There were typically little splitter things that would let you plug both a keyboard and a mouse into a single PS/2 port; you may want to look on eBay. Not sure if those things are universal or proprietary and you need the matching Compaq one...

my compaq armada m700 also only has one ps2 port, yet allows both mouse & keyboard using a splitter which wires the two unused pins of the ps2 mouse/keyboard connector to the data/clk pins of the connector for the other device.

Which, come to think of it, is kinda weird since both a keyboard and a mouse work directly from that one port, yet with the splitter I think to recall there is some port dependence, as in keyboard only on the original pins and mouse only on the secondary pins.

VivienM wrote on 2023-11-05, 19:40:

There were typically little splitter things that would let you plug both a keyboard and a mouse into a single PS/2 port; you may want to look on eBay. Not sure if those things are universal or proprietary and you need the matching Compaq one...

Glad to hear that this laptop should theoretically work with a splitter. Hopefully someone knows if this requires a Compaq proprietary splitter or if I can use any splitter.

Thanks folks.

AFAIK all PS/2 splitters are the same, the difference is in which is the main (standard pinout) port but if it doesn't work you can always try putting the purple plug in the mouse socket and vice versa (classic school computer prank)

...and whoever designed the modern single PS/2 motherboards didn't bother to connect the "extra" pins, shame...

...and don't try making your own with a surplus 6-pin HP scanner TMA backlight cable, some pins are shorted together inside the plug despite having 6 wires...

you'ld think that all ps2 splitters are the same but fact is, they're not.

there are those that wire both female connectors identical to the one male connector
and
there are those were one of the female connectors uses the unused pins, in the ps2 connector specification, of the male connector to connect to the data & clock pins of that female connector while the other one is using the normal data & clock pins.