I have 2 computers at home. (Well 3, if you count the old laptop, and 4 if you count the work laptop...) Both work well, both are fairly well loaded and both are of use to me. One computer runs Linux. I use it for email, web browsing, and generalling playing around with Linux (which I like alot). The other computer has Windows XP on it. I use Windows XP for work related stuff and for a few programs that don't exist (yet) in Linux.
A while back, I upgraded my monitor from a 20" CRT running at 1024x768 to a 20" LCD running at 1600x1200. The new LCD works beautifully. I have no complaints there. However, not long after I did this, my KVM switch died. This means I was locked into using 1 computer at a time, without having to go and reconnect the monitor, keyboard, and mouse to another computer in order to use it. This means I need a new KVM.
Since the new monitor supports DVI (a much higher quality video connection), I wanted to buy a DVI that would allow me to use DVI on both computers. I went out and spent $90 on a new video card for one of the computers, so that both could support DVI. I then spent $150 on a new DVI based KVM switch and $50 on a new set of KVM cables. I got the DVI KVM and cables and connected everything up. At first, it seemed to work, but then I noticed odd little miscolored pixels scattered around at random on the screen. This didn't happen without the KVM switch. To me this meant that the DVI KVM was defective. So, I mailed back the DVI KVM and the 4 sets of cables to Buy.com (where I bought them from). They were very easy to deal with for returns. They even send you a preprinted UPS shipping label to send it back! You don't have to pay shipping. Kudos to them. This was several weeks ago. They accepted the cables, no problem and refunded my money. That's $50 recovered so far. However, the other day, they returned the DVI KVM back to me! They stated that they couldn't accept it because it was missing the box and all the packing materials. I'm not sure it ever came with that! I have to hunt down these things and see if I still have them. If not, I'm out $150 because I can't return this thing. Worse comes to worse, I sell it on Ebay and make back some of the $150 but probably not close to all of it.
After the DVI KVM disaster, I decided to give up on a DVI KVM and go back to a regular VGA KVM. This can be done using adapters to turn the DVI plugs on the video cards back to VGA. The monitor also supports regular VGA so this should work too. I go on ebay, find a cheap 4 port VGA KVM and order it. It arrives after a week. I try to use my old KVM cables from the original KVM to plug into the new KVM. I then discover that the cables don't match the KVM because the KVM was expecting cables with male/male plugs, but my cables were male/female. So I went to ebay and ordered 4 new KVM cables of the right type. Another week passes and these arrive. The plugs are the right type, but the different cable ends on each end aren't spaced wide enough apart for me to plug them into the back of the computers. So I decided to go back to my old KVM cables, which are spaced wide enough to plug in. I went back to ebay and ordered 4 gender changes for the old KVM cables. The gender changes arrive after another week. I connect these to the cables and connect everything. I fire up the Windows XP box... Success! (or so I thought). Windows XP comes up and seems to work properly with the new switch box, although I had a sneaking suspicion that there wasn't something quite right about the picture quality. But it worked and I figured I could live with it. So I switch over to the Linux box and fire it up. Text mode boots, but as soon as it goes into graphics mode (at 1600x1200 naturally), it just gives me a blank screen and locks up. Obviously Linux is having some kind of sync problem with the monitor using the new cheapo KVM.
I'm now considering buying a THIRD KVM that I saw in CompUSA. It has 4 ports, includes the cables and says it supports resolutions over 1600x1200, so it should work. I'm just not sure I want to throw *more* money at this damn KVM.
Sometimes, I really hate computers.