Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 20:00:13 -0600 (CST) From: Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com> To: Kazutaka YOKOTA <yokota@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Keyboard troubles Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0003101931290.8418-100000@ren.sasknow.com> In-Reply-To: <200003110130.KAA10812@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp>
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Kazutaka YOKOTA wrote to Ryan Thompson: > It sounds like the keyboard interface of your motherboard has somewhat > become flaky; it may even be broken. > > It is NOT recommended that you attach or detach the keyboard while the > power is on. The keyboard interface of the PC motherboard is not > designed for hot-plugging/unplugging. It is too easy to fry the > keyboard interface and/or controller by doing so. I don't make a habit of keyboard swapping, and I HAVE experienced some minor glitches before (such as weird scan codes being sent, or the state of caps lock changing). In any case, though, a keyboard reset or even just a few key presses would fix. In the last 10 years, I have NEVER had to reboot a system because they keyboard wasn't responding. > Even if the keyboard interface survives hot-plugging, there is no > assurance that the keyboard and the keyboard controller on the > motherboard can communicate properly after hot-plugging; they are > simply not designed to cope with such situation. > > I personally know a couple of people who broke their motherboard this > way. Bummer for them.. Really, though, I would rather fry a $200 motherboard than my $500CDN keyboard (my fingers have developed expensive tastes). :-) None of my motherboard documentation warns agains swapping keyboards, either. In any case, I never had problems swapping keyboards between prior FreeBSD releases, other UNIX platforms, Windows machines, DOS machines. Hell, even my old Nintendo never complained if you plugged in a different controller while it was powered on. :-) I was just wondering if something had been done to 4.0 that didn't handle this situation like previous releases. Thanks for the info. When I have another $500 burning a hole in my checkbook, I will probably order another keyboard, just so I have another one, if nothing else. :-) - Ryan -- Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com> Systems Administrator, Accounts Phone: +1 (306) 664-1161 SaskNow Technologies http://www.sasknow.com #106-380 3120 8th St E Saskatoon, SK S7H 0W2 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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