Legacy (Score: 2, Interesting) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-03-10 07:09 (#4M8C) Anybody remember computers in the late 90's? 2 9-pin RS-232 serial ports (older mice, modems, etc)2 PS/2 ports (keyboard/mouse)1 25-pin IEEE 1284 Parallel port (printers, storage devices, even ethernet adapters)Often a SCSI-1 port (scanners, external drives)Game ports (controllers)Sometimes even MIDI portsOften firewire ports.etc. And then a couple USB (v1.1) ports, which was the most useless of all... Nothing made for it, except maybe your new mouse using an adapter. Slower than parallel ports, lots of CPU-saping overhead. Couldn't boot off of it (for many years). etc. Re: Legacy (Score: 2, Interesting) by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org on 2015-03-11 13:41 (#4QBP) Yes, the best part of USB was getting away from PS/2 ports. Those stupid pins kept breaking off. I lost many a good mouse to broken pins. USB is much sturdier of a connection, Re: Legacy (Score: 1) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-03-12 21:21 (#4TSH) the best part of USB was getting away from PS/2 ports. Those stupid pins kept breaking off.I've never broken a PS2 pin, though I've seen it happen a couple times over a decade. PS2 supplied more power than USB, and even now, you can hit a key on a PS2 keyboard to wake-up a computer, while I've still never seen that working with USB keyboards.USB offers more flexibility than PS2 did (monitors and keyboards with built-in USB hubs are convenient), but some good features were lost in the process, too. Re: Legacy (Score: 1) by bryan@pipedot.org on 2015-03-13 07:43 (#4VJ2) For me, it wasn't the electrical pins that broke, but the small rectangular "key" pin (the thing in the middle made of plastic) that would shear off and stay stuck in the motherboard's connector. This had the unfortunate effect of screwing up the motherboard port (expensive) instead of the mouse or keyboard port (cheap).Afterwards, the "hack" to use the screwy motherboard with a different mouse was to break off the perfectly good plastic pin of the new mouse so that you could insert the connector all the way.
Re: Legacy (Score: 2, Interesting) by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org on 2015-03-11 13:41 (#4QBP) Yes, the best part of USB was getting away from PS/2 ports. Those stupid pins kept breaking off. I lost many a good mouse to broken pins. USB is much sturdier of a connection, Re: Legacy (Score: 1) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-03-12 21:21 (#4TSH) the best part of USB was getting away from PS/2 ports. Those stupid pins kept breaking off.I've never broken a PS2 pin, though I've seen it happen a couple times over a decade. PS2 supplied more power than USB, and even now, you can hit a key on a PS2 keyboard to wake-up a computer, while I've still never seen that working with USB keyboards.USB offers more flexibility than PS2 did (monitors and keyboards with built-in USB hubs are convenient), but some good features were lost in the process, too. Re: Legacy (Score: 1) by bryan@pipedot.org on 2015-03-13 07:43 (#4VJ2) For me, it wasn't the electrical pins that broke, but the small rectangular "key" pin (the thing in the middle made of plastic) that would shear off and stay stuck in the motherboard's connector. This had the unfortunate effect of screwing up the motherboard port (expensive) instead of the mouse or keyboard port (cheap).Afterwards, the "hack" to use the screwy motherboard with a different mouse was to break off the perfectly good plastic pin of the new mouse so that you could insert the connector all the way.
Re: Legacy (Score: 1) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-03-12 21:21 (#4TSH) the best part of USB was getting away from PS/2 ports. Those stupid pins kept breaking off.I've never broken a PS2 pin, though I've seen it happen a couple times over a decade. PS2 supplied more power than USB, and even now, you can hit a key on a PS2 keyboard to wake-up a computer, while I've still never seen that working with USB keyboards.USB offers more flexibility than PS2 did (monitors and keyboards with built-in USB hubs are convenient), but some good features were lost in the process, too. Re: Legacy (Score: 1) by bryan@pipedot.org on 2015-03-13 07:43 (#4VJ2) For me, it wasn't the electrical pins that broke, but the small rectangular "key" pin (the thing in the middle made of plastic) that would shear off and stay stuck in the motherboard's connector. This had the unfortunate effect of screwing up the motherboard port (expensive) instead of the mouse or keyboard port (cheap).Afterwards, the "hack" to use the screwy motherboard with a different mouse was to break off the perfectly good plastic pin of the new mouse so that you could insert the connector all the way.
Re: Legacy (Score: 1) by bryan@pipedot.org on 2015-03-13 07:43 (#4VJ2) For me, it wasn't the electrical pins that broke, but the small rectangular "key" pin (the thing in the middle made of plastic) that would shear off and stay stuck in the motherboard's connector. This had the unfortunate effect of screwing up the motherboard port (expensive) instead of the mouse or keyboard port (cheap).Afterwards, the "hack" to use the screwy motherboard with a different mouse was to break off the perfectly good plastic pin of the new mouse so that you could insert the connector all the way.