Reminds me of a friend of mine who felt that every second his broadband is not torrenting some pirated movie - he's losing money. 😉

Not quite "all the ports", but lately I've been taking advantage of the redundancy built into the old motherboard currently in my C2Q system. First, the primary GPU slot is glitchy, so I'm using the secondary slot. Yes, it's not a full x16, but the GPU is just a GTX 660. Additionally, there is some weird inter-op problem between this board and the PCIe WiFi card I was using - no matter which slot I used it in - it would disappear after suspend/resume. So I switched to USB-based WiFi.

In my old old P4 system both Intel ICH5 SATA ports were always occupied by my two hard drives. So on occasions I needed to connect another HDD, I took advantage of the third party SATA RAID controller.

dr_st wrote on 2025-02-04, 15:43:

Reminds me of a friend of mine who felt that every second his broadband is not torrenting some pirated movie - he's losing money. 😉

It's safer if you do that. If you are not using all of your bandwidth and your router springs a leak, it can spill all over the place and make a mess. =)

I always had a hard time filling that 25 pin serial port ever since I switched out the external modem for an ISDN router.

I kept the LPT<-->IDE adapter to fill up the printer port.

douglar wrote on 2025-02-04, 17:33:

I always had a hard time filling that 25 pin serial port ever since I switched out the external modem for an ISDN router.

Well, you can always get one of those programs that requires a parallel port security dongle. My dad used to use one. I even got it to work on WinXP via Win3.1 running inside DOSBox MegaBuild with AllowIO.

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2025-02-04, 14:59:

So I seem to be in a quest lately to use all of the ports on a computer.

Now that I noticed you said a computer - there is an easy solution. Just get one of those modern laptops (or tablets) that hardly have any ports.

I tend to spend a lot of time "building technical stuff", and I tend to use
I/O ports a lot.

Parallel LPT ports - I've still got a couple of printers that use these,
and I do use them a LOT under DOS as general I/O - an LPT has 12 output lines
and 5 input lines (and for some types - 8 of the outputs can also be used as
inputs).
-Usually this is to control "custom" extrnal hardware.
-At one time I created PCLA (PC LogicAnalyser) which could monitor
13 digital lines - under DOS on a fast machine it was fast enough for a lot
of what I was doing (not fast enough for a CPU bus, but lots of other stuff
signals much slower)
-And things like LPT connection in DDLINK.. File transfer beween two
system MUCH faster than COM or even LAN.

Serial COM ports - I use to control various microprocessor controlled sub-
systems ... I've got a DOS systems decked out with 4 COM ports.
I sometimes use them on other (newer) systems which don't have LPT,
if I want to monitor/drive just a couple of I/O bits.
- and of coure "back in the day" I used them to communicate with Modems

I've hooked up all kinds of drives to floppy ports - even 8" ones!

IDE/SATA I pretty much only use for drives (played a bit with interfacing
to various hardware via IDE - but never bother to do much).

I've made input devices that communicate to the PC via the keyboard (5-pin
DIN & PS2) and Mouse (PS2) ports.

USB are probably the ones I use the least - obviously keyboard/mouse on
some systems, flash and external drives ... and again for more modern systems
that don't have COM/LPT ... I've got about a dozen USB->RS-232 ports &
some dedicated USB->Serial (3v) that I put inside some extrnal devices,
and one USB->LPT port.

VGA, HDMI, DisplayPort etc. I only use for monitors.

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

dr_st wrote on 2025-02-04, 15:43:

Reminds me of a friend of mine who felt that every second his broadband is not torrenting some pirated movie - he's losing money. 😉

I was the same when I made the move from Dial-up to ADSL 😀 Movies, Music, software, drivers, whatever! doesn't matter as long as I was downloading something
Lucky for disk space speeds were still slow enough downloads could take awhile.

Back to the OP
I often think it's a shame not to use the ports but have admitted most will stay empty till end of time.
Some of the things I do use though.

