It sounds like a joke nowadays, but in the days before PS/2 it was actually pretty useful. The predecessor of PS/2 was hot plug capable and many PCs did not use but some rather obscure key-presses to get into the BIOS setup. If the system did not show you the necessary key by default and you didn't know the correct key, you simply pulled the keyboard plug out and started the system. Then you got the infamous "No keyboard found. Press any key to continue." message, often followed by something like "Or press to enter setup." Then you just plug the keyboard back in and continue. We had some systems where provoking this error was the only way to get into the BIOS setup. Ah, those were the days...
WHY DO PEOPLE STILL SAY THIS? THERES 2 FUCKING POSSIBLE WAYS AND ONLY 1 WORKS ON TOP OF THAT, IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH LIGHT TO SEE YOU CAN FUCKING SEE WHICH WAY IS CORRECT AND IF YOU CANT SEE YOUR OWN FUCKING HANDS WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TRYING TO PLUG SOMETHING IN TURN A FUCKING LIGHT ON EVEN IF ITS YOUR PHONE SCREEN I CANT TELL IF THIS IS A JOKE FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!
A PS/3 would be perfect as a dedicated USB port with more features and backwards compatible. or Maybe special drivers that can make USB send System Interrupts.
The virgin usb keyboard: > Has to wait his turn to get the cpu's attention > Politely asks the cpu to accept the new input > General purpose port, has to identify himself as a keyboard before the system know what to do with him > Gets blocked when a virus kills all access to usb devices > Hot sawappable and is okay with that > Gets confused when you hit too many keys The chad PS/2 keyboard: > Always works, doesn't stop until power goes down > Literally interrupts the cpu, tells it to work on its input before anything else > Has his own dedicated port, system know who he is before even the bios is loaded > Literally impossible to kill besides unplugging it > Not hot swappable, when unplugged it crashes the whole system like a true alpha peripheral > Couldn't care less how many keys you press, has full native n-key rollover
For extreme overclockers, the USB controller will stop working at very low temperatures which is inconvenient for liquid nitrogen or helium overclocking. PS/2 on the other hand will work nonetheless allowing you to change the overclocking settings. This is why many high end overclocking motherboard still includes PS/2 ports.
Currently chilling with my Mac that must have a hub connected if i want USB type a. A bit too much of one type of you ask me, HDMI and USB a would be nice
People who claim that PS/2 is superior speaks straight bullshit, especially if they bring up latency. The difference is so unsignificant that it doesnt bring an advantage. In compatibility, PS/2 is very superior tho
@@tormodhag6824 I disagree. N-key-rollover is the biggest (and frankly, only) selling point I've seen people mention. And in my opinion it's a decent one. Especially if your USB keyboard comes with a PS/2 adaptor.
The PS/2 ports also have higher interrupt priority than the USB ports. This means it is possible for the PC to become so braindead that it will not accept any input from the USB device,. This means that even though the ctrl+alt+delete key combo would normally generate an unmaskable interrupt and crash the system, in certain cases of bad brain death the computer will refuse to respond to the keyboard and not do as told. With a PS/2 keyboard, you don't have this problem and ctrl+alt+delete will reliably crash the system as intended.
@@PescaitoFrito usb adapters aren't always wired the same and are only supported by specific keyboard. They were a transition technology and the keyboard would need to be able to run in either ps2 or usb mode, I doubt you'll find modern keyboards that support this. If it doesn't come in the box it's not supported. PS2 isn't any better than a quality USB keyboard. Back when keyboard first went USB they were all crap you could clearly see the difference, it was a few years before you started getting 8+ key rollover and 1000hz polling rates. These days you can't tell the difference and the benefits of USB outway PS2. However I'm still glad I have a PS2 port, I haven't used it for years but I like having the option. Also who cares if ctrl+alt+del doesn't work, your restarting your pc anyway at that point or you could just replug the usb keyboard.
PS/2 connections are also BAE for troubleshooting. Like Linus stated, PS/2 can be recognized as soon as the computer is powered on unlike USB where the USB-Controller has to be loaded. But yes, it is also annoying not being able to hot swap...
