KVM VGA to HDMI PORT - It does work!

August 13, 2017

Since my old system died I wasn't sure if my two port vga kvm was part of my problem too, but I decided to test it out with my new setup today and it seems to work fine. The only thing is that the new system doesn't have a vga port nor does my other machine. I had one computer connected with a dvi to vga adapter and today I tested an hdmi to vga adapter I got to test this out. To my surprise it works just fine.

I had to test this because I started looking into the hdmi with usb kvm's and not only are they expensive but a lot of them didn't seem to work so well for whatever reason from what I read. Now keep in mind that most kvm's are probably a bit finicky in one way or another. My two port kvm sometimes got stuck with my old system but I also had that happen with my four port kvm. I also have the older kvm that is a four port but with vga and ps/2 ports that I was thinking on testing with these new adapters. I have ordered some hdmi to vga adapters for it, but since my two port seems to still work fine even though now I have one computer using and hdmi to vga and the other dvi to vga  adapter and the kvm seems to work fine. The one thing about using these small adapters as you will see in the pictures is that they tend to extend back a bit too much. One of my computers is very close to the wall and this makes it hard to move the computer further back.

In short, I went ahead and ordered the slightly wider adapters with an hdmi pigtail if you will. The reason for getting these is so that I can have more room in the back since now I should be able to move the adapter out of the way. These will also allow me to screw the vga kvm cable to it. With the small hdmi to vga, there is nowhere to screw that on so the wires are all just sitting there which can cause them to come apart if I move things. So that's the idea with those adapters and I'm hoping that they will work. The down side is, you guess it, more cables on the back of the computer. Unfortunately this is something that you can't do much about specially if you use more than one computer on your desk.

One note you should remember is that these adapters only go from computer to monitor and not the other way around if I remember correctly. Which is pretty much what I need them for through my kvm. I'm only changing the ends of the cables that came with my kvm from vtga to hdmi. This is the reason I also didn't want to get a whole new hdmi to vga cable since I already have the cables which most kvms include. As long as it works, I'm fine using the original cables since they work just fine. Unless you're a caveman and just tend to reach and pull cables all willi nilly.

 Here you can see the hdmi to vga adapter and it worked fine after I connected the second computer. Why that is, I have no idea but we'll see how that changes once I make both sides the same and just use the hdmi port on both computers.

 Here's my two port kvm. Nothing special just your regular two port vga and usb kvm. This is nice and small but once you add all those cables these things become wire monsters. And these cables are usually pretty stiff. I just stick it to the side of the desk to keep it out of the way and within reach in case the keyboard shortcut doesn't work I can then just press the button to change.

 Here is the second computer with the dvi to vga adapter. As you can see I really don't have a lot of room on this shelf so I need to change this. I also don't like that one bad move could literally break the port. I know that and I'm careful, but if someone else were to move it or say and earthquake here, that could be bad.

In short I have been using this kvm for a while now and it seems to work a little better with the new system than my old one, it just seems to respond better. I was trying to figure out how the new hdmi/usb kvms were vs these older ones, but I really couldn't find anything other than using the hdmi ports which seems to have caused more headaches for some people. So I am slowly getting back on track with these things which is nice. No more guessing and wondering if these will work. They seem to be working so far, at least the way I have them plugged in. I should mention though that some adapters like those green ps/2 may not work, but it's hard to know until you actually test them yourself. So I hope that this at least helps you a bit in case you were in the same boat with your old kvm.

Update August 19, 2017
I finally got the other adapters that I wanted to use with this two port kvm. I just replaced my dvi to vga and short hdmi to vga with these larger hdmi to vga adapters and they seem to work just as well as the others. The very short one you see was a bit warm when I took it out though. In short, you can pretty much use whatever adapter you want. I just don't have much space on the back of my computers and I also wanted to be able to screw down the vga cables. I can now do this with the new adapters since they are larger and have the holes for the screws. They also have a short wire to the hdmi connector so I can move the adapter out of the way from the back and not take so much space like the straight adapters did. These are just some generic adapters but they seem to be working fine. I just installed them a moment ago and I see no problems so far. The good news is that if you're not too picky about using straight hdmi or anything higher on your computer, then these will work with your old kvm. If you don't have an old kvm you can always just get a new hdmi/usb kvm. I already had these old vga versions so I'm just going to keep using them. These also have the sound port but I am not using any of those. I think they sounded really bad when I tried using them a long time ago, but that could have also been my old system. I don't need that since I only have sound on one machine and it works fine. Maybe I'll test that later too. I still have to test my four port but if this works it's looking good for that other one too. Well see.

I just went ahead and tested these adapters with my old four port ps2/ vga kvm along with those ps/2 to usb adapters and I had absolutely no luck there. Maybe it's just too old but I could not get any video or anything out of that four port kvm. I was thinking of getting a couple more adapters for it, but I can't even use it, so that's that. To recap, you can use these with a two port usb vga kvm but not with a four port old vga with ps/2 ports for the mouse and keyboard. At least the one I have didn't work. Your mileage may vary if you have something different. I should note that these vga to hdmi adapters do get a tiny bit warm as I just found out. So it wasn't just the small one on the right, but the new ones did to, so just keep an eye on those if you're just trying this for the first time too.

 Here's my old kvm.

 With the old PS/2 ports.

 With the new adapters. This scared the lights out of me when I plugged this in because the computer started beeping at me. I had not plugged the kvm to power yet either. I did change the adapter thinking it could just be a bad one, but it still didn't work.

 I also had to change the usb to PS/2 and I just happen to have two of these adapters so I was able to test this.

 Here's the back. I did plug the monitor too, right after I took the picture.

 Once everything was plugged in, I hit the switches and nothing! Yup, I got absolutely nothing. The kvm was on but it wouldn't change for anything even when I pressed the buttons on the front to change. So it could be the green adapters and the blue ones that it just don't work. Either way, using the four port is out of the question since it just didn't work. I was very curious to see if this would work though. This is why I decided to just take all this out and do it now since I got the adapters in and was just testing them. I haven't found anything about this on kvm's so I thought I do my own testing. If your kvm has usb ports you may have better luck with those too, who knows. I should note that this old kvm was working when I put it back in the box a long time ago. It was in my room the whole time.