Serial
-Null modem cable useful for transferring date to early computers and multiplayer games e.g. Wacky Wheels ONLY supports Modem or Serial)
-Modem, Not quite ready yet but getting the parts ready for my own dial up network. Creating Your Own Dial-Up Connection At Home: No Line Simulators Needed!
-Console connection to Networking devices.
-Joystick, Some more advanced ones are actually Serial devices Like my Logitech Force Feedback wheel (although I use the included USB adapter)

Parallel
-ZIP, JAZ, External CD-ROM drive, all 3 are just for special case use though.
-Dot Matrix printer, OK I don't really have the space but it would be cool.

Gameport
MIDI devices
Joystick/gamepad, etc

A family computer back in the day would have probably used most of the ports. Probably the serial ports and maybe a line in on the sound card would have gone unused.

I remember by the late 1990s, we had to buy USB hubs because it was still common to only have 2 USB ports.

Our mid 90's 486 could only have the sound cards line in empty, and we were lucky in having a PS2 mouse!

Com A: Null Modem, in case friends came over
Com B: Modem for the internet
LPT: Zip drive with printer piggy backing off that
Speaker out: speakers
Line Out: Sterio system, for when rest of the family was away
Mic: For a microphone although we rarely used it.
Gameport: Cheap Gamepad but allowed 3 player split screen games with my siblings.

LPT on my main machine goes to a data switch and 4 devices connect there :
* Altera Byteblaster compatible JTAG cable to program old PLDs
* My "MultiPurposeComputerPeripheral" which is something I built when I was in my late teens to dump Mega Drive cartridges and to burn my own flashcart. Also works for EPROMs and other memory chips.
* Pair of Sega Saturn controller ports to use with PPjoy or other LPT to joystick drivers in Windows.
* LED diagnostic thing to verify that things do work as they should

On that same computer, COM port is connected via a long cable (5ish meters) to a TV I was hacking/creating new software for, it allows comms between the TV and PC, to adjust parameters and other things without having to create a menu system 🤣.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LMwmTAgJUGGg … iew?usp=sharing

Gameport goes to a MIDI I/O cable that goes to a Roland SC-7 or a CM-32LN, depending on what is wanted. There are a number of sound cards which are interconnected with each other and ultimately going to an EQ and amplifier. Soon I'll build an 10x stereo input mixer, I already have the PCBs but haven't made the time to start building things...

Video outputs go to an Extron 8input/4output VGA matrix and 6input/2output HDMI matrix, which in turn connect to the monitors on my desk and also to a projector above the desk. There's an 8 input KVM too which connects to other computers, and which output goes to the VGA matrix also. Important sources go to the matrix directly since the KVM does a lousy job switching signals... I.e the main computer only has its keyboard+mouse go to the KVM while video goes directly to the matrixes. I love that input/output routing matrixes give 🤣. I will have to think of such capability for the mixer also, since there's also the big speakers on other side of the room with their own amplifierS and other equipment 🤣.

I find myself struggling to find a decent PS2 mouse.
The line in is usually unused, as is the microphone connector.
I have only 1 use for the game port.
Parallel printers are hard to find these days.
COM ports were the easy one, its rare I have enough of them.

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2025-02-05, 18:58:

I find myself struggling to find a decent PS2 mouse.

Main reason I've kept a couple ... also some of my systems are old enough that BIOS does not
support USB mouse translation, and I still have some DOS stuff that uses mouse.

No Idea if they are still available, but I did find a USB->Ps2 keyboard/mouse translator at
one time (allows you to use USB kbd/mouse in PS2 ports) - IIRC it was fairly tricky to find,
PS2->USB was more common

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2025-02-04, 14:59:

So I seem to be in a quest lately to use all of the ports on a computer.

They all must be used by something on a regular basis. Or at least semi regular. A single use setup and forget doesnt count.

How about you, have you ever used all of the ports on your PC (any of them that you have) in such a way?

Well... On this NUC I have...

There are 4 USB ports, 2 displayport ports, an ethernet port, a serial port, and a stereo headphone jack.

