I have found an irritating issue with Windows 7 RC

LesD · Jul 04, 2009, 18:06:52

I have an Aten CS52D KVM DVI Hybrid switch that was purchased brand new as recently as October last year.

This switch has been functioning very well, switching between a machine running Windows XP Pro and a machine Running Windows Vista Home Premium from October last until yesterday when I tried to use it in conjunction with Vista and Windows 7 instead of Vista and XP Pro.

I have been trialling the Windows 7 Release Candidates (RC), both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions with the prospect of moving the main User activity to Windows 7 proper when it becomes available later this year.

In order to try and make the transition from Vista to Windows 7 as least disruptive as possible the plan was to use the Aten KMV switch to allow the User to switch between the new machine running Windows 7 and the current machine running Vista.

Yesterday to my despair, having thought this part of the process was nearing completion ahead of the release of Windows 7 proper, I find this to be far from the case, because the Aten switch does not appear to be compatible with Windows 7, not the 32 bit version or the 64 bit one!

I have found that having booted up the Windows 7 machine with the focus of the Aten KVM switch on it all is well.

The Windows 7 machine works as you would expect it to but as soon as you press the KVM pushbutton to switch to the Vista machine, whether the Vista machine is running or not, the Windows 7 machine crashes, starts to reboot, enters the POST and goes to the Safe Mode recovery menu.

This has happened to me so many times now I am expecting the Windows 7 installation to fail to recover any time soon!

I have checked and rechecked all the connections and they are correct and this is confirmed because I had been reviewing the BIOS settings on the Windows 7 machine and from there in its BIOS I can switch back and forth between the Vista machine's Desktop and the BIOS on the machine on which I have the two (32 & 64 bit) Windows 7 RC's installed on separate bootable partitions.

It is once the machine has booted up into Windows 7, either version, that the crash and reboot happens as soon as you press the pushbutton to leave the Windows 7 machine and switch to the other one.

The process of switching into Vista and subsequently out of Vista again works as it should and the machine running Vista is stable and continues to run without crashing as it has done for many months when switching to and from XP Pro.

I am hoping that someone will be able to explain to me what do to about the issue I have encountered with the Aten KVM Switch and Windows 7, as this discovery has put me back to square one on planning how to introduce the User transition from Vista to Windows 7 and a delay looks inevitable at the moment!

Sebby · Jul 04, 2009, 18:34:56

That's a strange one. I guess there's a chance it will be sorted in the RTM build. Otherwise, I'm not sure what to suggest. It doesn't use drivers I take it?

Simon · Jul 04, 2009, 18:41:33

It's all beyond me, Les, but I hope you find a solution.

D-Dan · Jul 04, 2009, 19:05:25

I don't have a Win 7 RC installation on a real machine, so can't check this for certain, but could it be a power management issue with KVM (I don't know if this is a property they have, since I use Synergy to share resources). May be worth checking and if it's there, playing a little.

Steve

LesD · Jul 04, 2009, 19:20:17

No drivers Sebby its plug and play or it was with XP Pro and Vista.
I have been in the power management bits D-Dan and it is set like the Vista machine as near as I can make it.
Thanks Simon

eh.

but I am not holding my breath because my enterprising brother has found this.
It would appear Microsoft have changed the way KVM switches interface to Windows 7 compared to the way it used to be!
MS need to do the decent thing and issue a KBxxxx patch upfront to fix this for those of us that want to use what is after all a KMV switch that is less than a year old but I guess that pigs might fly!

Ted · Jul 04, 2009, 23:22:04

Les, what happens if you switch from one machine to the other but leave the focus of the USB and audio on the first machine?

Have you tried swapping the two machines on the cables? I once had a switch that refused to work correctly unless the machines were plugged in to a certain port and then booted in the correct sequence (trial and error).

LesD · Jul 05, 2009, 10:23:18

Quote from: Ted on Jul 04, 2009, 23:22:04
Les, what happens if you switch from one machine to the other but leave the focus of the USB and audio on the first machine?

Have you tried swapping the two machines on the cables? I once had a switch that refused to work correctly unless the machines were plugged in to a certain port and then booted in the correct sequence (trial and error).

Hi Ted,

I have unplugged the speaker and microphone jack from the Windows 7 machine and that made no difference and I have tried the USB from the Mouse in different USB Sockets to no avail. My KVM switch is a hybrid one with a PS/2 miniature DIN connector for the keyboard so there is no choice with it.

You are right it may be worth the swap over of all the connectors to put the Vista machine on the side where the W'7 machine is (note where the XP machine was working OK) and see if it makes any difference. I will get to this and report back later on.

.
.
.
.

That did not take long to do and I and I am back in time to "Modify" this post!

That's the good news from my point of view the bad news is that the swap round has made no difference.

The Vista machine can be switched away from and back to at will and there is no crash with it on the side of the KVM switch where the W'7 machine was.

The W'7 machine still crashes the moment I switch the focus of the KVM switch away from it with it now on the side of the KVM switch where the Vista machine worked fine. It has to be a bug in W'7 and both bit versions at that!

Glenn · Jul 05, 2009, 11:01:26

Some details here Les http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/KVM-Win7.mspx

LesD · Jul 05, 2009, 11:48:56

Quote from: Glenn on Jul 05, 2009, 11:01:26
Some details here Les http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/KVM-Win7.mspx

Hi Glen thanks for looking.

