IOGEAR MiniView¿ III USB KVMP Switch Kit with Cables (GCS1714)

by Iogear

Product Details

Product Manual [113kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 14 x 5 x 9 inches ; 1.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000683EB
• Item model number: GCS1714
• Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004

Product Description

IOGEARs new MiniView III USB KVM and Peripheral Sharing Switch brings extra value to conventional KVM switches by offering USB peripheral sharing capabilities. You can save money and space by eliminating the need for extra monitors, keyboards, mice, and peripheral devices such as printers, scanners, zip drives, etc. Up to 127 different USB devices can be daisy chained from this KVMP switch. USB and KVM technology together also makes cross-platform management easy. A single USB console can control a PC and a Mac, and share peripherals between the computers. Any USB enabled computers, using any USB compatible operating system, can utilize the efficiency, cost reduction and convenience of IOGEARs USB KVMP switch.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good KVM switch, if you can live with the quirks, November 10, 2002

By 

P. Helme (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: IOGEAR MiniView¿ III USB KVMP Switch Kit with Cables (GCS1714) (Personal Computers)

Two points. When you plug in the mouse and keyboard through the two front labeled USB ports (as you're supposed to, especially the keyboard), the switch WILL NOT pass the USB product ID's and substitute generic ID's instead. this is done to keep the connections 'live' to the PC/Mac and allow keyboard switching to work. Unfortunately, as someone else noted, this means the manufacturer's software (like Logitech) won't be able to recognize the mouse and so all the custom features won't work. You can get by this in part by plugging the mouse into one of the peripheral ports on the back of the switch, but you're out of luck with the keyboard.

The other issue is that since this switch has on-screen-display capability, it keeps the VGA connection always live and (most) monitors will never go to sleep even if your PC or Mac does. That's a bigger problem for me.

If you're OK with all this, it's a great product. The keyboard switching feature is great and everything, even the cables, are included.

Me though, I think I'm going back to my old ioGear without the OSD and keyboard switching, and live with having to use the select switch on the box and the occasional USB sync problems.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointment  Use only with a 2-button mouse, September 12, 2003

By 

Gautam Gopal "gautam" (Ashburn, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: IOGEAR MiniView¿ III USB KVMP Switch Kit with Cables (GCS1714) (Personal Computers)

I bought this product with the intention of using it with my 5-button MS USB wireless Intellimouse and wireless Logitech keyboard. The box and documentation imply that the KVM will work with any USM mouse. The problem I'm having with the KVM is randomly, the right click menu will appear. This happens enough be a major interruption while working...about every 20 seconds. After a few emails with IOGEAR's support manager, I got to the bottom of the story; this KVM only supports two button mice! This is not stated anywhere in the product description or manual!!! They have an "device emulation" feature that prevents lag time in device detection when switching between computers by emulating the mouse and keyboard connection; The KVM emulates a two button mouse and standard keyboard. Since it is not possible to upgrade the firmware on this KVM, the only advice the support manager could provide was to either use a 2-button mouse or return the KVM.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Frustrating!, August 24, 2004

By 

William Tarlton (Clearfield, UT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: IOGEAR MiniView¿ III USB KVMP Switch Kit with Cables (GCS1714) (Personal Computers)

I purchased the IOGEAR GCS1714 4-Port MiniView III USB KVMP Switch Kit for my home last year and also puchased 5 here where I work. It seemed cool at first but the more I used it the more I noticed the problems with it. It seems when I boot into DOS mode or into the BIOS it send repeated keystrokes. So if I press the spacebar 1 time it will send 20 keystrokes which is very frustrating I have ended up having to bypass the KVM all together and hook up a normal keyboard. Also when I reboot my computer the device looses connectivity with the USB port on the computers. I have to manually unplug the device from the power to have it reset itself and sometimes I even have to fish around and unplug the USB cables 10 times before it reconnects. I have checked their website for any kind of support and there is none.
I would recommend not purchasing this device.