Home > Consumer Reviews > Cables To Go 35566 Trulink 4-Port VGA/USB 2.0 and PS/2 KVM Switch with Audio and Cables

It took a while to try to decide what switch to use. I've got a USB mouse and PC2 keyboard and a 2001 Dell Precision workstation. For some reason I can't find a single manufacturer who will post reasonably complete information on what their switch will actually do. There is very little description of what kind of input and output is available.

It took quite a while to set up the switch. That's not the fault of CablesToGo, it was an old BIOS in the Dell. Once flashed to A07, and giving everything a chance to think about it after connecting, it runs fine.

The workstation and laptop both have analog & digital video capability. The switch can only handle analog from what I can tell. It does it fine - I can see no degradation. When switching the indicator lights show you where you are - no beeps or other annoying noises. Set up is quick and clear in the printed material. Switching can be done from the front panel, hot keys, or an on-screen switch.

While the manufacturer will not claim support, the switch is working just fine with a Microsoft wireless mouse, including the extra side keys and wheel. (I'm older than most of the PC generation and really like the mouse magnifying glass - Really glad it works!)

The only minor thing I see compared to some other switches advertised is that I must boot sequentially. The switch must be connected to the booting PC.

This switch will allow me to share additional USB devices - very handy for what I am doing. It has audio switching capabilities, which I have not tried yet.

The switch does what I want and gives me the capability to add anticipated units in the near future. At the Amazon price, I believe I got my monies worth.

I did work with the CabelsToGo tech support when first trying to find out why I could not get it started. First, I got real people, next they actually spoke English as a first language, and then to top it off, were not working from scripts - actually knew how to answer questions. They did not have the answer, but working with them gave me enough ideas to track down the problem in the Dell and correct it. All that while calling at the last 30 minutes of their support work day (and spending less than a minute on hold, even going to different techs. I'm impressed).

I have been using the Trulink 4-port VGA USB 2.0/PS2 with Audio KVM switch for about three weeks to control a MacBook Pro, a Windows XP PC, and a Windows Vista PC. I am generally satisfied with the switch, with a couple of reservations, one of which stems from a limitation in functionality that seems to be shared by all KVM switches.

In the box, you will find the KVM switch, an external wall-wart power supply, and four sets of cables to connect the VGA output, stereo audio line output, microphone input, and one USB port of each computer to the switch. The build quality of the components is excellent. The power supply and all of the cables from the computers, as well as the user-supplied cables from the switch to the monitor, speakers, and microphone attach to the back panel of the switch. On the front panel are three USB 2.0 ports, PS2 keyboard and mouse ports, a green auto-scan indicator LED, four selector pushbuttons with associated red and green LEDs, and a recessed reset button.

There are two switching modes. The first is auto-scan, which binds the video, audio, USB, and PS2 functions together. The second, independent mode acts like three separate switches - one for video, one for USB and PS2, and one for audio. It is important to note that the independent switching mode is only available from a PS2 keyboard. With a USB keyboard, only the auto-scan mode is available, and control is only via the switch's pushbuttons. That is a common limitation of KVM switches. However, a keyboard that is both USB and PS2 compatible can be connected, using a USB to PS2 adapter, and will work just fine. Unfortunately, most new keyboards are USB-only, so be prepared to invest in a PS2 or USB/PS2 keyboard, unless you have one on hand.

The switch is supplied with a Windows-only software switch utility. I don't use it in my mixed operating system environment, so I won't comment on it except to question why it is not OS X and Unix compatible.

The reset button is there for a reason. I spent over an hour getting the Vista machine to work, changing configuration settings, trying different switch ports, and pulling my hair out. Finally, I reset the switch and bingo, everything worked.

The KVM switch is cordless-friendly. I have tested it with the Logitech MX Revolution and VX Revolution cordless mice, and the keyboard of the Logitech LX-700 cordless keyboard/mouse combo. The only glitch in setup occurred when I installed Logitech SetPoint 4.4 on the Windows XP machine. The installation detected a touchpad, though there is none, and would install only the USB drivers. Also, SetPoint does not recognize the LX-700 keyboard when the MX or VX mice are installed, but I think that is a SetPoint problem, not related to the switch.

Switching commands from the keyboard are initiated by pressing the scroll lock key twice. In auto-scan mode, one selects a computer by pressing scroll lock, scroll lock, then 1, 2, 3, or 4 on the QWERTY side, not the numeric keypad, of the computer, or by pressing the appropriate button on the switch's front panel. To switch in or out of the independent mode, press scroll lock, scroll lock, h. In the independent mode, after the double scroll lock sequence, 1, 2, 3, or 4 selects the video source, q, w, e, or r select the USB/PS2 connection, and z, x, c, or v selects the audio. There is a delay of a second or two before the switching is complete. The front panel LEDs indicate the connection state.

