Re: Odd keyboard related crashes.

Nicholas Berry
2001-10-05T14:39:53Z

>>> Ian Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk> 10/05/01 05:01AM >>>
>I'm running 2.4.10, and the ps/2 keyboard came out of it's socket.

>On plugging back in, all worked fine, until 10 seconds later there was a
>crash. (the keyboard worked after being plugged in)
>No oops, just a reboot.
>Thinking this must just have been a wierd coincidence, after the system
>came back up, I tried it again, and again it crashed a few seconds afterwards.

>It doesn't seem to want to do this again though.

When the keyboard is powered up (or plugged in), it goes through a self test, and reports the status back to the PC. Normally, a start up dialogue takes place between the PC and the keyboard at this point.
That's fine when you boot your PC, but if you unplug then re-plug the keyboard, the PC will be sent data it's really not expecting, and the BIOS will be very confused.
If you ever want to switch a keyboard between PCs, make sure you leave power supplied to it at all times.