Can KVM cause PC errors?

[ltromans]

I have a Belkin 2 port PS2 KVM with attached cables (video, mouse and sound). I have two PC's, one a 1.8 with integrated sound and video, and one a 3.2 with NVIDIA GeForce 6600 and soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS.
THe 1.8 does just fine, but the 3.2 suffers from lock ups and sound static when gaming (single user - not online...SIMS2, Civilization, Rise of Nations, etc). I do not seem to get those problems when the 3.2 is hooked up alone.

Boot order does not seem to make a difference.
Am I expecting too much from a cheap KVM? Or do you think one of the PC componants are bad?

Thanks

 

[NotSoCunning]

I run a 2 port KVM at home for keyboard, monitor and mouse and never had a problem. Can't remember the make to be honest.

The symptons do tend to point to either the KVM or perhaps more likely one of the cables - audio being the place to start.

What I would do in this situation is set-up both machines with the KVM and disconnect the audio. I'd then put the audio in directly to each machine and test games etc and see the result.

Nice to see someone still playing Civilisation

 

[edfair]

Your sound is an output only, so the KVM isn't really passing anything back in to cause the lockups.
There can be issues with KVMs. They have to pass signals both ways and some have power problesm and others have signal transfer problems. So if switching the keyboard to direct resolves the problem it may be slow in passing things back and forth.
You might also try swapping the KVM ports and see if the trouble follows the keyboard.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[ltromans]

Well, it turns out the problem was the PC. I swapped the KVM ports and it followed the PC. Later, as I was testing different combo's of kb and mice, the pc crashed and the hd is gone. Could be mobo, still checking it out.

Anyway, thanks for your input.

 

[G0AOZ]

I'm afraid there can be all sorts of issues here. I have a Belkin KVM and it objected to one of my old favourite heavy EAT 1010 keyboards. It also threw a wobbly with a Logitech optical mouse, but behaved when a Microsoft version was offered up. Sometimes using an external PSU to power up the KVM does the trick...

ROGER - G0AOZ.