PS/2 devices can be hot-swapped, just not all the time. I've experienced times when doing so causes the keyboard or mouse to not be recognized until you reboot, but instances of it causing damage are very rare. And a lot of times you can get away with it with no problems.
Officially not hot swappable, but rarely causes any problems if you do. If it was plugged in and already recognized at boot time, then most of the time you can unplug and replug without reboot.
31337 Clan Certain emulators, dual booting and other stuff I do can cause you to have driver glitches with Windows 10 and when that happens you can't use USB mice or keyboards that require drivers.
What are you talking about? I've used Windows 10 since its release and it has never rejected my keyboard or mouse or had problems with connectivity or response. I hate Microsuck as much as anyone but ironically, the connectivity has never been an issue for me.
I do weird things with Linux and emulators that Windows 10 doesn't like, it really isn't a big deal though because it's easily fixed with a Ps2 keyboard. My main problem with windows 10 is the constant forced updates that change my settings and always seem to make something stop working.
The good about PS/2 is that you don't use the USB, so if you have not so much USB Ports, you use the PS/2 the problem is: Don't have in Laptop's. And laptops, are where the USB problem starts.
3 is just enough ports for me, but if I ever wanted to connect another thing to a port I'll need to swap something out. I usually don't need more than three but if I do it's an annoyance.
It used to make a difference, when processors were slower, and so many things used USB & competed for its bandwidth. I gave up on PS\2, when it stopped offering a performance advantage & actually seemed to hinder performance. The baud rate is limited on PS\2.
Jj BB i have a 1 core 2 ghz and 512 mb ram with 400 clock speed with a asus something gpu with 256 mb vram. I play gta vii, witcher 5, fallout 13 old vegas and half life 3 with extra high settings. I think im going to sell it to nasa they said it was a super computer and they want to pay 10000billion bitcoins.
Still today, if the computer has a PS2 port. It is more reliable with keyboards when there are problems. It is still my first choice and is my tech keyboard when I'm working on other people's computers. Also leaves more USB ports to be free and open for other devices. The other reason why it's nicer, is trouble shooting and trying to get into BIOS. PS/2 seems to work better. Personally, my primary keyboard was made in 1995. They don't make it like that anymore. Only two or three keyboards in the world has its much better layout. Really, it is not difficult to make a keyboard with a big backspace key and a big L shape enter key. BenQ makes one... Finally.
4 Month late: But what you describe is any ISO keyboard (instead of ANSI)? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#/media/File:Physical_keyboard_layouts_comparison_ANSI_ISO_KS_ABNT_JIS.png
@Toby Henderson The Adapter I use is not just a "Plug-Plug" thing the size of a Thimble but a KVM Switch. Does both Keyboard & Mouse. I do not think a simple Non-Electronic Adapter will work.
I had an old PS/2 KVM switch so that I could access all my PCs (servers) from a single console. It became increasingly more difficult to find motherboards with PS2 ports and so I turned to USB to PS/2 adapters. That was a nightmare - you never knew when the system would stop recognizing the devices. So I broke down and bought a USB KVM switch and, except for a slight bit of latency between switching from one computer to another, it works well. Also, Tunnelbear does not support Torrent software, making it almost worthless.
We only have an old NEC Windows 95 keyboard and an old Compaq mouse that came from a 5100 or something. The funny thing is this is all being used on a Windows 7 computer. I still like it though.
@@TheSpiritOfTheWest I was given a Win 95 NEC "complete system" than was used for 4 hours & put away. I recycled the Keyboard/Mouse/CPU but kept his acc. 'bullet proof" HP Deskjet932C Printer & 14" CRT Monitor. I also had a German built Keyboard but it took too much Desk space.
Tom F Wow, I didn't had that when I had a PC back in 2003. Do you know if the ports are still colored green and purple? Because it would be weird if they still color coded the ports if they are interchangeable.
