USB vs PS/2 vs Serial?

Hi, I loaned one of my older home-built PC's to a friend and he
returned it without operable K/B and Mouse ports. I guess he installed
or removed them without turning the power off.

So, I tried to configure my USB Mouse and Keyboard. Everytime it asked
for WIN98SE disk, I put the disk in, indicated the appropriate Rom
Drive letter, and NEVER could I get anything from the Windows 98 SE
disk!

Now, is it possible to us a Serial Port K/B or Mouse? Have they gone
out with high button shoes?

Thanks!!

Michael P Gabriel wrote:

> Hi, I loaned one of my older home-built PC's to a friend and he
> returned it without operable K/B and Mouse ports. I guess he installed
> or removed them without turning the power off.
>
> So, I tried to configure my USB Mouse and Keyboard. Everytime it asked
> for WIN98SE disk, I put the disk in, indicated the appropriate Rom
> Drive letter, and NEVER could I get anything from the Windows 98 SE
> disk!
>
> Now, is it possible to us a Serial Port K/B or Mouse? Have they gone
> out with high button shoes?

Only the other day I had to use a serial mouse because the PS2 port was
faulty. Not easy to find new though, but should be dirt cheap 2nd hand
or old stock at a computer fair.

I don't think the PC ever natively supported a serial keyboard though.

--
Chris
-----
Spamtrap in force: to email replace 127.0.0.1 with blueyonder.co.uk

In message <<qRaTb.3614$>> Chris
Hodges <chris_hodges@127.0.0.1> did ramble:

>I don't think the PC ever natively supported a serial keyboard though.

I'm pretty certain you're correct -- I got into the PC work in the 8086
era, and I've never seen a serial connection. I checked a couple books
and couldn't find any references to protocols either, so I suspect
anything that did exist was proprietary.

That being said, some higher end "workstation" or "server" class
equipment could boot using a serial console, and would still use the
regular monitor out too, so you could get away with a keyboard plugged
into another PC running terminal software in a pinch.

DevilsPGD wrote:
>>I don't think the PC ever natively supported a serial keyboard though.
>
> I'm pretty certain you're correct -- I got into the PC work in the 8086
> era, and I've never seen a serial connection. I checked a couple books
> and couldn't find any references to protocols either, so I suspect
> anything that did exist was proprietary.

I suppose you could say I did too - though I was still at school.

> That being said, some higher end "workstation" or "server" class
> equipment could boot using a serial console, and would still use the
> regular monitor out too, so you could get away with a keyboard plugged
> into another PC running terminal software in a pinch.

That sounds like desperate measures. What about a USB keyboard using
the support from the BIOS - does that give problems in windows still?


--
Chris
-----
Spamtrap in force: to email replace 127.0.0.1 with blueyonder.co.uk

In message <<zexTb.4539$>> Chris
Hodges <chris_hodges@127.0.0.1> did ramble:

>> That being said, some higher end "workstation" or "server" class
>> equipment could boot using a serial console, and would still use the
>> regular monitor out too, so you could get away with a keyboard plugged
>> into another PC running terminal software in a pinch.
>
>That sounds like desperate measures. What about a USB keyboard using
>the support from the BIOS - does that give problems in windows still?

To be honest, the last time I saw something like that was in the pre-USB
days.

DevilsPGD <> wrote in message news:<>. ..
> In message <<zexTb.4539$>> Chris
> Hodges <chris_hodges@127.0.0.1> did ramble:
>
> >> That being said, some higher end "workstation" or "server" class
> >> equipment could boot using a serial console, and would still use the
> >> regular monitor out too, so you could get away with a keyboard plugged
> >> into another PC running terminal software in a pinch.
> >
> >That sounds like desperate measures. What about a USB keyboard using
> >the support from the BIOS - does that give problems in windows still?
>
> To be honest, the last time I saw something like that was in the pre-USB
> days.


In answer to a question posed by one respondent, I should be able to
use a USB Keyboard, but for some reason I run into stumbling blocks.
When I connect the KB, I get the FOUND NEW HARDWARE message. In
following through, I'm supposed to put the WIN98 disk in, indicate CD
ROM in the dialog box, and also the drive letter. I do that and click,
but it won't read my CD Rom and I get the message that the
file,(forgot the name), could not be found on Windows. Why would it
not at least read the CD before it says that the file can't be found?
Who knows!
I wonder if I should dump WIN 98SE and get WINXP????
Thanks for all the responses anyway, folks!

Michael P Gabriel wrote:
> In answer to a question posed by one respondent, I should be able to
> use a USB Keyboard, but for some reason I run into stumbling blocks.
> When I connect the KB, I get the FOUND NEW HARDWARE message. In
> following through, I'm supposed to put the WIN98 disk in, indicate CD
> ROM in the dialog box, and also the drive letter. I do that and click,
> but it won't read my CD Rom and I get the message that the
> file,(forgot the name), could not be found on Windows. Why would it
> not at least read the CD before it says that the file can't be found?
> Who knows!

In that case if you can normally read the CDROM copy all the .cab files
from the windows CD into c:\windows\options\cabs and point the new
hardware wizard there. That's where the OEMs put the cabs files when
you don't get a CD.

--
Chris
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