Re: [vox-tech] swapping mice

[Samuel Merritt <sMAPSpam@andcheese.org>]

On Wed, Mar 12, 2003 at 10:21:54PM -0500, Mike Simons wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 12, 2003 at 05:17:19PM -0800, Robin Snyder wrote:
> 
> > It is plugged in and getting some kind of data.  (The receiver box
> > lights up.)  I shut down X using ctrl-alt-backspace.  No go.  I even tried
> > rebooting, in case ctrl-alt-backspace didn't shut enough processes down.
> > (I don't think it does.  Had to reboot to get the Mouseman working again.)
> [...]
> > What am I missing?  (And can I do this without rebooting?)
> 
>   PS/2 style devices are not supposed to be reconnected while the machine
> is live.  I don't know the details but I've often seen PS/2 style
> devices not operate correctly or at all when they are unplugged and
> re-plugged in.  I've read that it's possible to fry the motherboard
> controller chip for the PS/2 port by hot-swapping devices.

I've done it. I was working on an older Pentium-class system, and the
keyboard stopped working. It was still passing packets, though, so I
figured the keyboard plug had come loose. 

I pushed it back in, and voila: the machine stopped passing packets.
Froze up hard, and never booted again. 

-- 
Samuel Merritt
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