How to Connect Two Towers to One Monitor

A KVM switch is required to use two PCs with one monitor.

Connecting two computer towers to one monitor requires only one additional device. This is a KVM (Keyboard, video, mouse) switch. An advantage of using this device is that a keyboard and mouse are also shareable between both computers. The way this works is that both computers are attached to the device using a video cable, and one video cable attaches the switch to the monitor. You need to use this solution when your monitor has only one input.

Things You'll Need

• KVM switch

Instructions

1. Turn off the computers and monitor. Connect a VGA video cable to both computer towers.

2. Attach the connections from the VGA cables to the 1 and 2 inputs on the KVM switch. Attach mouse and keyboard patch cables to the inputs for both computers on the switch, connected to each tower, in order to share a keyboard and mouse.

3. Attach a VGA cable from the output on the KVM switch to the input on the computer monitor. Attach a keyboard and mouse to the correct outputs on the switch to share these devices between the computers.

4. Power on the monitor and both computers. Press the button on the KVM switch to switch between the first and second computer tower inputs.

5. Label the inputs on the switch to keep track of the connections, as there are a lot of connections. Make sure all of the cables are fully connected.

References

• LCD and Flat Panel Monitor Reviews: Having Two Computers And One Monitor