Some older motherboards (5-8 years old) won't let you into the bios because the USB keyboard input isn't recognized initially. PS/2 is then the only way to get the computer into the BIOS setup. Always good to have a PS/2 keyboard available for that if you service older machines.
PS/2 is better. Why? Because when I was installing windows onto a new SSD recently, apparently I didn't have the right USB drivers, as my keyboard and mouse were totally useless. Ever tried installing Windows without a mouse or keyboard?
I had an issue with an error log file somewhere, endlessly filling itself and creating new ones until the drive was full. CPU sat at 90%. Went for a total reinstall, drive died. New drive was perfect, but the mb didn't recognise USB devices. I had to raid the parts bin in the loft for a 20 year old PS/2 keyboard!!
Yes, on my 2014 Dell laptop. Keyboard and trackpad failed during that shitass Windows 8.1 install process. Had to use the touch screen, which functioned. Gee, I wonder what that OS was made for...
I had the a Microsoft Sidewinder Dual Strike controller when it launched in 1999 as one of the first USB only controllers. I was amazed of the nature of USB at the time and how you could attach your device without shutting the computer down. It was such amazing deal!
Worth noting that interrupts have significantly more 'initial' overhead than starting a polling window. Polling is generally bad practice for events that do NOT happen often, since the system will spend a lot of time waiting around for nothing, which is even worse than the interrupt overhead. However, in the case of a mouse which moves around constantly, there's arguably an advantage to polling over firing 100s of interrupts a second to the OS and waiting for the interrupt handler. If you know that the mouse is always going to be moving (example: FPS game) you may as well check it for yourself frequently instead of waiting to be interrupted over and over again.
This holds even more truth on todays multithreaded systems. However, as a coder, I find polling aesthetically ugly. But that's a problem in my head, not the pc.
Yeah, sure, fps, but that's just only one particular use. For most uses the interrupt system should be better than polling system. However, we are (sadly) driven by industrial efficiency, rather than user focused. So the predominant idea is to produce more computers with the simpler factory lines, which includes less different ports, if possible only one (some computers are so useless that don't even have an ethernet port)
@@alfredomartinezcaceres3936 None of this is true though, as USB's polling (even USB1.1 with its 12Mbit/s) is still faster than PS/2's interupts. The total time USB takes to poll and process a scancode from a USB keyboard vs the time it takes a PS/2 keyboard to send its scancode using an interupt is in the range of 15-100 times faster than PS/2 (depending on USB version). Besides that, most PS/2 ports on computers the last decade or so are just connected to the USB controller on your pc, which has a backwards compatible mode for PS/2. This means for most people that have used PS/2 keyboards the last decade or so, they do not have interupts.
For keyboards it makes sense, as it was designed for, for mice it might make less sense sending 100 or even up to 200 interrupts. I'm not knowledgeable enough to judge. Early ps/2 mice, like the microsoft scroll wheel mouse, did only send 31 interrupts and you could change to a max of 62. Later mice did 100 by default, with easy changeable to 200 in the mouse properties
“VPNs are hard to use” Uhhhh. I was overseas for 4 years, used countless VPNs, including tunnelbear, which was complete shit, and none of them were more complicated than simply pressing the “on” button.
@@Humaricslastcall There are very few BIOS's which actually support this though. Mostly because USB has become so prevalent that there's simply no need to even include a PS/2 port, much less provide additional functions for it. Systems often come with more USB ports than most people will ever need to use. I have USB ports on the front, on the back and on the top of the machine. Of which I use about 6 at most, and that's if I'm using the Occulus Rift (3x USB 3.0 for Occulus, 1x Mouse, 1x KB, 1xGamepad). I still have another 6 unused ports in total. Mileage will differ for everyone, I guess, but for most people USB is more than sufficient.
Another downside to PS/2 interfaces is that they talk at around 10kbps, so you're going to get delay from the data transfer instead of the polling delay.
10000 bytes per second, just to send a single byte signal. that's 10k operations per second. if we convert that to milliseconds, that's 10 operations a millisecond (aka 0,1 milliseconds per operation). my monitor refreshes every 2.4 milliseconds. I think I can handle a 0,1 millisecond operation, by the time my screen has refreshed i could have pressed 24 keys, at least if i was from X-Men.
