[geeks] KVM switch remains on after being unpluged

[Angel Martin Alganza]

Hello everybody,

There is something weird going on with a KVN switch at $WORK.  This
morning we've had a power outage caused by a short-circuit on one of
the fans in the servers rack.  After being fixed by the electricians,
the KVM (Top View KVM Switch 8 port with O.S.D.) didn't seem to work
properly (the attached keyboard didn't work, although I could select
the server I wanted to access through the KVM controls, but there was
no signal coming to the monitor).

After trying changing the keyboard and mouse to no avail, I thought I
could switch the KVM off and on to see if it would help.  When
pressing the OFF button nothing happens, the KVM remains on.  So I
tried unplugging the power transformer and, to my surprise, it's still
on (though not working properly) even unplugged!

One of my colleagues suggests that it's getting the power through the
VGA cables coming from the servers, which seems possible but not very
logical to me.  But where is it getting the power from?  Any ideas,
suggestions or similar experiences, please?

We are thinking about powering off all the servers (although we would
prefer to keep them running) or unplugging all the VGA (maybe also the
keyboard and mouse) cables to check it out and see if we can (somehow)
switch the _thing_ off.  We might try that tomorrow or this Friday,
unless different ideas come from this list.  :-)

I'll appreciate any suggestions.

Regards,
Angel

-- 
Angel Martin Alganza
Departamento de Genetica, Universidad de Granada
Full contact data at http://www.ugr.es/~ama/
PGP Public key at http://www.ugr.es/~ama/ama-pgp-key
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