"rcm" wrote in message
. ca...
As Alien Zord said, the keyboard is not a problem as keyboard converters
work because it is a simple wiring change between the two types of
keyboards
and not an electrical/electronic one.

But a mouse in serial mode and mouse in PS/2 mode are different modes
electrically/electronically. There are dual mode mice for PS/2 and
serial.
The mode of operation is determined when the mouse is turned on with the
PC
at power up.

I have been wondering about the serial/PS2 mouse scenario. I have a KVM
switch with serial mouse DB-9 support. I think I could use it with the
appropriate cable converters to switch a PS2 mouse. I have a dual
Microsoft
mouse (serial and PS/2 support) and could connect the mouse to the KVM,
then
use DB-9 cables to the PC, add a serial to PS/2 converter and plug in the
PS/2 mouse into the PC. Electrically it should all work fine in my mind.
It will use the serial wiring and be in PS/2 mode through it.
Unconventional but nothing wrong with it. I assume one could use a KVM
with
PS/2 connections to run a serial mouse with all the appropriate adapters
converting the wiring.

An extension of this scenario is can I use the dual mouse in both serial
and
PS/2 modes. By this I mean have a PC with serial mouse only (AT) and
another with PS/2 mouse port support. I know I can physically wire up the
KVM and the PC with adapters so they are all connected to serial and PS/2
ports. But can a dual mode mouse operating in one mode, say serial, to a
serial port PC switch over with the KVM to a PC in PS/2 mode. Or will it
goes nuts or worse, fry the port(s) or mouse.

Any ideas on this.

Of course, the simple scenario is to use my KVM with serial ports on all
the
PCs and a serial mouse on the KVM ignoring all the PS/2 ports. Right now
I
just have a serial mouse on the serial port PC and another PS/2 mouse on
the
PS/2 port PC. Just been lazy to switch it all to the serial ports.

I do have a couple of old 486 PCs that and could test this out but it is a
pain to try it out.

"Thomas M" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...
"Thomas M" wrote in message
...
I would like to buy a KVM switch to control several newer computers
with
PS/2 connectors, and if possible and older computer with AT
connectors.
I understand that buying adaptors won't work unless the KVM switch
supports the older AT standards.

Does anyone know of a KVM switch that supports both PS/2 and AT
connections?


If your AT PC uses PS/2 mouse then there's no problem whatsoever, just
use a converter for the keyboard. If your AT PC uses serial mouse then
you may have to use a separate one as PS/2 to serial converters
usually
don't work.

Thanks for the reply.

That's pretty much the story I've been hearing. Unfortunately, my AT
system uses a serial mouse. In fact, the mouse is a DB9, but the
connection on the case is an even older DB25, so the mouse uses an
adaptor already. I pretty much figured that going from PS/2 to DB9 to
DB25 just wasn't going to work, but I thought that if the KVM switch
could handle a serial mouse, then buying an adaptor might be worth it,
just to see if it would work, if nothing else.

At this point, I think my best option is to just live with the fact that
I won't be able to use the mouse with the KVM switch. That's okay
because the AT computer will soon be relegated to a file server anyway,
and at that point, I will be able to do everything that I need to do on
the machine via mapped drives.

--Tom


If the mobos have support for ps2, ie pin header on mobo, then buy a ps2
connector,usually fitted to a backplate, and plug it into header on mobo.
I have fitted them to a number of older AT boards so that they can use ps2
mice.
Maybe that will cure your ills.