Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
 Great USB / DVI KVM switch February 26, 2010
John J. Robinson (Nashville, TN United States)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
I just bought this KVM. Here are a few thoughts after using it for a few days:
REASON I BOUGHT THIS ONE: It had two USB 2.0 ports, and no PS2 ports. IOGear has had some great customer reviews for this, and other KVM products. I liked the fact that I plugged my own DVI cable into the switch to my monitor making cable length irrelevant. And finally, the one negative review I did see here was answered directly by an IOGEAR representative attempting to address the problem.
PACKAGING: Nice cardboard box, foam wrap around all internal components, manuals were in color and in plastic bags, the manual content is complete but concise in English.
QUALITY: Everything seems to be made of sturdy high quality components. The cables are thick, well insulated, and are generous length. You would only need to be concerned with cable length if your two machines are over 10 feet away from each other. There are plastic caps that cover the stereo cables if not in use and the cables themselves are color-coded. The cables plug into the switch ports firm and secure.
HOOK-UP: Couldn't be easier. There was no need to look at the manual, everything is intuitive enough. There is a mini stereo jack cable for your left/right speakers and then one for your microphone. I have a 4.1 surround setup and I don't have a need for a microphone. Well, good news for those like me... just use the microphone stereo port for your rear left/right and you will have full 4.1 surround through the KVM. This was a great surprise, and it works.
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS: One problem I ran into was that my Logitech MX510 mouse has 5 additional buttons. When run through the KVM it only detects a standard three button scroll wheel mouse. I never really used these buttons anyway, but it required me to reconfigure the mouse driver to speed up the cursor movement again.
I hid the KVM switch behind my desk and only see the slim remote button. The bottom of the button has a no-slip rubber pad, so you can lay it on your desk flat and it won't really slide anywhere. The button itself is easy to find and press without having to look at it.
Everything else worked great right out of the box. Since this is a digital KVM switch, you don't have to worry about quality of the signal. Either the signal arrives or it doesn't. You get perfect clarity or nothing at all. In my case, it's perfect. There is absolutely no difference in display quality when compared to directly connected the computer to the display.
MY SPECS: Computer #1 is an older XP machine with a ATI 9800 graphics card. The other machine is an HP running 64-bit Windows 7 with a GeForce 260. The mouse is a Logitech MX510. The keyboard is an older Microsoft split ergonomic PS /2 keyboard. I used a USB adapter without any issues at all. I hooked up a PC Works FourPointSurround (with subwoofer) through the two mini-stereo ports. Like I mentioned earlier, you can use any equipment that uses two mini-stereo ports, it doesn't have to be a microphone.
FINAL THOUGHTS: I am completely satisfied and this product has met my expectations. My opinion of IOGear has increased a few notches. When looking for future hardware, I'll certainly give IOGear a favorable consideration.
Perfect solution for multiple PCs February 13, 2010
webapalooza (Rochester, NY United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Are you purchasing a new PC? Do you want to transition from your old PC to your new PC slowly, gradually installing your programs on your new PC while still using your old PC? I did, and I knew I needed a KVM switch to make my life easier. After much research I decided on this model, and I'm very glad I did. I have it working perfectly now, although there were a few minor hurdles along the way.
First, you can't tell which cords go with which indicator lights, so when I first hooked it up and turned on my PCs, I couldn't understand why the monitor was blank. Turns out you need to be switched to the PC while it's booting up for it to "register" and appear on the monitor (at least that's my take on it). When I clicked on the remote button (great feature, btw) I saw my new PC's login screen. So I shut down my old PC, hit the KVM's remote switch, and booted up the old PC again. The bootup screen on my old PC immediately appeared and I was off and running.
The other minor glitch was mouse support. At first I had no mouse support at all on my old PC, but I tried a different USB port and it came to life. I then had to reset the mouse settings, because for some reason it went back to the default Windows XP settings. Now that I've got that out of the way everything is working great!
Screen resolution is just as it was before, and it even recognizes my Dell RT7D10 keyboard (which has media player buttons built into it for things like volume control, mute, play, fast forward, rewind, etc.) Switching is quick too -- about 2 seconds to switch back and forth between old and new PCs.
Haven't tried the mic yet, but audio works great. Even my remote volume/mute control works on both PCs!
Great product that will make my transition to a new PC much less painful!
Works great! January 10, 2010
M. Lessard (Middletown, CT)
Absolutely no complaints. This KVM switch was easy to set up and works flawlessly (only takes 2 seconds to switch on average). No degredation of picture quality, no lines, etc. For reference, I'm switching between a Dell M4400 mobile workstation running Windows 7 Pro and a Dell Dimension e510 desktop running XP Pro. Very satisfied (considering all the horror stories using KVM switches with Windows 7).
Works as promised January 27, 2010
J. Timber (Casa Grande, AZ United States)
I tend to have a black thumb when it comes to most of these 'quick fix' electronics. I had my reservations when I purchased this.
I was easily able to connect a MAC and a PC using this switch. It worked as promised. I was very impressed and would recommend this for someone who needs to connect audio, a usb mouse & keyboard, and a DVI monitor for two CPUs.
Works As 'Advertised' March 15, 2010
T. Salgueiro (Phoenix)
This product works as detailed in the description. Have had it for about 2 weeks and it is working great! Both computer DVI outputs are crytal clear on the shared monitor. So far no glitches on the shared mouse or shared keyboard ....
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
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