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Thread ID: 41137 2003-12-31 11:56:00 Keyboard socket is shot... solution??? Mike (15) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
204458 2003-12-31 11:56:00 The keyboard socket on my motherboard is had-it, so it seems. How can I get around this, as I can't always use my keyboard upon starting the PC (it was doing this a while back, then it started working again for ages... now its doing it again). Sometimes if I restart the machine it'll work fine, other times it doesn't work at all.

Will a PS/2 to USB converter work on a keyboard (if there's such a thing)? I'm not really that keen on buying a new USB keyboard as this is my secondary machine and I can't be bothered spending any money on it.

Help?!?!

Mike.
Mike (15)
204459 2003-12-31 11:58:00 I know somebody will ask me, so I had better add:

OS is irrelevant :)

Cheers,
Mike.
Mike (15)
204460 2003-12-31 12:24:00 This is kind of irrelevant, but my previous motherboard had a similar problem. It started off perfectly fine, but then sometimes the mouse (connected to the PS/2 port) would stop working for a while, rendering my computer useless to me (less useless than without a keyboard though :D).

All it was was something about the PS/2 port, it never did that for the keyboard, and suffice to say, I got rid of that motherboard after dropping my graphics card on it (which caused the motherboard to not work at all).

I think it's been raised here before about buying PS/2 to USB converters (or the other way around), and the conclusion was that the support to use one of these had to be built into the device (I can't remember if someone tried this to find out, or if it was just technical knowledge, etc).
agent (30)
204461 2003-12-31 12:29:00 I wonder if the mouse and keyboard ports are interchangeable?

Mike.
Mike (15)
204462 2003-12-31 12:32:00 That probably depends on what you mean ;)

If you want to try plugging your keyboard into the mouse PS/2 socket, I wouldn't advise that... but perhaps physically switching the connectors around might work (though with the micro-circuitry and all that sort of stuff, it would prove very hard!).
agent (30)
204463 2003-12-31 12:39:00 > If you want to try plugging your keyboard
> into the mouse PS/2 socket, I wouldn't advise that

Why not?

Mike.
Mike (15)
204464 2003-12-31 12:42:00 Well I've got rubbish technical knowledge of the wiring of how an OS interacts with the motherboard, but I would assume that if something is plugged into the PS/2 port for mice, the OS would try to detect it as a mouse.

But considering your computer uses keyboards before an OS is even loaded, perhaps it detects it on a hardware level? I think I've now confuzzled myself, but, er, the motherboard itself would detect only keyboards on the keyboard PS/2 port and vice versa.

This is beyond my knowledge, of course... perhaps someone with the knowledge will come along, or Google might provide some answers.
agent (30)
204465 2003-12-31 12:50:00 I found the following from Google (www.google.co.nz r+mice&hl=en&ie=UTF-8):
are you sure you are plugging it into the keyboard ps2 slot, it may sound stupid,
but it once happened to me, i mean, i just groped my way to the first ps2 slot, when i found it
i assumed it was the keyboard one, but it wasn´t.
Anyway, have you tried with another keyboard?
agent (30)
204466 2003-12-31 19:37:00 > are you sure you are plugging it into the
> keyboard ps2 slot, it may sound stupid,
> but it once happened to me, i mean, i just groped my
> way to the first ps2 slot, when i found it
> i assumed it was the keyboard one, but it wasn´t.
> Anyway, have you tried with another keyboard?

Good point - what about buying a cheap USB keyboard?
somebody (208)
204467 2003-12-31 19:52:00 > are you sure you are plugging it into the
> keyboard ps2 slot,

Quite sure.

> Anyway, have you tried with another keyboard?

5 other keyboards :)

Mike.
Mike (15)
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