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1322 Review
27 Karma

Review on πŸ”Œ Impressive IOGEAR 4-Port HDMI Multimedia KVM Switch with Audio, USB 2.0 Hub and HDMI KVM, Including Full Set of Cables - TAA Compliant by Todd Phillips

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Works with standard HDMI and other standard wired devices. Not ideal for gaming or wireless devices.

I've used cheaper HDMI switches without keyboard/mouse support on multiple monitors. I'm finally tired of so many keyboards and mice. I also don't like how my computers move monitors with cheaper switches. Bought ioGear GCS1794 hoping it would solve my problems. The HDMI part works great. Screens no longer flicker when switching from one monitor to another and EDID works great. Unfortunately, the keyboard and mouse emulation isn't that good. Doesn't work with my Logitech M570 wireless mice without passthrough enabled, meaning every time I toggle KVM the system thinks the mouse is disabled. I have two Razer Blackwidow Ultimate keyboards. I've tried both and they seem to work, but sometimes (quite often actually) they either miss the key or the key gets stuck and I end up with a 't' or 'a' character set. This doesn't happen when I'm connected directly and bypassing KVM. I switched to a Logitech K120 keyboard and haven't had this problem. I think (pure speculation on my part) that keyboards with clock speeds of 1000Hz might have problems, but keyboards with the default frequency of 125Hz don't. I could try using the USB port but that defeats the purpose of KVM as every computer thinks the keyboard is disabled when it is not active. I'd love to see a firmware update that fixes these issues as I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person having these issues. I couldn't find any firmware updates available for this device on the ioGear website and there weren't really any troubleshooting tips other than simply telling you to use a standard wired keyboard and mouse and giving no guarantees unless it was because you are using an ioGear keyboard and mouse. I leave it because of HDMI and mouse switching, it's not that bad. I can try to buy another non-gaming mechanical keyboard to see if the keyboard problem goes away. ioGear gets three stars for solving some of my issues. I think ioGear can really solve all problems if they spend some time fixing keyboard and wireless mouse problems. However, due to the fact that there have not been any firmware updates to fix these issues, I have a feeling these issues will never be fixed. I probably won't buy ATEN or ioGear again unless they invest some time in solving these problems and show an interest in improving existing products.

Pros
  • Not just useful for its intended purpose
Cons
  • There are cons