KVM and mouse woes

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob Cummings
  • Start date Start date
B

Bob Cummings

Greetings

I hope I am in the correct place. I received a Belkin 4 port OmniView
KVM switch with all the bells and whistles (USB/PS2 audio support etc)
for Christmas. I finally had time to install it yesterday. Everything
works great except for the mouse. I am using a Logitech Cordless
MouseMan Wheel, which Logitech does not seem to make or support anymore.
If I use the USB connection to my main box (Win XP Pro/Athalon 1.2) the
computer will not recognize it as anything other then a HIB compliant
mouse with two buttons and no wheel. If I use the PS2 connection things
are better, but no wheel functionality and buttons two and four are
"seen" but both share the same functionality. I can live with that but
I really miss my wheel. Any ideas? If I need to supply more
information just let me know.

Thanks

Bob
 
Bob said:
Greetings

I hope I am in the correct place. I received a Belkin 4 port OmniView
KVM switch with all the bells and whistles (USB/PS2 audio support etc)
for Christmas. I finally had time to install it yesterday. Everything
works great except for the mouse. I am using a Logitech Cordless
MouseMan Wheel, which Logitech does not seem to make or support anymore.
If I use the USB connection to my main box (Win XP Pro/Athalon 1.2) the
computer will not recognize it as anything other then a HIB compliant
mouse with two buttons and no wheel. If I use the PS2 connection things
are better, but no wheel functionality and buttons two and four are
"seen" but both share the same functionality. I can live with that but
I really miss my wheel. Any ideas? If I need to supply more
information just let me know.

Thanks

Bob
Click to expand...

Have you tried downloading and installed the latest Logitech Mouse
drivers? They can be downloaded from the following url:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=downloads/finder&CRID=270&countryid=19&languageid=1

If you can't find a driver for your specific model of mouse you could
try downloading and installing the MouseWare package which I believe
contains drivers for most Logitech mice. Once installed you should be
able to configure the mouse driver for your model.
 
Bob said:
Greetings

I hope I am in the correct place. I received a Belkin 4 port OmniView
KVM switch with all the bells and whistles (USB/PS2 audio support etc)
for Christmas. I finally had time to install it yesterday. Everything
works great except for the mouse. I am using a Logitech Cordless
MouseMan Wheel, which Logitech does not seem to make or support anymore.
If I use the USB connection to my main box (Win XP Pro/Athalon 1.2) the
computer will not recognize it as anything other then a HIB compliant
mouse with two buttons and no wheel. If I use the PS2 connection things
are better, but no wheel functionality and buttons two and four are
"seen" but both share the same functionality. I can live with that but
I really miss my wheel. Any ideas? If I need to supply more
information just let me know.

Thanks

Bob
Click to expand...

I'm using a linksys 2 port KVM with the logitech cordless freedom
optical mouse and keyboard. At first, the special keyboard functions
weren't being recognised. Now they are. I'm not exactly certain why, but
here are my guesses:

1. I'm using the original drivers and software that came with them, and
these work (kinda, it doesn't recognise the mouse properly) while the
new ones don't.

2. The opposite: the new updated logitech programs work while the
originals don't.

I'm afraid I don't remember if it started working again before or after
I did the reformat/reinstall :-(
 
Jason said:
Have you tried downloading and installed the latest Logitech Mouse
drivers? They can be downloaded from the following url:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=downloads/finder&CRID=270&countryid=19&languageid=1


If you can't find a driver for your specific model of mouse you could
try downloading and installing the MouseWare package which I believe
contains drivers for most Logitech mice. Once installed you should be
able to configure the mouse driver for your model.
Click to expand...
Jason

Thanks but I already have the neweste MouseWare software package.

thanks

Bob
 
Sooky said:
I'm using a linksys 2 port KVM with the logitech cordless freedom
optical mouse and keyboard. At first, the special keyboard functions
weren't being recognised. Now they are. I'm not exactly certain why, but
here are my guesses:

1. I'm using the original drivers and software that came with them, and
these work (kinda, it doesn't recognise the mouse properly) while the
new ones don't.

2. The opposite: the new updated logitech programs work while the
originals don't.

I'm afraid I don't remember if it started working again before or after
I did the reformat/reinstall :-(
Click to expand...
Sooky

Wow that is the ugly solution. The strange thing is when I go direct to
the computer everything works fine only by going through the KVM am I
having any issues.

bob
 
If you look at the way that three buton wheel mice and 5 button mice
work, they require that the sample rate be set, sequentially, to
different values to turn on the wheels and the advance features. Once
the rate sequence is done, they then do a query that has to be
responded to properly. I think that three button mice need to be set
to 200, 100 and 80 samples consecutively, and then you query the
device type. For five button mice, you *first* set the mouse to
three button mode using the above sequence, and then you execute a
different sequence (maybe 200, 200, 100, 80, but don't quote me, it
is not important) to set 5 button mode - a three button mouse will
still report three buttons, a 5 button mouse will now report five
buttons.

KVM switches have a problem. They have to maintain the communication
with the mouse and simulate a mouse when the mouse is physically
switched to a different box.

My KVM Switch, an IOGEAR GCS14, advertises that it "PS/2 Mouse
Emulation for Error Free boot up".

But it will not work with my wheel mouse - I had a different mouse
when it was first installed, a simple two button mouse. My guess is
that it may need to be reset - the only way to reset it is to
disconnect it from all the systems, since that is where it gets its
power from. I had a simple two button mouse connected when it was
first powered up, and it probably needs to be reset so that it will
properly sense the three button wheelmouse that I have connected now.


Probably when it queries the mouse type, the KVM switch returns the
answer - and it returns the first one it saw several days ago.

Additionally, something is unable to work reliably at 200 samples per
second. The Microsoft mouse driver insists on setting the sample
rate of any mouse that has a wheel to 200, and the device seems to
drop samples at that rate. But it may work better once I get a
chance to reset it. (Again, the original mouse was an old one that
probably only ran at 100 samples per second.)

So the problem is likely the KVM switch interaction with the mouse
datastream. How to fix it? Talk to your KVM switch vendor.

Who knows how much of the interaction is controlled by the KVM switch
and how much is controlled by the mouse itself? I sure do not, and
this is all conjecture. But I think I am right.
 
After resetting the KVM Switch (disconnect it from all systems, power
off the monitor, leave it for a couple minutes, then reconnect it)
the wheel works.

I believe that the driver resetting to 200 samples when the wheel was
forced to presume present was an error in the interaction between the
KVM switch and the driver. Since the KVM switch was simulating an
old PS/2 mouse with two buttons and no other features, it may well
have been answering totally wrong for a three button wheel mouse, and
that was confusing the driver.

Once I reset the switch, I was able to set the driver to "assume a
wheel is present" and 100 samples per second, and those settings
stuck. Thus I am able to use my wheel with the KVM switch.

So the real answer is, "Try resetting your KVM switch and then contact
the switch vendor to see what they are doing to the mouse data stream
and how to overcome it."
 
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