USB keyboard on XP Home

  • Thread starter Thread starter Derek Harvey
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Derek Harvey

For a complicated reason I want to move my keyboard from PS/2 port to a USB
port. I have PS/2-to-USB adaptor but cannot pursuade the computer to
recognise the keyboard - just says unrecognised device. I can find no BIOS
setting that seems relevant (the BIOS has to pick up the keyboard so that
its setup can work!?)

Can anyone suggest a solution. Is there something different about a 'real'
USB keyboard?
Derek
 
Derek Harvey said:
For a complicated reason I want to move my keyboard from PS/2 port to a USB
port. I have PS/2-to-USB adaptor but cannot pursuade the computer to
recognise the keyboard - just says unrecognised device. I can find no BIOS
setting that seems relevant (the BIOS has to pick up the keyboard so that
its setup can work!?)

Can anyone suggest a solution. Is there something different about a 'real'
USB keyboard?
Derek
Click to expand...


Have a look at the adaptor

USB adaptors are often made specifically for either a keyboard or
specifically for a mouse.

Yours might be one designed for a mouse.


Or are you using a KVM switch?
the problem maybe with that
 
Yes, there is something different about a 'real' USB keyboard. It
delivers signals differently than a PS/2 keyboard.

Your confusion is understandable, because it is possible to attach a
USB-to-PS2 adapter to a USB keyboard and have it work through the PS2 port.
 
For a complicated reason I want to move my keyboard from PS/2 port to a USB
port. I have PS/2-to-USB adaptor but cannot pursuade the computer to
recognise the keyboard - just says unrecognised device. I can find no BIOS
setting that seems relevant (the BIOS has to pick up the keyboard so that
its setup can work!?)

Can anyone suggest a solution. Is there something different about a 'real'
USB keyboard?
Derek
Click to expand...

If it is *unrecognised* under usb system in control panel right click
mouse icon and *enable*.
 
Derek said:
For a complicated reason I want to move my keyboard from PS/2 port to a USB
port. I have PS/2-to-USB adaptor but cannot pursuade the computer to
recognise the keyboard - just says unrecognised device. I can find no BIOS
setting that seems relevant (the BIOS has to pick up the keyboard so that
its setup can work!?)
Click to expand...

Was that specific PS/2 keyboard designed to work with a USB adapter?
If not, it won't.
Can anyone suggest a solution. Is there something different about a 'real'
USB keyboard?
Derek
Click to expand...


Other than being designed to work via a USB interface, while a PS/2
keyboard isn't, you mean?



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Thanks. The adaptor and packaging is quite unexplicit as to purpose. I am
not initially using a switch although that is the eventual aim.
I guess I'll just have to get a USB keyboard. Probably try a wireless one.
Derek
 
I am not aware that the keyboard, although not all that old, was intended to
be used other than via PS/2 and the evidence is that it was not so designed.
I'll just have to get a USB keyboard to meet this requirement.
Derek
 
Derek Harvey said:
Thanks. The adaptor and packaging is quite unexplicit as to purpose. I am
not initially using a switch although that is the eventual aim.
I guess I'll just have to get a USB keyboard. Probably try a wireless one.
Derek
Click to expand...



Well a real USB keyboard should do the job

I did once have a wireless one, but the batteries will of course go dead
when you need it the most.
It was a bigger PITA than it was worth!
 
Derek Harvey said:
For a complicated reason I want to move my keyboard from PS/2 port to a
USB port. I have PS/2-to-USB adaptor but cannot pursuade the computer to
recognise the keyboard - just says unrecognised device. I can find no BIOS
setting that seems relevant (the BIOS has to pick up the keyboard so that
its setup can work!?)

Can anyone suggest a solution. Is there something different about a 'real'
USB keyboard?
Derek
Click to expand...

PS2 to USB adaptors often have no electronics inside. These can only be
used with keyboards that are able to auto detect whether they are connected
to a PS2 port or a USB port. If the keyboard cannot speak USB then it won't
work. There are adaptors available that convert USB to PS2 so that a PS2
only keyboard can talk to a USB port.
 
The first wireless keyboard I bought (about 6 years ago) has only gone
through two, maybe three, sets of batteries in all that time.  And it gives
warning when they're getting low.  That's pretty low on the PITA scale by my
reckoning.

Val



"

Well a real USB keyboard should do the job

I did once have a wireless one, but the batteries will of course go dead
when you need it the most.
It was a bigger PITA than it was worth!
Click to expand...

I've encounter "mixed" results with wireless keyboards. I had one
where the batteries lasted month and another one only last a week.
Stay away from lessor known brand names. Stick with well known brand
names like Logitech and Microsoft.
 
The first wireless keyboard I bought (about 6 years ago) has only gone
through two, maybe three, sets of batteries in all that time. And it gives
warning when they're getting low. That's pretty low on the PITA scale by my
reckoning.

Val



"

Well a real USB keyboard should do the job

I did once have a wireless one, but the batteries will of course go dead
when you need it the most.
It was a bigger PITA than it was worth!
Click to expand...

I've encounter "mixed" results with wireless keyboards. I had one
where the batteries lasted month and another one only last a week.
Stay away from lessor known brand names. Stick with well known brand
names like Logitech and Microsoft.


Well FWIW
at least I can say the battery life on the wireless KB was better than on
any wireless mouse I had
 
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