undeon wrote on 2023-06-22, 21:20:

On the USB board, I can see the pin 1. Using the mark on the board as a guide, is it possible to somehow invert the connector to get both USB ports working? I don't want to modify the cables because I can and will return this board if necessary. However, I would like to test the board beyond the POST screen, install Windows, and benchmark it to ensure that my board is working fine before spending anything else.

Yes, those "Berg Housings" have a plastic "catch" in the side of the body to make it easy to insert the wires at the factory but hard to remove them by accident. If you are very careful with a small pick or screwdriver, you can gently lift the "catch" in order to move the wires and rearrange them. It is common to have to do this with the PS/2 mouse connectors too as those are completely non-standard.

Note that I haven't thought about what you've said about the pinout and whether or not you can just reverse the connector.

In practice, boards of this era used a PS/2 (or AT) keyboard and mouse, and USB ports IMO were just an interesting curiosity duplicative of other established ports until USB 2.0 and USB storage came around. So by trying to exercise the potentially "beta-quality" USB keyboard and mouse support you may uncover bugs and frustration.

jakethompson1 wrote on 2023-06-22, 21:32:

Yes, those "Berg Housings" have a plastic "catch" in the side of the body to make it easy to insert the wires at the factory but hard to remove them by accident. If you are very careful with a small pick or screwdriver, you can gently lift the "catch" in order to move the wires and rearrange them.

This is just what I can't do, since I'll return this board. But I'll just disconnect one of the connectors and use just the keyboard. 😀

I had a computer with USB ports in 1999 but it was 2001 before I had anything to plug into them.

undeon wrote on 2023-06-22, 21:20:

I have an SS7 kit and I want to have at least the 1.1 USB ports to use the keyboard and mouse. My motherboard is a PCPartner MVP […]
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I have an SS7 kit and I want to have at least the 1.1 USB ports to use the keyboard and mouse. My motherboard is a PCPartner MVP3 baby AT.

I was searching for information about USB ports and I learned here (thanks, guys) that the best option is to use the onboard USB ports. While searching on our equivalent of eBay, I found the cheapest ASUS USB/MIR 1.11. I asked the seller if he will ship it with the proper cable since he only provided photos of the board. He confirmed that he will.

Spoiler

Looking at the motherboard manual, I noticed that pins 1, 3, 5, and 7 are reversed in relation to pins 2, 4, 6, and 8, and I'm concerned that I might damage anything I connect there.

On the USB board, I can see the pin 1. Using the mark on the board as a guide, is it possible to somehow invert the connector to get both USB ports working? I don't want to modify the cables because I can and will return this board if necessary. However, I would like to test the board beyond the POST screen, install Windows, and benchmark it to ensure that my board is working fine before spending anything else.

Inverting a connector is really what you mean to say is how do I change the pinout of this type of connector.

These are Dupont connectors and each wire has a dupont crimp. There are small plastic tabs where each wire is inserted in the connector. Using a small sewing needle or something like that you can pry up the tabs and pull out the wires.

Then look up the standard USB pinout and using a multimeter set to continuity mode you check each wire verify which wire is which. Then you look up the motherboard manual and check the pinout of the manual. After that insert the wires back into the dupont connector so they match the pin out of the motherboard. This is very easy stuff. You shouldn't have to return a motherboard over something like this.

All good and fine but personally I would avoid using USB on a VIA SS7 board. Not only is it have buggy controller, but its not really DOS friendly and depending on how well its supported in the bios you might not even be able to detect keyboard and mouse during windows 98 install, making it useless to trying to install windows. And depending on the board you might not even be able to configure your BIOS with a USB keyboard.

I disconnected one of the connectors and the keyboard worked, but its buggy. At the first seconds, the keyboard works fine in the BIOS, then it become extremely slow... Taking a few seconds to process every keystroke.

Well, at least it's working

undeon wrote on 2023-06-23, 10:52:

I disconnected one of the connectors and the keyboard worked, but its buggy. At the first seconds, the keyboard works fine in the BIOS, then it become extremely slow... Taking a few seconds to process every keystroke.

Well, at least it's working

Good that it's working, but we aren't joking that you might be the first one to actually try a USB keyboard on it since ASUS did in their lab in 1997 😁
Perhaps a BIOS update (if any are available) would help?

jakethompson1 wrote on 2023-06-23, 18:57:

Good that it's working, but we aren't joking that you might be the first one to actually try a USB keyboard on it since ASUS did in their lab in 1997 😁
Perhaps a BIOS update (if any are available) would help?

There's two BIOS updates...

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/pcpart … 00-00#downloads

When I mount the motherboard on the case, everything works flawless... And when I said flawless... I'm talking about a Logitech KM850 keyboard + mouse bluetooth combo haha