KVM switch + Windows 7 creates monitor switching nightmare

I have a PS/2 & USB Mouse/Keyboard/VGA KVM switch that I have had since just before the release of Vista. I only use it to share a LCD display between my PC and my PowerMac G5.

My PC uses a Gigabyte GV-NX86T256H GeForce 8600GT graphics card. Despite it being an approved nVidia GeForce Series 8 graphics card, I have experienced nVidia GeForce graphics driver and Windows 64bit OS issues. The latest version to work in Vista is either the 182.50 WHQL driver or the 186.16 driver downloaded from Gigabyte....the nVidia GeForce versions that have not worked are the 185, 186, 190, 191......I have not tried the even newer version drivers..........

The 182.50 driver works with the KVM switch when installed in Vista but not in Windows 7. I have not yet tried the 186.18 driver in Vista to see if it also works with the KVM switch but it does not work with Windows 7.

After reading your post and recognizing that I was experiencing symptom 1. rather than symptom 2., I searched for a pre-Windows 7 RTM (22 October 2009?) dated nVidia GeForce driver that was OK for both Vista and Windows 7 according to the change log and came across the 178.13_geforce_winvista_64bit_english_whql driver released in 2008, which I then installed in Windows 7.

GOOD NEWS : The 178.13 driver works with the KVM switch when installed in Windows 7, with no resolution and/or window shifting when switching the display between computers...... I do not yet know which driver(s), if any, after version 178.13 but before version 182.50 will enable the KVM switch to continue to work with Windows 7.....

Update: 186.16 driver in Vista does not work with the KVM switch

I'm not 100% sure this is the best solution, but it is one that works perfectly for me. I have multiple computers all connecting to the same KVM and have the same auto change resolution issue. Running a process logger, the igfxsrvc.exe process runs when the monitor changes and adjusts the screen resolution accordingly. I renamed this file from igfxsrvc.exe to igfxsrvcx.exe which prevents it from running. Problem solved. switching computers no longer causes Windows to auto resize the display. Rebooting the machine works fine. The only drawback to this solution is that you will get an error in your System Event logs that indicate that it was not able to start the DCOM server igfxsrvc.exe.

Thanks for the suggestion. Tried renaming that file but no luck though.

I'm not 100% sure this is the best solution, but it is one that works perfectly for me. I have multiple computers all connecting to the same KVM and have the same auto change resolution issue. Running a process logger, the igfxsrvc.exe process runs when the monitor changes and adjusts the screen resolution accordingly. I renamed this file from igfxsrvc.exe to igfxsrvcx.exe which prevents it from running. Problem solved. switching computers no longer causes Windows to auto resize the display. Rebooting the machine works fine. The only drawback to this solution is that you will get an error in your System Event logs that indicate that it was not able to start the DCOM server igfxsrvc.exe.

See I would maybe maybe buy into the Microsoft "its the KVM" explination if for the past 6 months that I was running windows 7 my KVM worked fine.  then out of the blue about a month ago this same thing started happening to me.  this is frustrating me to no end.

Here is a workaround that will get you a shortcut you can exec to bring your monitor back:

1: dl the devcon utility: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q311272

2:unzip and copy the x86 devcon exe to your windows/system32 directory.

3: create a shortcut whose target is "devcon rescan" no quotes

Then make it sticky to your start menu so you can hit it on the fly, all your windows will shift to the primary monitor but at least it brings the monitor back without hunting through 2 levels of menus.