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First post, by old_MySpace

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Hi everyone,
I have a KVM Switch that I use for my main PC and my Windows 98 rig.
I have a question about it's weird video behaviour:

The "PC1" cable displays the POST and the Boot logo while the second pc,
connected with the "PC2" cable shows no sign of video until Windows log-on screen.

How I can fix that and make the booting process available for both PCs?
KVM Switch is a PCT MP2300 as seen below:

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Last edited by old_MySpace on 2018-04-10, 17:38. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 1 of 11, by bjwil1991

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Is the second PC your main PC or the Windows 98 PC? If your Windows 98 PC, check to see if the cable is seated properly and use a good monitor since some of the monitors don't like odd resolutions or refresh rates (Hz). I use a 4 PC version of the KVM switch box and used it on my Packard Bell, as well as my Socket 7 machine without complaining. Will test my main PC sometime after getting the appropriate PS/2 cable that makes 2 PS/2 connections into 1 PS/2 connection since my board can only have either a keyboard or mouse hooked up to it at a time (at the same time requires a Y cable to have both, just like older laptops).

Discord: https://discord.gg/U5dJw7x
Systems from the Compaq Portable 1 to Ryzen 9 5950X
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Reply 2 of 11, by RogueTrip2012

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If you swap the cables around on the PC's does the problem change?

Do you hook these up to a LCD monitor? If so and you hook the offending PC straight up to the monitor does the problem go away?

Some dual output video cards only show a bios on a specific port.

> W98SE . P3 1.4S . 512MB . Q.FX3K . SB Live! . 64GB SSD
>WXP/W8.1 . AMD 960T . 8GB . GTX285 . SB X-Fi . 128GB SSD
> Win XI . i7 12700k . 32GB . GTX1070TI . 512GB NVME

Reply 3 of 11, by old_MySpace

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The second PC is my main rig, I'll try swapping the cables.

The monitor is a CRT, I haven't tried with a LCD yet, and yes, hooking it straight to the monitor fixes the problem.
Thanks for the help! 😀

Edit: Also these are my video cards:
NVidia GT 710 1GB PCI-e. VGA, HDMI and DVI.
ATI Radeon 9250 128MB AGP. VGA and S-VIdeo.

Reply 4 of 11, by old_MySpace

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Okay I just tested the KVM switch again;
I swapped the cables, still the same results. The KVM Switch isn't the cause of the problem.
I used a LCD, ditto. CRT isn't the cause.

I think it's the graphics card in my modern rig (NVidia GT 710 1GB PCI-e. With a VGA, HDMI and DVI port) that doesn't show the booting sequence. How I can fix this?

Reply 6 of 11, by bjwil1991

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Try using a DVI to VGA adapter and see what happens.

Discord: https://discord.gg/U5dJw7x
Systems from the Compaq Portable 1 to Ryzen 9 5950X
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/retropcuser

Reply 7 of 11, by tpowell.ca

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This:

bjwil1991 wrote:

Try using a DVI to VGA adapter and see what happens.

Most likely your card defaults to one of the other video outputs, and not the VGA out.
With any luck, a DVI2VGA adapter should do the trick.

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Reply 8 of 11, by RogueTrip2012

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Ok, some more things i'm thinking of is getting the user manual and see what it says about the bios screen might only be on a certain output if your using more than one output at a time. Most videocards only show bios on a specific output when using multiple outs.

That KVM looks like a Auto switching type. It might only show the first booting computer first. If your older rig shows a display faster it might be grabbing that one all the time.

Try just using the KVM only hooked up to the GForce 710 and see if it will show something during boot.

I don't own that KVM but maybe it's a possible UEFI issue?

> W98SE . P3 1.4S . 512MB . Q.FX3K . SB Live! . 64GB SSD
>WXP/W8.1 . AMD 960T . 8GB . GTX285 . SB X-Fi . 128GB SSD
> Win XI . i7 12700k . 32GB . GTX1070TI . 512GB NVME

Reply 10 of 11, by spiroyster

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MySpace wrote:

I think it's the graphics card in my modern rig (NVidia GT 710 1GB PCI-e. With a VGA, HDMI and DVI port) that doesn't show the booting sequence. How I can fix this?

IF your onbard gfx is enabled... disable it... by default, if both the onboard and your discrete gfx are enabled, the onboard will get the POST and not the discrete one until windows has finished starting up.

Reply 11 of 11, by old_MySpace

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Well... I just managed to fix the problem, the cause was graphics card.
I just replaced it with a slower one, an ATI Radeon HD 5450 512mb with only a DMS-59 port. I used a VGA splitter adapter for it. It's not a drastic change for me since I don't play recent games. 😎

So to summarize for people having this problem:
- Try swapping the cables of the KVM Switch.
- See if the PC displays the BIOS/Loading OS parts with the monitor cable (in this case, with a VGA cable)
connected directly to the computer that is having the problem.
- Check if it works in a CRT or a LCD monitor or vice-versa.
- If all of above doesn't work, probably it's the graphics card. Double check it by plugging it into your motherboard
integrated graphics output port. (Again, in this case it's a VGA port).

Thank you people for the replies and the help! 😀