TIL my old wired keyboard still works after 15 years in a closet

Pulled it out to type up a repair manual and it fired right up, no driver issues on Windows 10. Took me 3 hours to find a PS/2 to USB adapter at a thrift store though - has anyone else had luck with ancient peripherals just working?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencer_wood20d ago

12 year old Dell membrane keyboard I found at a flea market worked perfect with a cheap adapter too. PS/2 is pretty bulletproof compared to modern USB stuff, all it does is send key presses over two wires. I mean, you probably could have just plugged it into an old PC with a native port and skipped the adapter hunt entirely.

holly_craig19d ago

Yo but hold up - you really think finding an old PC with a native PS/2 port would be easier than tracking down a $3 adapter at a thrift store? Like where exactly are people just keeping Pentium 4 towers lying around in 2024? I mean sure if you're hoarding ancient hardware maybe, but for the average person that adapter hunt is way more realistic than digging out a whole ass computer that probably doesn't even boot anymore. Not to mention Windows 10 actually handling PS/2 through USB is pretty wild when you think about how finicky some of these adapter drivers can be. Did yours just plug and play or did you have to mess with any legacy settings in the BIOS or device manager?