KVM switch + Windows 7 creates monitor switching nightmare

Look,

Software experts aren't automatically hardware experts.

I am an Electrical Engineer.

Yes there's Windows7 added a few nasties, to me the bigges one is WinExplorer jumping folder list (leftside pane) when in "List View", ec, etc... too long to explain.

KVM is another amongst several problems.

But overall it's better than Vista obviously, and I cannot physically to go back to antique WinXp even oif it was Microsoft's pinnacle of achievemnt, their best product.  Too old for 2012.

So I learned.  KVM works here with certain hardware tricks.

You might be very smart, software engineer, but I am hardware EE, and somehow don't experience problems you describe.

See if more modern, advanced KVM with proper EDID detection helps. 

CHECK YOUR KVM SPECS - EDID SECTION.

New gear - same basic problem.

1 Windows 7 ultimate x 64

1 Macintosh OX

1 Micorosoft Ergonomic 4000 keyboard

1 IOgear GSC1104 KVM: 4 port DVI with 2 USB sharing and USB keyboard and mouse ports. PURCHASED NEW TODAY: NOT OLD GEAR.  Window7 compatible, so they claim.

The Macintosh has no problem seeing the MS Ergo 4000 and using the Intellitype control panel to use all the advanced media buttons etc.  So this tells me the KVM works like it is supposed to.  I can switch away from the Mac for half and hour then come back and it continues to work.

The Windows machine will work for 10 seconds while Win7 tries to identify the keyboard, trackball and KVM.  When it fails, that's it! Keyboard and trackball stop working.  I can repeat this behavior regardles of boot order of PCs or mode of opperation of the KVM, by completely uninstalling the failed driver installation, unidentified devices and so on, then rebooting Windows.

I find this to be a total joke and totally unacceptable.  Its not like I'm a rookie: I'm a software developer for the last decade for Pete's sake. C, C++, C#, WPF, ADO.NET   If my employer put out software that did this, we would be out of business.  At this point I'm ready to junk the damned genuine Windows machine and just install Visual Studion on my Macintosh via VMwareFusion.

I am still experimenting to see if this works 100% of the time but have only switched back and forth between two boxes like 5 or 6 times so far. My specs are as follows: One box has Windows 7 with a Nvidia GeForceGTX 460 Graphics card One Box with Windows XP Pro running a Nvidia card that is one maybe two generations back from the GTX. Iogear DVI Two-Port KVM switch that will switch mouse, video, keyboad, and sound. I was reading the Iogear KVM manual and was trying to see if there was a difference between the hard switching with buttons on the front of KVM and "soft" switching using the keyboad hotkeys. There are a couple of different "levels" of switching with mine. One quick push of the button will apparently switch the video and mouse/keyboard but leave the speakers. When you push and hold for 2 seconds it forces all "focus" to shift to the other PC. Hmmm, so I tried it. Now when I press and hold the switching button for whichever comp I want to switch to for 2 seconds it switches and leaves it at the resolution I had it at and doesn't reset it (so far). Now as frustrating as this has been so far I am going to chalk it up as coincidence or luck and it should be back to frustrating the **** out of me before the evening is out. If it starts doing it again I did find how to upgrade my firmware in my switch and that will be next trial.

This is my current setup:

 8 Servers connected to an 8 port Iogear kvm Switch to a single monitor.

All servers have different operating systems and never had a problem until I updated one of the servers to Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit edition. Thats when the display problems began. Sometimes the screen would go and never come back, had to restart the server in order to get the display back. So I followed a suggestion from another forum where the solution was to rip the #12 pin out of the vga cable from the monitor or the vga extension cable. I did, and guess what, it worked like a charm. No more problems, don't have to buy a new kvm or uninstall win7. Link below to where I got the info.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprogeneral/thread/8a9b5aa7-fe33-4e6d-b39b-8ac80a21fdc2

If installing ZBar works for the people who have said it helps, that's great, but I can't explain why.

I wrote the app, and was directed to this thread by one of the users.  ZBar reacts to the WM_DISPLAYCHANGE message broadcast by Windows, waits two seconds (for monitors to "settle down"), and then calls EnumDisplayMonitors() to get the updated information.

It then goes on to ask about monitor working areas, but does nothing to instruct Windows to redetect, discover or update any information.  If it fixes a problem some people are seeing, I can assure you it's entirely accidentally!

Tom