PS2 isn't superior at all. It is the same than usb 1.0 only if you push one key at a time, but if there are more more keys pressed, it's always worse. This is because one USB 1.0 packet takes equal time to transmit as one PS2 packet, but the ps2 packets only hold one key on/off command, and the USB ones hold up to 6 key states plus the ALT/SHIFT/CTRL/WINDOWS states (left and right ones), totalling 12 keys. (and that's just usb 1.0, it gets faster on the later versions.) Also, on PS2 , the message of a key release , takes twice the time than the message of pressing a key. The lack of speed is by far more important than any other usb latency problem. I used as reference Ben Eater's video "The USB Protocol"
@@JackPorter 10Kbps is 10,000 Bytes per second now? No, 10KBps would be 10,000 Bytes per second (notice the b vs B, bit vs Byte, seems like a small difference but it matters here :P) PS/2 doesn't just send a keystroke, it sends a scancode. Each key press generates a scancode, each key release also generates a scancode. Most keys have a 1 Byte scancode generating around 10 bits of data, some keys have a 2 Byte scancode. So in reality the bandwidth isn't 10,000 keys per second but more like 600-700, which still seems higher than a human would type but isn't anything special in terms of speed. Btw, your monitor doesn't refresh every 2.4 milliseconds, or it would have a 461.7Hz refreshrate, many times higher than even the best HDMI standard can handle.
Your reference to the advantages that PS/2 can give you when you are having boot problems -- this is SPOT ON. I realized this the first time I upgraded my Linux OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and it didn't want to recognize any USB keyboards I plugged in. It was time to return to PS/2. And yes, I am also an IT guy. :-) Sometimes, simpler is better.
Justin Noker Nope...,That would be either USB or the Antenna socket on the back of any TV. Good luck using type c to watch tv or finding type c sticks. Plus a type A would fit on most phones had they made them half a centemeter thicker.
Yes. Recently, I was working on creating my own USB drivers for homemade USB devices but we can't imagine the quantity of data sent over USB ports especially for keyboards and mice! Btw, by looking at the PS/2 connector pinout, it seems that we have the same signals as I2C or unidirectionnal SPI buses! It should be interesting to make a few experiments with it. There is this interrupt controller 8259A that allows the CPU to do its own business and switch to keyboard/mouse activity whenever a PS/2 signal triggers an IRQ. My motherboard has only one PS/2 port (half green half purple) which is strange. So someone has to choose between using it for keyboard or for mouse. As far as I know, I have never seen PS/2 wireless devices like keyb and mouse so for comfort I guess it would be easier to choose USB. Lately, the USB mice I had, demonstrated erratic behaviours (no response to moves as well as to buttons pressed) and I guess (but have no proof) that a PS/2 mouse would work better. Regarding the other ports, I am perfectly happy with no LPT DB 25 port at all but having so electronic stuff to do every now and again, I miss the serial port DB9 a lot!
Thank you, Techquickie!!! I just saw this video and it explains a recent phenomenon with my PC--my USB keyboard has been shutting down (and not waking up) after inactivity during the day (my USB mouse connection seems immune to this issue). After much Internet searching I discovered that USB connections are subject to Win 10 power settings. But this video went further by highlighting what is actually happening when the PC turns off inactive USB peripherals. I am going back to PS/2 connections!!
Years ago our office IT people swapped out our department's IBM Model M keyboards for the newer "better" DELL PS/2 keyboards during an upgrade. I asked IT if I could have the "old" keyboards and they said "sure take them we are just going to throw them out"-I took five Model Ms home that night. I still have them 20 years later and working fine.
