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
    2010-01-29T04:14:57+00:00

    all because assumptions appear to have been made with the manner in which EDID can be queried across diverse device types that don't hold up to reality in the deployed environment.

    Yes, and these assumptions just "showed up" in the final GA release; they apparently weren't in the release candidate where people could have caught them.  I thought new functionality wasn't supposed to be introduced between RC and GA, precisely because this kind of problem can creep in.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-01-28T09:54:46+00:00

    hehe... i do take your point, however we have seen precedence before

    Take for example degrees of disabling of hardware optimisations for compatibility issues with graphics and sound accelerations that was at least present in xp.. i havent gone looking for them in win7 yet.

    This is very much the same type of problem. Peoples desktops being messed up in a wide variety of use cases (single display, multi display, kvm) all because assumptions appear to have been made with the manner in which EDID can be queried across diverse device types that don't hold up to reality in the deployed environment.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-01-28T06:18:37+00:00

    Relying on 3rd party hacks to resolve clear problems with the O/S approach to display detection would be very poor form.

    So in fact, you hope they'll actually change the way they do things then? Because seeing as that's how they've been operating in the last 15 years... :+P

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-01-27T23:41:50+00:00

    I think MS will need to do something for this. Relying on 3rd party hacks to resolve clear problems with the O/S approach to display detection would be very poor form. Over time more and more people are going to discover this problem.

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  5. Anonymous
    2010-01-27T18:10:15+00:00

    Here are a couple possibly related pages from the Windows Vista Display Driver Model Design Guide. If you can understand MS jargon they may say something.

    This one appears to describe that W7 is different in some way:

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd835165.aspx

    This one describes the different methods for detecting monitor connections:

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms801559.aspx

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