StarTech.com Portable Laptop Crash Cart Adapter, USB/VGA Analogue KVM Console, File Transfer & Video Capture, Windows/Linux/MacOS, TAA

I bought this because I am always going to data centers and hate looking for, or just HOPING there is, a crash cart lying around, or that the client has a KVM in the rack. This easily fits in my laptop bag, and comes with me in the truck or on an airplane. And if you get a 15 foot usb cable with it like I did, you can sit on the hot aisle instead of the cold aisle. You data center monkeys will know what I'm talking about. But it works exactly as advertised. You see everything from POST onwards, on anything from desktops to G9 HP servers. WELL worth the cash. Feels solid built too...hefty...but I still treat it like a baby just because of how expensive it is. Fair warning though...on Windows 8 or newer, they don't have any signed drivers yet, so you have to boot into the recovery mode and turn off driver signing in the OS, then it will load the drivers and work fine. It will continue to work until you reboot. So if you just put your laptop to sleep, it will be fine. Just keep this in mind if you think yours doesn't work on Windows 8/10. Once the drivers are loaded the first time, they never need to be reloaded again, but it won't find the device on USB until you turn off driver signing in the OS. Other than that, this is probably the best tool in my bag.

I tend to work on random computers dropped off at my desk, generally without a PC or keyboard. This product has been a great time saver, I no longer need to track down a spare monitor, or when I'm at a customer's site beg them for a monitor. I'm able to get my work done and I couldn't ask for more. I've even used the adapter for extended development sessions without issues. To give you an idea how versatile this thing is, I've: - Diagnose and repair computers both at work and remotely, including systems that should be headless and stuck in some inconvenient location in a mode that needed some TLC to get running again. - Bring small computers with me to a customer site for work purposes, and use my laptop as the keyboard/monitor. - With the aid of a HDMI->VGA converter box, used this and online meeting software to demo a program running on a tablet remotely, which worked out much better for all parties than pointing a webcam at the tablet. - Demo software on a PC that had no network connectivity to remote customers. The product price might seem a bit much, but to me it's been well worth it. Even if my only use was because I'm the guy friends and family bring dead computers to, I'd seriously consider purchasing it. My only complaint was a one time event: I had a conflict with this product's software and the drivers for the StarTech USB to DVI adapter on a Windows machine. I was able to resolve the issue by manually removing the USB to DVI drivers and re-installing the latest versions. That one issue aside, I've had no problems with the software.

I honestly don’t even know where to start. I paid nearly $400 for this StarTech product, and it has been one of the worst tech purchases of my life. Let’s talk about the clarity first, or the lack of it. The display quality is atrocious. It looks like something from the early 2000s. Blurry, pixelated, and nearly unusable, especially when you’re trying to work on anything even remotely visual. For a product in this price range, I expected at least decent resolution. What I got was a screen so badly rendered I can barely stand to look at it for more than 5 minutes. Now let’s talk about the cursor issue, which is absolutely maddening. The cursor doesn’t align with where you actually press or click. I move the mouse to click something, and it selects something entirely different. It’s completely misaligned and nearly impossible to use for anything that requires precision. Every click is a gamble. It’s like playing a broken video game where the controls don’t respond properly. This isn’t a minor bug ,it’s a fundamental design flaw that makes the entire product unusable. I tried using it in different settings, different systems , nothing fixes the issue. It’s clearly a hardware or firmware problem. This isn’t just disappointing, it’s infuriating. The product is literally not functional for basic use. And for all of this, I paid FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS. Let that sink in. $400 for something that can’t even click correctly. I feel completely ripped off. This product feels like a scam. It’s not even worth $40, let alone $400. To anyone considering this: DO NOT BUY. Save your money. There are far better and cheaper options out there that actually work. I’ve contacted support and I’m demanding a full refund. For a company like StarTech, this kind of product quality is shocking. I seriously expected better.

I haven't used this very much yet but so far I am very happy with the product. It does exactly what it says it does. I had been lugging a flat panel screen to our Disaster Recovery site lately because the crash cart there was terrible. It is much nicer to just pop-out the laptop and hook this device up. Plus this fits nicely in my laptop case so I've always got it available for those times when you need unexpected console access to a server. The software came on a small flash drive and installed quickly and without any issues. The device is very plug-n-play friendly. If you run the software it will say - plug it in, when you do it then sees it and shows the video feed. Unplug it at any time and the software is fine and just waits for it to be plugged in again. I was a little worried when it says the server needs to power the device (so it didn't drain the laptop battery) because sometimes you just don't want to plug in a USB to a critical sever, and some old servers may not even have USB (or you may want to plug into the PS2 port which requires the included USB-to-PS2 adapter.) But the device worked like a champ with or without the server side USB plugged in. Granted you don't have keyboard or mouse if you only plug in the VGA, but you can at least view the screen which is sometimes all you want. I assume it pulls power from the laptop in this case. I like that you can take snapshots of the server screen, especially for those errors that only stay on the screen for a few seconds. The tool bar can be on top or to the left. My only suggestions to make this a 5-star item would be: 1) To embed the software in the unit. The included 2GB flash drive was nicer than a CD, and I attached it to the USB cable via a twist-tie so it doesn't get lost, but I've seen products simply embed the flash drive in their products. 2) Provide video capture in the software so you can capture the boot-up sequence. Sometimes those blue-screens blink by so fast you don't even have time to click the button to take a snapshot. All-in-all, a very fine product, well worth the cost!!

Not many options for KVM crash cart modules, but this one is working as intended.

Exactly what I needed for work. Instead of using a crash cart you can carry this around and make your laptop a crash cart. I use this everyday.

Great device. Needed for when the server I was working. Hooked it up to my laptop and was able to get server tech support online with the equipment as needed.

I have a lot of experience getting things working on a system. This does not work. The first thing that happens is that I get a report that one of the files on the USB drive is a Virus and my AV quarantined it. Ok.. so that happens but still really annoying. I even suspect that it might be an actual virus. After that the experience goes downhill fast. It basically will not install the drivers on any of the 6 different laptops I tried it on. Yes 6.. all windows and with a pretty good spread on the OS versions. Windows 7, 8,8.1, 10 and 2012r2 Not a single one worked. I was able to get the software installed after I downloaded a version from the Startech site. But even after that, it would not detect the device. Could be defective I guess. None of the lights on it have ever come on. I very very rarely return something. Its just not worth it most of the time. But in this case.. Its going back. Startech you lost me here.