StarTech.com 2 Port DisplayPort KVM Switch SV231DPUA

I am using this switcher between my main Wintel desktop (A Intel Boxed Desktop Board BOXDZ68DB Media Series Socket LGA1155 ATX Motherboard) and my XP-running laptop. This is one of the first switchers I have used where I did not have to unplug and replug the USB to get the keyboard to be recognized. Its ability to also switch two additional USB ports between the boxes is a big plus. The unit appears very well constructed. The indicator showing the active session is a little odd-looking: the active connection shows up as red on the right-hand side of the indicator, the inactive one shows up as all-yellow (assuming the computer is powered-on, it will not light up if it’s off.) It handles 2560×1440 with no problems when hooked up to the Dell UltraSharp U2711 27-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor – Max Resolution 2560 x 1440 (WQHD). What would have made it perfect is if they would have put in a remote switch for toggling between the two machines, but that’s a minor nit, and I suspect can easily be rectified if one wanted to hack the box and rolled your own switch.

Update 6/28/2012:
When I swap back to my XP machine, every now and then it starts repeating characters when I type. I do not see this behaviour on My Windows 7 box.

Update 10/21/2013:
Every now and then the box needs to be unplugged as it will sometimes randomly start flashing the display on and off. Fortunately, it’s not that often. Now that I’m running Win 8 and Win7 my original review just needs this update.

I bought this to switch between my macbook (with dock) and desktop PC and it works great! I ordered additional audio jack cables to connect to my monitor with built in speakers but it turned out I didn’t need them as display port cable supplies the audio.
I had occasional screen flicker but switching one of the display port cables with one that came with my monitor fixed the issue, I’m guessing the other cable i bought for this was of lower quality or faulty.

The unit just works…eventually. I purchased one for a home office, to go between a laptop (on a docking station) and my gaming desktop. When i received the unit, my keyboard and mouse wouldn’t work in the designated USB ports. They would, however, work in the general USB ports off to the side. I contacted tech support and they got me straightened out right away. It turns out, the unit was shipped to me with firmware version 1.04. As of this writing, the current firmware version is 2.12!!! After updating the firmware, which was a breeze, i moved my keyboard and mouse back to their home ports and everything worked perfectly!

There’s also lots of hotkeys available for this thing to customize how it’s used, way more than i intend to use. But it has the basics: scroll lock + scroll lock + # to swap computers. That’s all i needed. I’d suggest looking at the manual (available from Starview’s website) before purchasing to get a good idea of it’s full capabilities.

IMPORTANT: Upgrade the firmware before you do anything else. To do this, download the “drivers” from […] The firmware utility and instructions are in a subfolder called “upgrade”. If it wasn’t so easy to update the firmware, i would have taken one star away.

The only con i can think of is the lack of cables, but i already had most of what i needed, so i knew what i was getting into.

Had some problems with it not seeing that a second pc was connected but after resetting the device everything worked perflectly.