My main criticism of the switch is that sometimes, after switching computers, the keyboard is slow to wake up. On those occasions, I bang in a bunch of nonsense, like sfaowjhfpaw, to get it going. I've experienced the problem with both cordless and corded keyboards. Other than that, it is an effective device for simplifying the control of multiple computers.

I am very happy with the product. It's inexpensive, comes with all four sets of cables and was pretty easy to setup. I'm using it to control a desktop and three laptop systems that I use to support different clients. I have a wireless keyboard and mouse connected to the PS/2 interface and I have a backup USB mouse that I use while the PS/2 mouse is recharging. I have a 24" wide-screen LCD monitor running at 1920 x 1200 and the switch has no problem with the high resolution display. The audio and microphone switching work well although I usually just let the audio play directly off systems and I normally use my USB headset mike.

I've only had a couple of problems:

1. The [Scroll Lock][Scroll Lock]-X commands don't seem to work at all.
And, yes, I'm using them with a PS/2 keyboard. I'm not sure why, but I had planned to use the push buttons anyway, so this was not a deal-breaker for me. (This may be a configuration issue. I haven't spent any time trying to fix it...)

2. Once or twice when using my USB-based backup mouse, an O/S has failed to recognize it after I switched systems (unplugging and replugging the USB wireless adapter will usually fix the problem).

Now if they can just figure out how to let me cut and paste between systems...

I had another KVM switch that worked ok for a while, but then went kaput. I was looking for a KVM switch that included sharing the audio and was not too expensive. Then I found Cables to go TruLink KVM switch and purchased it after reading some of the reviews. I have 2 pc's, one running Home XP and the other Vista Home. The installation went great, and very easy. I had no problem getting the 2 pc's working and switching. There is a 1 to 2 sec delay when I tranfer to the XP system on the video, but no delay when I tranfer to the Vista system which is the system that came with the monitor I am using. I had to adjust the XP system a bit to work with the monitor but it was nothing major.

I like it a lot, specially the ability to select to listen to the audio of one pc while working on the other. Also being able to connect usb peripherals, like external HD's, printers, etc. to the usb hub is superb since it gives me the abiliy to print from either computer no matter what the status of the other pc is. Before if I wanted to print from the pc that was not connected to the printer the other pc had to be on for me to be able to send the print job thru the network and be printed. Now I just send it straight to the printer matter which pc I am on at the time. You can also expand the number of usb ports by adding a usb hub, allowing you to connect a greater number of usb peripherals you can have connected at the same time. Also great for having one external HD and backup and have a central location for your music, photos, files, and able to access them from both pc's.

I give it a 2 thumbs up.

As a software developer working on multiple platforms I have four PCs on my desktop and needed a good KVM to share a single keyboard and trackball between them.

After reading reviews on many products I chose the CablesToGo TruLink VGA and USB/PS2 KVM with Audio, model 35566.

The unit comes bundled with power supply and four cable sets to support keyboard, mouse and audio for each connected PC.

The cable sets appear to be of high quality but are only four feet long and it would be nice if they were a bit longer.

The unit itself is compact and well built, with a confidence inspiring heft that keeps it flat on the desk and rubber endcaps that keep it from sliding around. On the front panel are four PC selection buttons, LED indicators to show active PC video and USB ports, three USB ports for keyboard, mouse and another USB device that can be shared, and PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports. Connectors for power and for the cable sets to each PC are on the rear.

The unit can use hotkeys to switch between PCs but that only appears to work with PS/2 keyboards. Perhaps the included software could be used to switch but being that I work on three different OSs I didn't try it, relying instead on the front panel buttons to switch between computers.

For the first hour or so it seemed as if I had hit the "holy grail" of KVMs as the unit worked flawlessly. Then it happened, after switching from one computer to another the unit became confused, with LEDs showing video from one PC and also that the Keyboard and Mouse were simultaneously connected to TWO PCs. What? Well, the keyboard and mouse stopped working and the unit refused to respond to further front panel button presses.

Fortunately there is a small paperclip reset hole on the front panel. After resetting the unit started working again. This problem then repeated itself every few hours throughout the day.

Originally I used a USB Kinesis brand keyboard with a wireless Logitech trackball. Thinking that maybe there were compatibility problems I switched to a wired Dell USB keyboard with a wired Dell USB mouse. No joy, the problem continued.

I contacted CablesToGo support and was asked to return the unit for an exchange since it was defective. To their credit they had a real human answer the email quickly and politely. I asked the support representative if they had ever seen this problem before and was assured that they had seen the problem and it was always due to a defective unit.

Amazon quickly shipped a replacement unit overnight. I swapped it out and it worked for a few hours before the inevitable lockup occurred. The new unit locks up as often as the old "defective" one so it seems logical that they all have this problem.

I'll keep the unit and live with having to reset it every couple of hours but CablesToGo should really either fix the bugs or, at the very least, replace the inconvenient paperclip reset with a real reset button since it is needed so frequently.

My advice would be to pass this unit by when looking for a KVM and try something else. I'd recommend another brand but, alas, they all seem to have these quirks. Inexcusable really.