Home > Consumer Reviews > STARTECH.COM SV431USB 4 Port Starview USB KVM Switch

This KVM is advertised to work without a power supply under Mac and PC (as specified on the startech.com website) but doesn't. It has a 5v recepticle but doesn't even include a cheapo wall wart. The 5v voltage is not even common enough for Radio Shack to carry them so they are expecting a lot from the end user.

The specific problem is I get a warning from my Macs about too much power being drawn and then the keyboad and/or mouse gets disabled.

I have 2 differnt setups where it fails to work. One consists of a PowerMac G4 and a PowerBook G4 with a ViewSonic 20" monitor, Apple Pro keyboard, and Microsoft Optical Mouse.

The other setup consists of a PowerBook G4, Old Micron Linux box, Sony 17" LCD, Apple Pro keyboard, and a Logitech Optical mouse.

These seem like common configurations so I am wondering if it is defective or unrealistic about its power requirements. I have written startech.com about this issue. I will update this review once I get a response.

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UPDATE

Startech sent me the power adapter needed when connecting to Macs. BTW, its not included. Seems to work as advertised but I have noticed that if I don't switch to a Mac for an extended period it wont wakeup.

If you're planning on using this switch with a Mac keyboard: Beware. Although is says "For PCs and Macs" on the box, this switch will NOT work out-of-the-box with a keyboard that has extra USB ports (which all modern Mac keyboards have). It needs the AC adapter, which is not included.

Forget about finding a generic adapter at Radio Shack. The SV431USB requires an output of 5V DC at 2 Amps, which is next to impossible to find (except on the StarView website of course).

This switch looked impressive, but I'm going to have to give it 1 star since I wasn't even able to get the keyboard going. If you have a regular keyboard and don't plan on connecting a USB hub or laptop to it, it might be worth a try.

This product is great. The picture quality on the monitor is excellent, even without a power adapter. This is the only switch I could find for under $100 that supports USB. Most switches in this price range only support PS/2 mouse/keyboard, but my printer is USB-only, so I needed a switch that supports USB. Startech also makes some cables ...that have monitor and USB bound together which I also bought.

I use this switch for a desktop & a laptop. When I connect my laptop, I just need to plug in the monitor & USB, and I'm ready to go! It's so easy. I just wish it could control audio as well, though there's probably some USB device out there that you could plug into this switch.

The cable setup was a snap and there were no drivers to install. My system recognized the devices automatically.

On the down-side, my laptop (WinXP) is a little slow to recognize the mouse & keyboard when I switch to it. It usually takes about 3 seconds, but can be up to 20 seconds on occasion. Generally it's not long enough to bother me.

On my desktop (Win2000), it recognizes the devices much more quickly, but occasionally crashes the system when I switch to it. I think this only happens when I try to move the mouse or type on the keyboard before it has recognized those devices. Now, I just switch to it, wait a second until I see the mouse's cursor appear on the screen, and I haven't crashed it since. A little annoying, but now that I know how to use it, it's no problem.

Dec 7, 2005: Not sure how long ago I wrote the review above. I *was* really happy with this product. Then, it broke, so I got another one, since it was under warranty. When the replacement broke, I gave up and bought a similar model from IOGEAR (model G-CSIO4U), which has worked flawlessly ever since. I wish amazon would let me reduce the number of stars I gave this thing...

The video as stated in other reviews is great. The best I have seen in KVMs. The fact that it is all USB is fantastic as well. The delay in detecting the keyboard is tolerable. The reason for the low rating for me is that there is no quick key combination that allows the user to change from one computer to another via a keyboard key stroke. What was Startech thinking making a KVM that doesn't allow the user to hit a key combination to change from one computer to another. I have never heard of that from any other KVM. That is so worthless to me. I have to add one more large object to my desktop so that I can switch between computers or I have to get up from my workstation and press the button to go from one machine to the next. That is the worst mistake I could ever imagine. Startech is lucky I work on a government site that took 3 months just to get all the red tape to order, ship, and recieve the switches I wanted or else I would send them back!!! That is the lamest thing I have ever seen. If you don't mind button pushing then go ahead and buy this switch, otherwise you'll be highly disappointed.

Bought this a long time ago...
Sometimes when I use the KVM during gaming a key "sticks" so I would tend to move left or right and it can only be resolved by exiting the game and going back in.
I bought the power adapter to see if it helps with that problem and another problem with running a USB cable to control another computer to about 15 ft. Didn't resolve either issue.