Ardent Tool of Capitalism

Affected Motherboards and Laptops

Content created by John Szybowski, Sydney, AU (original HERE). Edited by Major Tom.

List of Affected Motherboards and Laptops

Limited list from my testing and reader's experiences. Ed. Completely outdated!

If an item listed below has 'No' in the right-hand column, then this means that the above modification is not required, as the item should work directly with the Model M keyboard as-is.

Note 1:
This motherboard was found to work with the Model M keyboard (without the modification) if the keyboard was plugged into the PS/2 mouse socket, and the mouse was plugged into the PS/2 keyboard socket! Some motherboards have both functions present on both PS/2 sockets. (Further details to follow in a future update).

Note 2:
Reports of both working and not working. I suspect that it may have to do with individual conditions, like cable length, below.

Note 3:
It has been reported that certain KVMs and USB to PS/2 adapters cause some keys to behave differently on the connected keyboards than would be expected from a directly connected keyboard.. The most common difference is the way that held keys are treated, such as <Ctrl>, <Shift> and <Alt>. Another difference is key auto-repeat. One reported case cites that for multiple held keys, the first key has auto-repeat but the second and subsequent keys don't as each one is held.

Note 4:
Didn't work with the Model M, even after the resistor modification was applied.

Note 5:
One kind reader reported the following: "D865PERL motherboards with BIOSes prior to P17-0078 (which actually shows up as ".0078.P17." in the middle of the very long BIOS version displayed on the powerup screen) require a BIOS update, or else the keyboard will not work in the BIOS screens and some boot managers". Prior to the BIOS upgrade, the modification was applied but had no effect. The keyboard exhibited intermittent operation.

Note 6:
Several readers have reported unusual problems with Intel motherboards. One example is that the keyboard doesn't work to access the BIOS, but works fine once Windows XP initializes it. In most of these cases, the resistor mod will not fix the problem. The first option is to try a BIOS upgrade (if available), otherwise get a PS/2 to USB adapter like the one I've tested above.

Note 7:
A reader reported that the Model M was not detected under Windows 2000 from cold power-on, but worked after a subsequent reset. The Model M works fine with this same motherboard under Windows 98 and Linux. In this case, the modification did not fix the problem.

Note 8:
Many readers have had success with this adapter, with just a few reporting problems.

Note 9:
This KVM only allows a USB keyboard to be connected. A reader used the USB-PS/2 adapter from clickykeyboards (mentioned earlier in this article) to connect a Model M to the KVM. The Model M would only work once modified. This was quite a surprise to me, as USB is very well defined with regard to protocol compatibility and current supplied to peripherals. I suspect that this would have been the same with any USB-PS/2 adapter, as the clickykeyboards one has been the most successful used by readers to date. I have no other reports to confirm, but perhaps the current supplied by the KVM is insufficient? If anyone else has experience with this KVM then please let me know.