hey guys when setting up the kvm it's natural to assume the kvm is
causing issues but most of the time the problems actually arise from the setup
connections or choosing the wrong components today we're going to cover several of our common
troubleshooting techniques to help identify the issues and how to fix them here's a quick
outline of the topics that we're going to cover today we've broken down each section
so you can skip ahead but watch the critical tips before doing so alright let's dive in
i know everyone has heard this over and over again but it's so true the first step in troubleshooting
is always to reboot everything to do this you turn the kvm off you unplug it to drain the board
reboot your computers and then plug the kvm back in and power it up during this initial
setup process unplugging and replugging the cables can cause signal errors
and rebooting is going to clear all of this out the second critical tip is that for dual monitors
you must make three physical connections from each computer two connections are going to be for video
and one connection is going to be for data if you have a laptop you're probably going to need
adapters or a docking station to achieve this and i'd say 95 percent of the time video issues are
just from using the wrong video adapter so please use our list of tested and approved adapters
and reach out if you need help the final tip is how you should connect the monitors to the kvm
make sure to connect display one output of the kvm to the left monitor and display two output of
the kvm to the right monitor if you are looking at the kvm from the back like this display one
gets its video signal from the right video input and then of course display two is going to get
its signal from the left video input now you can easily trace back issues so if you have a problem
with pc1 and your right monitor is blank you can trace back and troubleshoot input b for pc1
diving a little deeper into video issues we break them down into two sections going into the kvm
and coming out of the kvm but before we get into that let's confirm that windows is set up for dual
monitors by pressing windows p a menu is going to pop up and then you want to select extend
mac os doesn't have this feature so if you're on mac os don't worry about that
now it's pretty rare to have video issues going from the kvm to the monitors but it's really easy
to test once everything is connected switch between pc1 and pc2 as long as you get both
monitors to work for at least one of those computers you know the kvm output is good
now if you only have one monitor working for pc1 and one monitor working for pc2 you can use the
kvm's mode 2 split desktop feature to check the outputs to do this use the hotkey command scroll
lock scroll lock 3 then you can alternate the monitors by pressing scroll lock scroll lock 4.
during these tests both monitors should work at least once and then you can go ahead and move on
to the video inputs identifying connection issues from the computers to the kvm is very easy if you
set up the kvm like we advised in the critical tips section if the left monitor isn't working
it's input a if the right monitor isn't working it's input b most of the time the problem is
one of these four issues a video adapter is not converting in the correct from in two directions
a usbc port does not have displayport alt mode or thunderbolt you're trying to use a video port
on a motherboard when you have a graphics card installed or you happen to have an incompatible
docking station but this one is pretty rare number one is easily solved by using our list of tested
and approved adapters most video adapters are not bi-directional and our page has from and
two columns to help avoid choosing the wrong adapter remember the video signal is going to
flow from the computers to the kvm and if you need an adapter for your monitor the signal is
going to flow from the kvm to the monitor's input we always recommend using the least number of
adapters as possible so use hdmi to hdmi cables or displayport to displayport cables whenever you can
number two is a little bit tricky you'll have to check the spec sheet for your laptop to confirm
if the usb c port has display port alt mode or thunderbolt thunderbolt usually has a lightning
bolt logo near the port or you can go ahead and test it in real life by taking a usbc adapter
and go directly from the laptop right to the monitor if you get an image then the computer has
the capabilities that you need if it doesn't then a docking station or usb 3.0 adapter is probably
going to be the best solution for you number three can happen when you set up a desktop computer
if you have a graphics card installed it will most always disable your motherboard's video ports
you will have to connect the video connections from the graphics card directly to the kvm and
avoid your motherboard's onboard graphics number four is not very common but in some rare instances
we've seen issues with older hp and lenovo slim docking stations if this happens with you reach
out to support and they'll help you solve this issue if you're getting an image but it's blinking
or flashing or wrong colors try using different cables that you know work so for an example
