(in other news, Alliterative Assholes Are Almost Always Annoying)
2003-09-12: I returned to my apartment after a long Friday afternoon in the office, which I had spent socializing with the other first-year grad students and working on the occasional math problem. I walked home in the rain, hoping that my backpack would keep my papers and books dry. I entered the apartment and dried myself off; then I sat down at my computer and tried to take care of some bills online. My USB mouse was responsive, but my PS/2 keyboard was not. So although I could pull down a bookmark menu and load the desired pages, I could not enter my username or password. I logged out and restarted the computer, and during the bootup process I noticed two unexpected error messages among the other diagnostic messages.
keyboard: Timeout - AT keyboard not present?(ed)
keyboard: Timeout - AT keyboard not present?(f4)
When the KDM login screen came up, I could not type anything in the fields. The mouse still worked, so I was able to shut down the computer and let the system cool down, in case the afternoon storms had caused a surge that got past my uninterruptible power supply and overloaded the motherboard. With the computer power supply switched off, I checked the connection between the keyboard plug and the motherboard’s PS/2 port. It was not loose, but I pulled it out and reseated it anyway, just in case some stray dust particles had gotten lodged in the keyboard port. For good measure, I opened the side panel of the case and brushed away some of the dust that had settled on the various internal components.
The problem persisted in spite of all these measures. Usually the PS/2 keyboard would not be recognized from the moment the power switch was toggled, but even when it was recognized long enough to press DEL and enter the BIOS setup, it would inevitably cease to function if I stayed in the BIOS long enough to make any substantial changes.
I replaced the PS/2 keyboard with the Apple Pro Keyboard I had as a backup. Going into the BIOS was no problem, but none of the settings I changed had any effect on the problem with the PS/2 keyboard port. I flashed the BIOS with an older version and tried modifying various configuration options, and the PS/2 keyboard was still not functional. I flashed the BIOS with a newer version and tried tweaking the same configuration options; again, no improvement was seen, even though this time I tried both the original keyboard and the other PS/2 keyboard I had as a spare.
Finding myself out of options, I packed both PS/2 keyboards in their boxes and went back to using the Apple Pro Keyboard. If the PS/2 port really is fried and beyond repair, then I now have fewer keyboard options than I did just a few days ago. I find such lack of alternatives a mixed blessing: on the one hand, I don’t have to agonize over which keyboard I will use; on the other hand, if I wanted to go back to the clickety-feel of the Model M keyboard after growing tired of the mushy feel of the Apple Pro Keyboard, I would not have that option. What my keyboard collection needs is the same amount of variety among the USB models as among all models. Whether that is possible remains to be seen.