KVM switch + Windows 7 creates monitor switching nightmare

Hi Trees,

Did the VGA experiment reveal anything?

The disconnected-connected sounds Emre is hearing when powering on the monitor makes me wonder if there's something besides just EDID polling going on.

Apparently DVI has a dedicated pin for hot plug detection, so perhaps it could somehow be involved. It could explain why the EDID override trick is not working. Perhaps the EDID is always correct, but the hot plug pin state changes when powering on the monitor, making Windows think the monitor is temporarily unplugged. The "Plug and Play Specification" over here may hold some more clues:

http://www.ddwg.org/lib/dvi_10.pdf

My guess is the MS support staff is just as or even more clueless than we are. They are only allowed to use approved replies from the database, and they've already done that. The software engineers that would instantly understand what we are talking about don't read these forums, and even if they did they would not be allowed to comment.

Well it seems Microsoft is getting record O/S sales with Windows 7, so it looks like the disatisfaction of the minority here isn't worth the minimal PR it would take for a tech to drop by and say

"Hey, I see the problems you guys are having. It's not top of our list but we want to get this sorted out, please bear with us while we research the problem."

or something similar to indicate the problem is acknowledged and in need of a solution to appease us.

Kind of disssapointing that a problem as plain as day as this can't penetrate the Microsoft machine - even with all the Microsoft support staff frequenting here.

They know about it and don't know how to fix it without violating DRM contracts.  Remember who we are dealing with here.  IP protection far outweighs usability.

Well sorry to say this but the EDID_OVERRIDE registry hack which was working for me, suddenly stopped working! :(

what is strange to me is that based on what i see in the registry, i shouldnt even be having the problem. I have two devices in the Display key. One is my Dell 2408WFP and the other is called KVM2004, both have identical EDID information, identical resolutions etc. yet when i switch away from that system it is now always resizing and repositioning all my windows because it has reverted to some LOW resolution whilst i was away!

This problem and YES I DO CALL IT A PROBLEM, is so annoying, i fear i may need to fall back to Vista since i have a GPT partition and XP will not work. 

This really sux!

EDIT: Well i discovered that for some reason the VNC 'fix' which had been somewhat of a workaround, had somehow during one of my KVM switches away, reverted to a resolution of 1024x768.  Using VNC i set the resolution to 1920x1200 and all is well with me again. Why it reverted however is a mystery and i am sure part and parcel of the problem MS has thrown into the laps of thousands of KVM users along with a recommendation we go purchase switches which are compatible with their Operating System.  Yes i know this is not only a KVM issue, but in my case it is and i want a REAL fix.

When was the last time someone remotely related to MS posted anything on here? I fear they will wait to see of this will die out by itself... instead of fixing the frackin' problem!

Xenubite,

Thanks for the ideas.  Since I have Windows set to "Show desktop only on 2", it isn't actually in clone mode, so that's not the problem.  Extended mode isn't what I want either, since I keep the notebook lid closed and dark, and I don't want any windows to open themselves on the internal display (although I did test extended mode, and the problem remained).

I opened the lid for a few minutes in "Show desktop only on 2" mode, and sure enough, whenever the KVM monitor goes black for a few seconds, the internal display lights up for the same period.  Not sure that it's the internal display "waking up" though.  I think the external display is momentarily "getting lost", since Windows makes the "device disconnect" sound when the KVM monitor goes black and "device reconnect" when it returns.

Worse yet, I got a blue screen after I re-closed the lid; not immediately, but a few minutes later.  After closing the lid, Windows 7 no longer saw the internal display (which seemed to temporarily fix the problem actually), but then it suddenly gave me the BSOD.

I just have to shake my head that Microsoft would do this to us in Windows 7 ... the supposed solution to the Vista disaster.  Arrgh.  I have now wasted *hours* trying to find a fix because Microsoft broke something that has worked for *years*.