The serial port does not seem to properly function outside of the BIOS. 🙁 If it did, I would not need the USB->Serial cable I have hooked to my Roland DXY-1100 serial pen plotter. 😜

The USB ports have:
Serial port cable
Keyboard/mouse reciever
Bluetooth dongle
[free for USB stick]

The displayport ports have monitors on them.

The monitors do not have sound, so I have some vintage 90s speakers attached to the heatphone jack.

The ethernet port has an old 100mbit wifi bridge stuck on it.

The USB->Serial cable gets A LOT of use with that pen plotter. It's a lot of fun to play with. (It can do 11x17 / A3, with 8 pens !)

(It happens to have a CSM in the UEFI bios, so I can boot dos with it, and the sound hardware is supported by SBEMU, so I can totally do faux retrogaming on it too.)

DaveDDS wrote on 2025-02-05, 22:18:

Main reason I've kept a couple ... also some of my systems are old enough that BIOS does not support USB mouse translation, and […]
Show full quote

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2025-02-05, 18:58:

I find myself struggling to find a decent PS2 mouse.

Main reason I've kept a couple ... also some of my systems are old enough that BIOS does not
support USB mouse translation, and I still have some DOS stuff that uses mouse.

No Idea if they are still available, but I did find a USB->Ps2 keyboard/mouse translator at
one time (allows you to use USB kbd/mouse in PS2 ports) - IIRC it was fairly tricky to find,
PS2->USB was more common

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

I still have one for exactly that reason. One of my systems will not recognise a USB mouse, so the Windows install is on a PS2 mouse, but I cant seem to find a nice PS2 optical mouse that is actually PS2.
I have a Microsoft trackball that uses a PS2 adapter but it feels like im cheating because the cable is USB.

I would like to find a PS2 mouse that is optical and is comfortable enough to actually use.

Mid 90s, my 5x86 machine would have had 9 pin dot matrix on parallel, com1 - mouse, com2 - ext 28k modem, AT KB, game to joystick, 3.5 to speakers and mic, BNC on NIC to Tee with terminator and 50 ohm coax to other junk bits 486. Internally, floppy connected, IDE 4x CDROM, "main" 1.6GB HDD, old 200mb, old 120mb. Plus VGA of course to monitor.

2000ish, K6-2@450 on Octek ATX board: Parallel went to cradle for Creative Nomad MP3 player, serial went to cradle for Palm Pilot, game to joy, 3.5s to speakers and mic, ps2 kb, ps2 mouse, VGA to monitor, USB 1 to Jamcam, USB 2 to webcam. NIC to hub to 486 being a router, to cable modem. Internal, 16x CD, 2x DVD, 1.6Gb "old" HDD, 20GB "modern".

(Jamcam wasn't great as a digital camera, didn't focus closer than 3ft, got about 5 shots to a 9V battery so questionable that it was cheaper than film, "VGA" res at best quality, grainy as hell still. It was a tossup sometimes whether to "try" a pic with the Jamcam or the quarter VGA webcam, that also kinda sucked.)

Recently, on modern it's mostly all USB, I feel like I'm suffering with less than 4 ports available, since I use USB mouse whatever, frequently a keyboard, have a USB micro cable for plugging various phones, charging etc, then I want one "free" that I have thumbdrives in and out of and other stuff.

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2025-02-06, 12:48:

I still have one for exactly that reason. One of my systems will not recognise a USB mouse, so the Windows install is on a PS2 mouse, but I cant seem to find a nice PS2 optical mouse that is actually PS2.
I have a Microsoft trackball that uses a PS2 adapter but it feels like im cheating because the cable is USB.

I would like to find a PS2 mouse that is optical and is comfortable enough to actually use.

I've still got a couple of the original Microsoft "ball" serial mice...

And I've got several newer Microsoft optical "USB" mice with the little
green USB->PS2 adapters - but I don't consider these "cheating" as they are completely
passive (no active components) - the mouse itself does PS2 - it just needs the right
connector.

I've even got one (and only one) keyboard (can't remember the maker - but it's tiny and one I
often use when testing in a weird place) - that is USB, only has a USB connector, but works with
the same mouse adapter to interface to PS2 ... looks "fun" when I have: USB->PS2->DIN5

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal