On 4 Aug 2006 at 9:16, Hugh Gundersen wrote: > No drivers needed for a KVM(S) unit however you must remember that each > machine connected should be booted connected to the keyboard and mouse > otherwise the BIOS MIGHT (most likley WILL) fail to load drivers for the > keyboard or mouse or even stop booting on error "no keyboard"
That's usually true with cheap or junk KVM's, the better quality ones, will apply power to the ports/data lines to let the system know that a mouse and keyboard are attached. It's usually called peripheral emulation or some such. You can read an example here (click on the features and benefits tab) http://www.avocent.com/web/en.nsf/Content/SwitchViewPC-4port I have this unit and it works generally flawlessly. Although every 6-8 months, something goes haywire and the mouse flies all over the screen, sometimes on 1 computer,. sometimes on all the computers. Only way out to to power down everything and disconnect all power to attached pc's. OTOH, I have 2 of the Belkin Omniview SE 4 port (F1D104) units and even though they supposedly support peripheral emulation, I continually have to reset the unit (it has a reset button) which only works 50% of the time to fix lost mouse/keyboard access on a machine (typically this is with a machine that's already booted and was working fine). When you daisy chain 2 or more together the problem gets worse. According to the manual, if the reset doesn't work, you need to disconnect all attached computers and then do another reset. It's just a hassle to use. From what I remember it rarely if ever has a problem on bootup. > I have found this with my 3 system unit and another 2 ystem unit. What brand. > MUST boot connected - wife keeps forgetting and then I have to sort it - I find ATEN and Avocent generally don't suffer from this problem, however interestingly enough a client's Omniview SE went up in a puff of smoke so I opened it to see if I could fix it and the pcb boards in it were all labelled ATEN. <shrug> Both Belkin's and Avocent unit I have support serial mice and the older style at keyboard connections if you have the proper adaptor. Many of the newer USB or PS/2 units will not work with AT/Serial kb's/mice. -- Harondel J. Sibble Sibble Computer Consulting Creating solutions for the small business and home computer user. [EMAIL PROTECTED] (use pgp keyid 0x3AD5C11D) http://www.pdscc.com (604) 739-3709 (voice/fax) (604) 686-2253 (pager) -- ---------------------------------------- WIN-HOME Archives: http://PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM/archives/WIN-HOME.html Contact the List Owner about anything: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Official Win-Home List Members Profiles Page http://www.besteffort.com/winhome/Profiles.html
