IronBits
04-11-2002, 02:22 AM
Did you know? I didn't. I've been doing this since they came out, ps/2 mice to in fact, which have been around a lot longer than the ps/2 keyboards. I have *never* had it happen to me on the thousands of computers I have worked on or with, for the past 20 years, nor have I heard about this happening to anyone I know first hand, yet. I have also seen thousands of 'newbies' doing this to their laptops with and without y-adapters which allow you to plug a keyboard and mouse into the ps/2 port.
Now I'm not saying everyone should try this, because if you do this, and it breaks something, you own all the parts and pieces.
I also heard your not supposed to set your farts on fire either :D
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=lang_en&selm=%25lAT7.10361%24O7.1150662%40newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net&rnum=4
PS/2 ports are designed to connect the digital I/O lines of the
microcontroller in the external device directly to the digital lines of the microcontroller on the motherboard, WITH NO BUFFERING WHATSOEVER. They are not designed to be hot swappable, and over the years I've seen a lot of dead keyboards and motherboards as a result. The fact that it usually doesn't cause damage is only due to the fact that more modern microcontrollers tend to have slightly more difficult to damage I/O lines built into them. It's still not a good idea to hot swap them, IMHO.
Accidentally shorting one pin to another on a PS/2 port can easily kill one or both microcontrollers. The micro on the laptop will be nearly impossible to replace if you blow it.
The last paragraph goes without saying and is mighty obvious to me...
Now I'm not saying everyone should try this, because if you do this, and it breaks something, you own all the parts and pieces.
I also heard your not supposed to set your farts on fire either :D
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=lang_en&selm=%25lAT7.10361%24O7.1150662%40newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net&rnum=4
PS/2 ports are designed to connect the digital I/O lines of the
microcontroller in the external device directly to the digital lines of the microcontroller on the motherboard, WITH NO BUFFERING WHATSOEVER. They are not designed to be hot swappable, and over the years I've seen a lot of dead keyboards and motherboards as a result. The fact that it usually doesn't cause damage is only due to the fact that more modern microcontrollers tend to have slightly more difficult to damage I/O lines built into them. It's still not a good idea to hot swap them, IMHO.
Accidentally shorting one pin to another on a PS/2 port can easily kill one or both microcontrollers. The micro on the laptop will be nearly impossible to replace if you blow it.
The last paragraph goes without saying and is mighty obvious to me...