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Corsair K95 RGB and Vengeance M65 working with a KVM


helusay

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Hello all,

 

I am posting this as a follow up to an old posting about getting a K70 working with a KVM. Apparently, Corsair's official reply has always been that they do not support using KVMs with their keyboards. I followed this finding up by researching many posts about people that bought KVMs only to have to run their keyboards (K70 & K95) in BIOS mode in order to use a KVM.

 

Prior to this research, I had purchased a KVM with HDMI dual screen capabilities to connect my Mac Mini and my PC to because I was tired of having two separate machine setups. Imagine my dismay when I connected everything only to find that my keyboard would not work with my PC and oddly, the Mac didn't like the M65. It would point, but not click. After my research, I was irritated, but determined that there had to be a way to get this to work.

 

Not willing to accept "BIOS mode" for an answer, I found that there were a lot of replies to the posts I found that said that most KVMs do not have a powered USB so they are not able to sufficiently power the keyboard. So I grabbed a powered USB hub and plugged in the keyboard and mouse and attached it to the proper ports on the KVM. Nothing.

 

Through much frustration and re-connection options, I noticed that my KVM would light up even when the adapter was disconnected. This led me to the discovery that it was a 5v adapter. Usually, 5v is the power output of a powered USB. But why wasn't it working? Then I looked at the USB on the front of the KVM. I plugged the mouse into it, and it worked with the Mac. Odd. So, I grabbed a normal USB hub and plugged the keyboard and mouse into it and attached it to the front USB.

 

SUCCESS!!!

 

I found the the USB on the front is the only powered USB outlet on the device. So now that it works, I had to pass it along. I hope that someone can find this useful.

 

I still don't know why the external powered USB hub attached to the KM ports had no effect. If anyone can chime in on that, I would appreciate it.

 

TL;DR:

If you have a Corsair Mechanical RGB Keyboard and you want a KVM make sure that it is a KVM with a powered USB.

 

Edit: I am not sure if I am allowed to link the KVM I purchased but here is the brand/description from Amazon: "CKL USB KVM Switch HDMI 2 in 2 Out with Audio Microphone Output and USB 2.0 Hub, PC Monitor Keyboard Mouse Switcher"

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