and read reviews on so many KVM switches and it seems that there are issues with many of the KVM switches currently on the market. Several we have bought and used were a waste of money. This switch is solid and very simple to hookup and use. One simple feature that I like about this KVM switch is the cables that hook to the KVM switch. The video portion of the cables have extended knobs on the screws that make it very easy to tighten the video cables. Great Job!!

Have used this product on both Mac and PC platforms and it works flawlessly. Forget not being able to switch screens with keyboard hotkey combos. That is a small price to pay for being able to have a KVM switch perform how it is supposed to. No issues with losing keyboard/mouse functionality when switching between computers multiple times at close intervals. Would highly recommend.