Video:How to Connect a Monitor Switch

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Transcript:How to Connect a Monitor Switch

Hi I’m Ron Lipsky for About.com. Today I’m gonna talk about connecting two computers to one monitor, keyboard and mouse.

What's the benefit of that? Well, if you have limited office space, like I do, it’s great to be able to run multiple computers through one keyboard. It’s pretty simple to do, and let’s get to it.

What You'll Need

Now what we are gonna need to accomplish this task is pretty simple. First of all, we are gonna need a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse, which are currently running into this computer.

The most important thing we need is obviously, our splitter and swapper. On each end you are gonna have these guys: these are vga adapters, and on the end of this you are gonna have a vga port, so that you can plug in the cable that’s gonna run to your monitor.

Now sometimes, on the back of a computer, you are gonna encounter an HDMI, which looks like this. You are gonna need to change this from VGA to HDMI. It’s very simple, plugs in the end right here, and it makes it all work seamlessly.

Okay, now you see this little guy? Connected to the end here? This is an audio out, and you can plug speakers to this guy right here.

Now…let’s put it all together.

Attach VGA and HDMI Cables

First thing you need to do is unplug all the power cables. Once you’ve done that, identify the video card slots on the back of the computer, usually you’ll see a VGA, or you’ll see an HDMI.

If it’s VGA, plug the cable from the end of the swapping cable into the adapter, right in the back of the VGA cable.

Once you get that done, look at the other computer , if that’s an HDMI, like this one is, your gonna plug the cable into the adapter, see? Then you are gonna plug it into the back of the computer.

Connect to the Switch

From the back of the monitor we have this cable which was running into that first computer before. We are gonna plug that in to the hub, or the switcher. That means the video signal is coming from that port into the monitor. Now additionally you are gonna take the USB cables that come out of the back of the computer, for the keyboard and the mouse, and you are gonna plug them into the USB slots right here.

Attach Audio Cables

Make sure you identify on the back of your computer your audio out plug, and plug these guys in to the back of your audio card, and then find a usb port that’s available for you to plug in, for the keyboard and the mouse, which are running into the swapper that you see here.

Allright, if that’s all hooked up right, and it should be hooked up right, then you are good to go.

Operating the Switch

Just remember that according to the different box that you use, sometimes there’s a different command for switching the actual station. Some have a switch on the box that you are gonna hit, some of them use a double space bar or a keyboard command like F8 in order to switch between them. Your setup is complete, and you are good to go to work. That’s what I’m gonna do…on two computers. Maybe I’ll email myself something.

For more information, go to About.com. See you next time.