KVM switch not recognizing USB devices on Windows 10?

Question

I installed Windows 10 earlier this week. All week my computer has functioned fine, but today when I turned it on I get an alert saying USB Device not recognized. I have several USB devices plugged into a StarTech (SV231) KVM switch and then one USB from that to my computer.

The KVM switch worked all week and without intentionally installing anything or doing anything out of the ordinary, suddenly, today I'm not able to plug any USBs into the KVM switch.

Plugging the keyboard and mouse directly into the computer works, but plugging them into the KVM gives me the "USB Device not recognized" alert.

I looked for some sort of driver software for the KVM but there doesn't seem to be any available and I'm not sure what else to do.

Answer 1

The problem was solved by powering off the KVM switch and powering it back on.

Note that unplugging the power cable does not completely power off the KVM switch as any USB cable connected to the switch while also connected to PC will also provide power to the switch.

You should remove all USB cables connecting the KVM to a power source and remove the power source.

Answer 2

We had the same problem here at TCNJ. We have a lab of 23 Dell Workstations and 23 MAC computers. We used the KVM (we are using the StarTech 211 Display port version) to switch between the two.

Everything worked fine on Windows 7 but when we upgraded to Windows 10 the KVM would not switch back to the PC (Dell). No power was getting to the mouse or keyboard.

One of our Support Specialists figured out that if you plug the USB going to the Dell Workstation into the monitor USB Hub (and the monitor USB Hub is connected to the Dell Workstation) it worked fine.

I think the problem with the KVM is that it was not getting enough power from the PC USB. The monitor has more than enough power to supply the KVM.

If it's not the power, it could be that running the KVM through another USB Hub inserts a small time delay. Either way, it's working again.

Answer 3

Hey another thing I found out being someone who had a similar problem is I accidentally plugged in to my computer usb 2.0 in the back of my computer. I am using a 3.0 kvm switch and I only use my kvm switch for keyboard and mouse. After that change it seems like everything is recognized and working just an fyi.

Answer 4

I discovered that on Startech KVM switches not all USB ports are treated equally. There's likely a port labeled for the keyboard, and another for the mouse. These ports are treated differently by the KVM for things like detecting the keyboard macros for switching, and in emulating the keyboard and mouse to the attached computer to avoid annoying disconnect/reconnect delays every time the KVM switches. Some computers and operating systems handle this system better than others. To resolve this try using different ports for the keyboard and mouse on the KVM switch. If there are ports not labeled for keyboard and mouse then try those. If there are only two USB ports available, and are labeled for mouse or keyboard, then maybe swapping the ports can avoid this issue.

Removing power from the KVM to force a reset can resolve the issue temporarily but will come back until the devices are moved around on the KVM ports. I have had success in resolving issues like these by moving devices around on the KVM USB ports at the cost of losing use of keyboard macros for KVM control. From the question it appears you may not even be aware that there are keyboard macros available so losing that function should not be an issue.

I realize this is an old question but I have seen this problem still pop up with certain kinds of KVM switches and so offer a solution for those that find this question in a search.

Answer 5

I had a similar problem and it did turn out that one pc was plugged in to usb 3.1 and the other pc on the 2 port kvw switch was using a port that ws usb 3.0. In lay-men terms if it has blue around the port it is saying that it is a newer usb version such as 3.1. So, with that in mind either use a usb port without the blue on it or plug it into the front ports because they usu use older usb version such as 2.0 or 3.0 on the front ports. The rear ports are soldered onto the mother board so they are usually more powerful and faster.