Can't get new MBA 13"to work with KVM - mouse/kb freeze after 3s.

Question

As title states, every time I plug in my USB KVM to my brand new macbook air OS X 10.8.4 (12E3067) the external kvm mouse and keyboard will both work for exactly the same short period of time, about three seconds, then stop responding.
The Air's touchpad / keyboard stay working.
Disconnnecting and reconnecting the KVM does the exact same thing every time, 100% repeatable.  The external mouse work fine for about three seconds, then no response.
It's infuriating.  The KVM / mouse are all fine, and I've just verified they're still all working flawlessly on my old Macbook Pro (on 10.4?) that I'm planning to sell soon.

Answer 1

All these IOGear autoswitching KVMs share the same logic, so this method should work for all. The manual for one of the simpler models of IOGear KVM is available at www.iogear.com/support/manual/GCS634U.pdf
First switch your KVM so it shows the screen of the Mac where you are having keyboard recognition problems: the correct port will now be "active" on the KVM. Put the KVM into hotkey mode and press F2 -- this will override the default autodetect setting for this port, and will set it directly to Macintosh mode. Your keyboard will immediately be recogized (and the capslock light will work!). The KVM will remember this until you change it or reset it to its factory configuration.
If you need to troubleshoot you can use another hotkey combination to print out the current settings of the KVM: open a text editor and position the cursor inside it for typing, then execute (HKM)(F4) -- the KVM will "type" its current settings. Here are mine on a 2-port KVM immediately after setting my Mac Mini port
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
hotkey:
(num lock)+(-) and (ctrl),(ctrl)
os setting:
port1 pc
port2 mac
kb:
port1 english
port2 english