if pc1 works fine but pc2 isn't working right keep the cables that are plugged into the computer
that's not working but unplug them from the kvm's pc2 input and plug them into the kvm's pc1
input basically you're just swapping pc2 into pc1 now if the problem persists and it follows to pc1
which used to work fine then it's likely an issue with the cables or the adapters that you're using
and sometimes just unplugging and replugging these cables is going to fix the issue but if it's
persistent try using different cables or adapters now these dual monitor kvms are capable of hdmi
2.0 refresh rates but the speeds might be limited by other components in the connection string
adapters are notorious for using cheap chipsets that reduce bandwidth also some monitors they like
to advertise higher refresh rates but then they limit the speeds for the hdmi ports to save cost
review your monitor's manual to confirm that the hdmi is rated for the speeds that you expect
these dual monitor kvms have passer modes so there are far fewer incompatible keyboards than in prior
generations check out this hotkey video if you want to make sure that you have pass-through mode
turned on now if you want to use hotkeys make sure that you plug your keyboard into one of
the dedicated mouse and keyboard ports these ports have emulation programming which allow the kvm to
recognize the hotkey commands hotkey triggers can be assigned to either scroll lock or right control
so scroll lock isn't working try using the right control key instead
if the right control key isn't working and your keyboard does not have a scroll lock key
press and hold the yellow push button for about 15 seconds until the kvm beeps
this will change the hotkey trigger between scroll lock and right control
if the keyboard or mouse isn't working at all first make sure that you made the proper usb
connection from each computer to the kvm this is quite often overlooked during the setup process
if that connection has been made then you can test your keyboard by plugging it directly into the
kvm's usb 2.0 port this is a common workaround if a keyboard or mouse wasn't developed with
standard hid programming the only downside to the usb 2.0 port is it's not going to recognize hotkey
commands so you'll have to use the push button on the front or the remote control to switch inputs
remember you can always add a powered usb hub if you need to connect more devices
repeating characters is another common issue this is caused by a conflict with a mouse and keyboard
software such as logitech options or corsair iq this is happening to you you'll need to
uninstall the software type in remove programs scroll through the applications until you see
the software that you want to remove and if you absolutely need to use this software you can go
ahead and just use the usb 2.0 port for your mouse and keyboard as a workaround quite often customers
will note that their wireless mouse or keyboard is jumpy or erratic this is almost always due to
rf interference and is a common problem in non-kvm environments as well you can test this quickly by
using the mouse up close to the receiver and if it works normally then we recommend just picking
up this cheap little usb extender to get the receiver out from behind the kvm and closer to
your mouse and keyboard as we mentioned in prior videos the kvm does not have internal bluetooth
because of this bluetooth devices like apple's magic mouse and keyboard do not work with the kvm
but if you still want to try using other bluetooth devices you will just need a bluetooth receiver
and pair your devices to that receiver then plug the receiver into the usb 2.0 port
but we found that very few devices are capable of pairing to the receiver so it's best just to pair
directly to the computers and switch manually if you want to use them with both of your computers
it's important to understand that the kvm receives audio over the hdmi connections
and then the kvm replicates the audio to the monitor and to the analog audio output if you're
using external speakers you're going to have to turn the volume on your monitor down most audio
issues are caused by the operating system not selecting the correct audio output that you want
when the audio isn't selected automatically you simply click on the audio settings on
your operating system then select the option that looks like your monitors sometimes it's
not clear so we recommend just going through all the audio output options and find out which one
is right for your setup some customers have found that using a usb adapter is a better
and more reliable way for the kvm to receive audio this is especially true if you're using vga or
dvi since they don't carry audio signals if you have persistent audio problems we recommend this
little audio adapter that's around 10 on amazon it plugs into the kvm's usb 2.0 port or hub and then
you plug your analog speakers into the adapter now the kvm can receive audio over the usb and
then you simply choose usb audio on your operating system alright that's it for today's video if you
still need help you can always open up a ticket at buytesmart.com thanks and have a great day