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So I come home nice and late, to a computer which I figure has suffered once more from HDD narcolepsy. That was when the hard drive would go to sleep for no reason. The keyboard’s Caps Lock and Scroll Lock keys are lit, the monitor is off and the computer is more quiet than usual.
I check, and everything has locked up.
I power it down, wait a moment and power it up. I look at the keyboard, and note that its lights haven’t changed.. they flickered back on in that same position.
Booting up, things go nuts because of a supposedly stuck key. Sigh.
I switch keyboards, to a different IBM Model M keyboard, and the computer won’t boot. It just sortof fizzles and flickers and nods off to sleep again.
I switch back and the computer won’t boot.
I remove the keyboard and the computer won’t boot.
I remove everything and it boots up again. I plug everything back in, including the original keyboard and everything’s working again.
I boot into the setup, and fsck everything.
It boots up fine. Except the mouse doesn’t work. I fiddle and fiddle, and then the keyboard locks up with the lights in the same states as earlier.
I switch mice, and note that the USB mouse which replaces the PS/2 mouse is autodetected magically by PCLinuxOS. Another win.
I boot up, and the keyboard keeps on locking up and needs to be removed and re-inserted to work again, for a bit. Except that “bit” keeps getting shorter and shorter. Sigh. So switch to a third keyboard and everything’s working out fine.
Except this keyboard’s F4 key doesn’t work. And neither does cursor-left. Sigh.
I’ll get this fixed, even if I have to (types very quietly) buy a new usb keyboard and avoid these weird PS/2 port-related issues. I’ve heard lots of stories about these ports dying on other people’s computers.. and sometimes even frying the motherboard. Hrmph.
It looks like I’m down to only the one original Model M. I remember going through my collection and junking some lesser ones.. but it looks like I’m going to have to go out again and scour various places for some more spares! =(
