Kazutaka YOKOTA wrote to Ryan Thompson:
> It sounds like the keyboard interface of your motherboard has somewhat
> become flaky; it may even be broken.
>
> It is NOT recommended that you attach or detach the keyboard while the
> power is on. The keyboard interface of the PC motherboard is not
> designed for hot-plugging/unplugging. It is too easy to fry the
> keyboard interface and/or controller by doing so.
I don't make a habit of keyboard swapping, and I HAVE experienced some
minor glitches before (such as weird scan codes being sent, or the state
of caps lock changing). In any case, though, a keyboard reset or even
just a few key presses would fix. In the last 10 years, I have NEVER had
to reboot a system because they keyboard wasn't responding.
> Even if the keyboard interface survives hot-plugging, there is no
> assurance that the keyboard and the keyboard controller on the
> motherboard can communicate properly after hot-plugging; they are
> simply not designed to cope with such situation.
>
> I personally know a couple of people who broke their motherboard this
> way.
Bummer for them.. Really, though, I would rather fry a $200 motherboard
than my $500CDN keyboard (my fingers have developed expensive tastes).
:-) None of my motherboard documentation warns agains swapping keyboards,
either.
In any case, I never had problems swapping keyboards between prior FreeBSD
releases, other UNIX platforms, Windows machines, DOS machines. Hell,
even my old Nintendo never complained if you plugged in a different
controller while it was powered on. :-) I was just wondering if
something had been done to 4.0 that didn't handle this situation like
previous releases.
Thanks for the info. When I have another $500 burning a hole in my
checkbook, I will probably order another keyboard, just so I have
another one, if nothing else. :-)
- Ryan
--
Ryan Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Systems Administrator, Accounts
Phone: +1 (306) 664-1161
SaskNow Technologies http://www.sasknow.com
#106-380 3120 8th St E Saskatoon, SK S7H 0W2
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