Keyboard stops working when using peripheral switch to toggle devices

December 28, 2022 8:32 AM

I've been having a really annoying problem that I haven't had any luck figuring out. Hoping someone here might be able to help. Early in the pandemic, I purchased a peripheral sharing switch and occasionally my keyboard won't switch over when I use the toggle button. This leaves me unable to type and I'm stuck resetting my pc.

Early in the pandemic, I purchased a IOGear 2x4 Peripheral Sharing Switch (GUS402) from Amazon.

so that I could share my keyboard, mouse and webcam between my pc and my work laptop. It worked well! I also use the same monitors between the two computers. Sometime about a year later, something unusual began to happen. Whenever I would switch from my work laptop to my home pc, my keyboard wouldn't switch over. I could control my mouse, but my keyboard wouldn't register at all. I was able to use the accessibility options to get the on screen keyboard and save the things I needed to, but ultimately I'd have to reset.

* This doesn't happen every time. I'd say it's about 1 out of every 4 times.
* I can't pinpoint anything significant that happened around the time that it began occurring. I also can't pinpoint any real pattern to when it does and doesn't happen.
* If it matters, the backlight on the keyboard also doesn't light up when I switch back to the home pc and the keyboard isn't working
* It seems vaguely related to how long it's been since I switched over to my work laptop. For example, if I switch to my work laptop and then switch back to my home pc five minutes later, it's likely that it'll work fine. If it's been 6 hours instead of 5 minutes, it's more likely that it won't work.
* In very rare cases, the mouse also won't work (again, this is only when switching to my home pc. it never has this problem when switching to my work laptop)
* I've tried changing usb ports with no luck (both the usb port that the switcher is connected to and the port on the switcher than the keyboard is connected to)
* In case it's relevant, the keyboard I use is a Redragon K551 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
* The problem is specific to my home pc. I never have the issue when switching to my work laptop.
* My home pc and my work laptop both use Windows 10

If anyone has any ideas as to what might be going on or what the solution could be, I'd really appreciate it.

posted by NoneOfTheAbove to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

I think the actual device you need is a KVM -- they are designed specifically for using the same mouse/keyboard/monitor with multiple devices, so it's better at handling keeping things working.
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:59 AM on December 28, 2022

Possibly your keyboard needs more power than the USB switch can provide. There are some adapters which allow you to power from a wall wart and maintain the data connection.
posted by coberh at 10:26 AM on December 28, 2022

Response by poster: This might be a really dumb question, but what's the difference between a KVM and the switch that I have? And is there a particular KVM switch that you (or anyone) would recommend? Or are they all basically the same?
posted by NoneOfTheAbove at 10:48 AM on December 28, 2022

With a KVM you also switch the screen(s), but if your screen(s) have multiple inputs and are hooked up to both systems that way already, a full-blown KVM will not offer any advantage.

And no, not all KVMs and USB-switchers are created equal. Some keep emulating a keyboard and mouse towards the deselected PC, others don't: if your switch doesn't and the deselected PC has its BIOS/UEFI set to not boot without keyboard[0], then it will be sitting in the powerup screen when it's (re)booted until you connect one. And some USB-switchers as well as KVMs can have idiosyncrasies where they just won't play nice with (one of) the connected systems, no matter what you do and how much you swear at it. And of course it can have developed a fault since you started using it.

Does this USB switch have its own power supply, or is it supposed to be powered through USB from the PCs?

Do you switch between the systems via a hotkey, or a button on the unit?

What happens if your PC has 'forgotten' about the keyboard, you unplug it from the switch and plug it into your PC directly, or you plug another one in if you have one? Does it go "Hey, a (new) keyboard. *bleep*"? Or when disconnecting the switch from the PC, and plugging it back in with it set to your PC?


[0] "Keyboard missing, press F1 to continue." Err, how exactly?
posted by Stoneshop at 11:24 AM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: It has a power supply but it’s only a mini usb cable. I noticed it was plugged into a usb hub rather than an outlet so I tried putting it in an outlet.

There’s a button on the unit to switch between devices.

I haven’t tried unplugging the keyboard when it stops recognizing it just because the cords are kind of a mess and it’s not easy to get in there.

One observation I just discovered… the switch has my keyboard, webcam and mouse connected to it. My webcam and mouse are both Logitech devices and use a program call Logitech G Hub. Some googling shows that a few people have had some issues with the program combined with a peripheral switch. I’m wondering if that could be the culprit. I had the program in my work laptop but not my home pc. I tried turning it off on my laptop and now it seems that none of the three peripherals will switch to my desktop. I can’t tell exactly what that means or what I should do but it feels like this is onto something…
posted by NoneOfTheAbove at 1:52 PM on December 28, 2022

You should be able to unplug your keyboard from the switch and plug it directly into the computer, so you don't have to shut down if you don't want to.

I also expect that if you unplug all the cables leaving the switch (i.e. to computers and to any power) and plug them back in, it will also start working again.
posted by flimflam at 5:37 PM on December 28, 2022