First post, by SETBLASTER
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Some years ago i managed to get a MODEL M keyboard, it looked like brand new, It has like a phone connector that later i learned it was an SDL connector. Of course the cable was not included for such a low price, but i still bought it.
Then looking online i found that people modded these keyboards because the "SDL 2 PS/2" cable might be expensive. (they bought a PS/2 extension cable, cut , and soldered into the motherl M motherboard.
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=55377.0
so i got a 60inch PS/2 extendion cable. I did the mod and it worked!.....well, sometimes it worked... it actually depends on the Computer motherboard you plug it in to. i have had mixed results, i have seen many things trying to use the keyboard.
For example :
Using a model M keyboard (PS/2 modded) and a "PS/2 to dimm" adapter:
- worked on many 486 motherboards. but some didn´t even detect the keyboard, not let me F1 or delete go to bios. (this is not fault of the adapter nor motherboard as i have other dimm keyboards and the motherboard works)
Using the Model M keyboard (ps/2 modded) and some pentium 3 motherboards, it worked perfectly. But on some motherboards it actually started to work fine but after 4 or 5 minutes hell went loose. typing letters gave numbers or symbols, and even the speaker started to sound crazy to the point the keyboard would not even respond anymore.
Tried to use the same keyboard with a PS/2 to USB adapter and the keyboard worked perfectly in DOS.
So my question is, are these old model M keyboard not compatible at all with more modern machines?
Is this a fault of the keyboard itself or from the motherboard manufacturer?
Is it possible that model M keyboard used a different voltage that PS/2 connectors cannot supply?
its very weird that the keyboard works sometimes depending on the motherboard. and PS/2 connector give a lot of issues.
Is there something that can be done to fix it?
