force Windows XP to load PS/2 keyboard drivers?

Hi everybody,

does anyone know a way to force Win XP to load the PS/2 keyboard driver
at bootup?

As far as I know, XP always tries to auto-detect a keyboard at the PS/2
port. If none is found, the corresponding drivers - i8042prt.sys and
kbdclass.sys - will not be loaded.

And this is exactly my problem: At work I have several server computers
connected to a KVM switch. XP does not recognize the keyboard behind the
swith and therefore does not load the driver. As a result the keyboard
cannot be used. (The PS/2 mouse driver is being loaded, though.)

The problem is not the KVM switch, though, but Windows XP, which the
following phenomenons have proven: The PS/2 keyboard behind the switch
is working fine in the Bios, under Linux or starting a DOS session (all
on the same computer mentioned above). Even Windows 2000 gets along fine
with my KVM-configuration. Only Win XP does not load the keyboard driver.

Theoretically, the keyboard behind the switch *would* work under Win XP,
though (if the driver *was* loaded). I know that, because if I connect
the keyboard directly to the pc (without KVM switch) during POST, then
unplug it at the XP login screen and replace it with the switch,
everything is working fine. XP auto-detects the keyboard at bootup and
loads the driver, which I can then use with the keyboard behind the
switch without any problems.

This is really annoying: Everything could be working fine, but the
driver is not being loaded, just because Win XP "thinks" that there is
no keyboard present.

This takes be back to my initial question: Can I circumvent the
auto-detection of the PS/2 keyboard somehow and indstead *force* Windows
XP to load the corresponding keyboard driver, no matter what? (In the
past, with less automatized Windows versions, that had always been
possible.) This would solve my problem for sure.

I am grateful for any help.

Best regards
Thorsten Eckardt

If you are using an electronic KVM switch, then the swithc should be
providing a PS/2 keyboard/mouse signal correctly, all the time. These type
os switches do this since you may not have a chance to have a keyboard
"selected" to each booting system.

"Thorsten Eckardt" wrote in message
...
Hi everybody,

does anyone know a way to force Win XP to load the PS/2 keyboard driver at
bootup?

As far as I know, XP always tries to auto-detect a keyboard at the PS/2
port. If none is found, the corresponding drivers - i8042prt.sys and
kbdclass.sys - will not be loaded.

And this is exactly my problem: At work I have several server computers
connected to a KVM switch. XP does not recognize the keyboard behind the
swith and therefore does not load the driver. As a result the keyboard
cannot be used. (The PS/2 mouse driver is being loaded, though.)

The problem is not the KVM switch, though, but Windows XP, which the
following phenomenons have proven: The PS/2 keyboard behind the switch is
working fine in the Bios, under Linux or starting a DOS session (all on
the same computer mentioned above). Even Windows 2000 gets along fine with
my KVM-configuration. Only Win XP does not load the keyboard driver.

Theoretically, the keyboard behind the switch *would* work under Win XP,
though (if the driver *was* loaded). I know that, because if I connect the
keyboard directly to the pc (without KVM switch) during POST, then unplug
it at the XP login screen and replace it with the switch, everything is
working fine. XP auto-detects the keyboard at bootup and loads the driver,
which I can then use with the keyboard behind the switch without any
problems.

This is really annoying: Everything could be working fine, but the driver
is not being loaded, just because Win XP "thinks" that there is no
keyboard present.

This takes be back to my initial question: Can I circumvent the
auto-detection of the PS/2 keyboard somehow and indstead *force* Windows
XP to load the corresponding keyboard driver, no matter what? (In the
past, with less automatized Windows versions, that had always been
possible.) This would solve my problem for sure.

I am grateful for any help.

Best regards
Thorsten Eckardt

Yves Leclerc schrieb:
If you are using an electronic KVM switch, then the swithc should be
providing a PS/2 keyboard/mouse signal correctly, all the time. These type
os switches do this since you may not have a chance to have a keyboard
"selected" to each booting system.

Yves, thank you for your advice. I am indeed using an electronic KVM
switch - in fact even a rather advanced one. Let me mention again that
ALL operation systems BUT Windows XP work absolutely fine with the
switch: Linux isn'T causing any trouble, Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0 and
2000 are fine (on the same computer, I've tried it all), and good old
DOS is also fine.

Just and only XP does not load the standard keyboard driver - it simply
boots without any keyboard support. The PS/2 mouse is working perfectly,
though - no matter what pc I select on the KVM switch during bootup
(just as it should be).

Any ideas? Anyone? Who knows how I can force XP to disable the
auto-detect keyboard feature and - instead - load the standard keyboard
driver under any circumstances?

Thorsten

Hi again,

I have not been able to resolve my problem properly. Apparently I don't
have a chance to make XP load the keyboard driver when my keyboard is
hooked up through the KVM switch.

However, I have found a decent work-around: Instead of shutting down the
PC, I just set it to hibernate. I am quite surprised that the following
procedure actually works:

1. At first, I connect a keyboard directly to the PS/2 port and start
Windows XP. As it should be, the keyboard is recognized and the standard
keyboard driver is loaded.
2. During bootup - no later than at the login screen - I disconnect the
keyboard from the PS/2 port and replace it by the KVM switch. Because
the keyboard driver is already loaded, the keyboard behind the KVM
switch is now working absolutely fine.
3. Now I do not shut down the computer, but always send it to hibernate
instead.
4. Whenever I turn the computer back on, XP still does *not* recognize
the keyboard behind the KVM switch. The latter works anyway. Why? Well,
coming out of hibernate mode, the OS loads the previous RAM state (that
was saved to disk) back into memory - and there the keyboard driver is
still running from before going into hibernate...

The only disadvantage of this work-around: Once in ten days I go through
the described procedure (switching cables, etc.). This way I can
guarantee that windows gets a "fresh" restart every now and then.

Regards
Thorsten