KVM switch + Windows 7 creates monitor switching nightmare

Anonymous
2009-10-29T16:44:18+00:00

I have a problem with Windows 7 and my KVM switch (Iogear model# gcs1764) which is makes switching via KVM an absolute nightmare.  The iogear KVM does not use drivers nor are any available on their website.

Here's what happens:

I switch from Win 7 (2 monitors) to XP (1 monitor) via KVM.  When I switch back to Win 7 (2 monitors) sometimes Win 7 will throw my desktop to the 2nd monitor (1st monitor goes blank) and opening up display settings only shows the 2nd monitor as existing.  It's as if the 1st monitor is now unplugged which it isn't.  At this point I have to go into display settings, click Detect, and then it re-detects my 1st monitor and "extends" my desktop back out over 2 monitors.  All windows have now been thrown to my 1st monitor and i have to rearrange all my work back across 2 monitors.  This is why KVM switching in Win 7 makes my work life a living nightmare.  This isn't all of it either...

When everything gets thrown to my first monitor, it takes any windows that were maximized and resizes them to about 1/4 my screen size.  Due to compatibility issues between Win 7 and SQL Server Management Studio, Management Studio has a redraw bug that doesn't "re-size" the query window correctly.  So even though I maximize the app, when I start typing in the query window my text disappears about 1/4 the way across the whole window.  The only way to fix this is to save all my work, close the app, and then re-open the app with all my work.  So basically every time I switch computers there's about a 1/5 chance I have rinse and repeat everything I just typed above.  Fun times.

So are there any future fixes planned for this?  I have tried everything and nothing fixes this problem.  I have all the latest Nvidia drivers (my card: Nvidia GTS 250).

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-02-01T17:12:46+00:00

    Hopefully they are working on a solution and will get back when it's done.

    Three months is more than enough time for them to sort this out. If they haven't issued a fix yet, chances are they're never going to. Let's face it, this problem is NOT their priority... and as they stated, we can always buy more hardware (that costs more than their OS). LOL

    We've talked about this in the office and people can't believe Win7 is actually that messed up. The press paints such a nice portrait of it... but with examples like mine, people (at least in our office) are now starting to understand that Win7 is just another Microsoft OS with its usual series of unforeseen problems. It's become a sort of tradition at MS: Take something that worked fine in the previous OS and find a way to screw it up!

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-02-02T02:26:45+00:00

    I am not using a KVM switch at all, however, with each boot of Win 7, I do not know which resolution  my laptop will be by the time I can logon usually it is 640x480 - and really ugly. Lately my laptop (Qosmio G15-AV591) using an NVIDIA 5700 GeForce FX Go VRAM, along with a NON-pnp monitor is unpredictible.

    I should mention that Toshiba does not "officially" support what I am doing, they do support NVIDIA 6100 GeForce, (not a 5700 though) anyway typically Toshiba is not worth a call in any case (that's been  my experience). I have the latest driver installed - it seems to be more unstable than the original "Std VGA driver"  vgapnp.sys .

    I am quite frustrated trying to find a stable driver, I don't want to return to XP MCE, I would change the video board but I believe it is part of the laptop mobo.

    (If anyone knows to the contrary PLEASE let me know)

    I would like a way to block all video rez changes, unless I wanted them to change.

     suggestions anyone???

    Most everything else works very well , I do like Win 7!!!

    Robert E Young MCSE

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-02-02T04:55:08+00:00

    I would like a way to block all video rez changes, unless I wanted them to change.

    Join the club... ;+)

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-02-02T09:46:45+00:00

    My screen goes black after about a minute and it looks like there is no signal to the monitor, my xp computer works fine just the win 7 giving me probs like everyone else.

    I have no vga plug in my gfx card and was going to try that instead of the dvi slot.

    its defo a gfx /display prob, could be fixed with a patch?

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  5. Anonymous
    2010-02-02T17:33:13+00:00

    Just a note in case anyone wanted to try it:

    I've tried using PowerStrip (v3.8) to create custom timings and it has absolutely no effect on the Win7 windows resizing problem. I was at it for more than an hour yesterday but no luck. I was glad that it worked on Win7 x64 and it still let's your create custom timings... but it has no effect on our Win7 specific problem.

    I had a lot of hope that there could be a way to force the system to always see my monitor as being connected... but to no avail. :+(

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