n00b in trouble

[DaveC computer n00b]

Hi,
Please help, I'm a computer n00b in need of help.

I have 2 desktop computers.
But I only have one monitor/mouse/keyboard.

I bought a belkin thingy which is supposed to let me run both the computers of the one monitor.
So I connected everything up, switched on the computer, and it worked perfectly: at the touch of a button I could switch between the two computers .

BUT!!!! I switched off the computers, and when I turned them back on the next morning, the switch did not let me go back and forth between the computers, it was stuck on one of them. And worse still, the following day it wouldn't pick up either of the computers, the screen was blank!

At first I thought the belkin cable was faulty, so I took it back to the shop and got a replacement. Except the replacement has done the EXACT same thing, worked first time, second time only one computer, third time neither computer.

Please can some tell me what I'm doing wrong? Any ideas why this would happen? If I don't sort this out soon I'm going to get a thrashing from my long suffering wife, becasue I spend too much money on computers when I don't have a clue.

Any help appreciated.
Dave

 

[jcnoernberg]

i have a 4-port belkin KVM switch. try pressing

scroll lock, scroll lock, 1
or
scroll lock, scroll lock, 2

to jump between both monitors. the switch (mine at least) is powered off of the keyboard/mouse bus, but you can also use a power adapter.

maybe the switch is faulty? oh and make sure you have the correct ps/2 ports going to the right hardware.

Green is always the mouse,
Purple is always the keyboard!

 

[The_Other_One]

All I can think of, I don't know how those work as in "fooling" the machine it actually has a monitor keyboard and mouse connected... Perhaps when the machine's off, something isn't being sent to the machines to make it realize it does have each connected to it? As you probably know, if you don't connect any of those to a machine and try to boot, you almost always get some sort of error.

At the shop I worked at, we always used Linksys KVM switches. Do you think you could try another brand?