This is the full URL for where the this. takes you in Reply post no.4 and I do suspect that the paper it refers to changes the way that KVM switches have to be implemented to be suitable for use with Windows 7 thereby rendering yet more perfectly good existing hardware useless in Microsoft's brave new world.

As an aside I for one don't like the new grey background for the Preview pane. I was relieved to see it as it should be once its posted.

Glenn · Jul 05, 2009, 12:11:39

Les, your Windows7 forum post is number 2 in a search for "KVM switch + Windows 7" http://www.windows7update.com/windows-7-rc-versus-aten-kvm-switch.html

LesD · Jul 05, 2009, 16:02:17

Quote from: LesD on Jul 04, 2009, 19:20:17
No drivers Sebby its plug and play or it was with XP Pro and Vista.
I have been in the power management bits D-Dan and it is set like the Vista machine as near as I can make it.
Thanks Simon eh. but I am not holding my breath because my enterprising brother has found this.
It would appear Microsoft have changed the way KVM switches interface to Windows 7 compared to the way it used to be!
MS need to do the decent thing and issue a KBxxxx patch upfront to fix this for those of us that want to use what is after all a KMV switch that is less than a year old but I guess that pigs might fly!

This is what I see as Reply #4 Glen! I am confused but it's a state I am used to being in!

I didn't know you had found one of the other sites I am posting my woes on I was referring to this one.
If I have a problem I spread the as net far and wide as I can to see if an answer is forthcoming.

The biggest thread other than this one is here over on the Microsoft TechNet forum.

Another troubling thing is my Brother has an Aten KVM switch that is almost the same as my hybrid one but his has two USB connectors so that his USB keyboard connects through USB instead of PS/2 like mine does and ...............no his Windows 7 machine does not crash when he uses his switch.

Before you ask yes I have contacted the supplier of my switch and Aten direct but its the weekend and I have not had any replies so far.

His Graphics card and mine are different and these cards are driving different types digital Monitor too so there are some things still to bottom out. I will keep you posted.

LesD · Jul 05, 2009, 20:30:58

An update:

No definitive solution but never-the-less I have made an interesting discovery.

I connected the analogue VDU monitor I had been using initially with Windows 7 RC to the analogue port of my GF8500 Graphics card and got the Windows 7 machine booted up alongside the Vista machine. First of all I left both the analogue screen and the digital one connected and it ran dual screen OK that is until I tried to switch to the Vista machine, at which point the Windows 7 one crashed again but as usual I got into and out of Vista OK. When I switched back almost straightaway the Windows 7 machine was showing a Windows 98 like Blue Screen of Death saying something about Windows had to close to prevent damage or something along these lines but it was gone before I could digest any more.

As before it began to reboot but this time it failed and started again ending up in some Windows recovery screen not a POST one. Here it stayed trying to Repair Windows. At one point it asked me if I wanted to Restore to an earlier point but I declined and it continued for another age trying to Repair Windows. It was taking so long I left it to it and finally when I came back there was a message saying that Windows could not be repaired and offered to send a Report, which I let it do. The machine rebooted and all was well! I got into my 64 bit Desktop just fine. So what did it fail to Repair I now wonder!

Not wanting to give up testing next I unplugged the DVI connector from my KVM switch to the Graphics port on my graphics card and booted up so that the directly connected analogue monitor displayed the Windows 7 Desktop. Bravely I pressed the KVM switch to go to the Vista machine. This time with no DVI connection the Windows 7 machine did not crash its Desktop remained on the the VDU screen and the Vista machine desktop came up on the Digital screen. The Mouse and Keyboard focus moved to the Vista machine as it should. Switching back turned the Digital monitor screen off well strictly removed the Image and the Mouse and Keyboard focus returned to the Windows 7 machine and this machine was usable in the expected way. I tried a number of time and there were no crashes.

So it has been shown that it is the digital video switching that is responsible for crashing my Windows 7 machine.
It is unlikely to be the Graphics Card hardware since before I built the Windows 7 machine this card was in the Vista one that now has an older GF6600 Graphics Card in it. This swap was to free up the GF8500 for my new build ready for my Windows 7 platform. So before the swap when this card was in the Vista machine it worked OK with my KVM switch.

I now don't know whether I have been blaming Windows 7 unjustly for the crashes when it might in fact be the nVidia drivers that are at fault! I updated both the 32 bit and 64 bit Windows 7 nVidia Video drivers to the latest ones available on the same evening last week!

Now should I roll back these drivers and see it my machine crashes with the previous nVidia drivers? I guess a crash or three more can't do any more damage than has already been done. Perhaps this is what a RC is all about!

LesD · Jul 18, 2009, 20:43:47

Eureka!

The nVidia 190.38 Beta Driver release has fixed the problem I had with my Aten CS52D KVM Switch crashing Windows 7 each and every time the focus of this KVM switch was moved away from Windows 7.

I have installed the 190.38 beta release in both the 32 bit and 64 bit Windows 7 RC OS's and everything is rock solid and stable when the KVM switch is operated in both versions.

The Betas took a bit of finding so for anyone else that might fancy trying them here are the links:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_32bit_190.38_beta.html

http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_190.38_beta.html

Sebby · Jul 18, 2009, 23:17:37

Great news, Glenn.