Use Keyboard through Serial Port on Laptop

[OwenHall]

Someone spilt coffee onto my laptop keyboard and now it is not working (The top row 1-9 kind of works). I tried to put a keyboard into the PS2 port but this is not working either. Can I use the keyboard through the serial port (using a PS2 adapter), and if so what settings do I need to use to get it working. The laptop is running Windows 98 SE.

 

[edfair]

The BIOS generally has keyboard support built into the internal keyboard port and possibly an external keyboard port but will not natively support anything else. So,no, you can't use the serial port. And if you try it you will blow up keyboard you hook there because of the voltages that the serial uses.
There have been serial based keyboards available in the past, primarily supplied for POS applications, but I haven't followed the market and can't attest to current availablity.
Some machines support USB keyboards. But that is a function of the BIOS and I'm not sure if any laptops have ever had it implemented.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[OwenHall]

Thanks

 

[jdunderhill]

Hi

Saw this post, was you now thinking maybe buying USB keyboard?

That would hopefully suffice for the damaged ps/2 port

Cheers

Jamie