Model M keyboards are lovely, I have one of the USB ones from Unicomp. However, unless they've changed their trackball tech in the past few years, the atrocious inbuilt trackball on the version I have _really_ isn't worth the extra money. It's some outdated analogue roller design. Still a great keyboard, even if part of it is essentially useless!
my mouse is neutered, more cyborg, lazers, ect, but soon ill reinstall his balls, with logitech brand trackballs, 100% ready to take on the track and field sports
you can even use the PS/2 keyboard to power on the computer when it's off, by pressing a certain key or key combination, depending on the motherboard BIOS settings, which saves me from having to reach to my desktop to press the power key, when I can just simply press Right Alt + Print Screen key to power it on
I'm actually glad that 6 years later - they are still putting a combined keyb/mouse ps/2 port on motherboards because I like old tech and I like to use new old stock input devices on my modern computer. It's especially useful for vintage mechanical keyboard enjoyers but I like a few different membrane boards from back in the day as well as my mechanicals. You can get some good quality serial/ps/2 to USB adapters these days but it's just satisfying to use it the way it was intended 15-30 years after it was made.
Explaining the joke makes it not funny anymore: Isabella is one of the main characters from Phineas & Ferb. Most episodes have her ask the protagonist the question "What are you doing?" and the answer is usually something unusual.
PS/2 pins are plenty durable. In my 5 years of plugging and replugging connectors when swapping computer towers, I've never damaged the connecter pins. Well all I typically use are 15 years and older keyboards anyway. So they are of course built better than modern keyboards.
I have an active PS2 to USB converter since half of my hardware doesn't have PS2 ports. (this thing : www.amazon.com/Sewell-Active-Adapter-Keyboard-Mouse/dp/B008J56RVY )
I've been using the same IBM keyboard for 20+years via ps/2 connection. It's just a good keyboard. It's comfortable and I can rest my hand on it without accidentally pressing and unwanted keys. Idk, it just feels right.
He doesn't even mention the biggest reason that i use a PS2 keyboard: i can boot up my PC from being shut down (not sleeping) by pressing a key (PS2 BIOS option).
No. I'm not talking about any kind of sleep or hibernation, I'm talking about Shut Down (fast startup can also be turned off). I've never seen an option for USB to do this.
@@stephensnell5707 And yet, switching USB keyboard and mouse over a KVM switch is usually unreliable. We're not even talking about the cheap KVM switches people have at home, we're talking >$3500 KVM switches with RJ45 (not ethernet) cabling and they still often drop the mouse or keyboard connection when switching... PS/2 has never had that issue so in most deployments we still use PS/2, even though technically it is inferior, switching USB between computers was never intended and as such, rarely works stable.
@@nasc1333 2019, and I am still rocking my old PS/2 compaq keyboard! (Its like 19-21 years old) PS/2 masterrace represent! o/ All your ports are belong to us!
@Tiny Metal Tube USB is for more than just HID, imagine what happens to the shared bus when you're cruising through an external drive (as an example, doing routine backups) or a webcam for streaming. Those high bandwidth devices running full steam will choke out nearly all other devices or more likely be throttled by the hub and suffer loss in performance. It's a /universal/ serial bus, not just a slot to stick overpriced flashing RGB keyboards into. It's bad to tell people there really isn't a need to consider PS/2 over USB when there are very clear and important advantages to reviving the work-horse protocol, and as someone who has had to work with USB hardware I absolutely despise how cluttered and bloated the whole thing is from the chips all the way to the kernel USB stack; dealing with it makes everything slower and particularly affects mobile and embedded devices badly (don't forget the use case of USB isn't limited to desktops with enough cycles to make it imperceptible under normal loads). PS/2 certainly had issues, but USB took it all and made it suck then suck faster, and now it sucks fast at much higher amperage for extra fun. I can't wait to see how many OEM PSUs fail when the charging ports proliferate on prebuilts and laptops that should never have them and some cheap device actually tries to pull 2.5 or 5A out of a common Dell or HP. (For even more fun, imagine what all that rippling on the USB power rails is and/or can do to all the devices on the bus!)
@@ElenraiSame here only HP PS2 Keyboard & Tracking Ball Mouse, & 1995/96 HP Pavilion Monitor w/ built-in Amplified Loudspeakers. Used everyday, no issues. I also have a Gen 2 Microsoft Mouse. It's kinda slow, but still works without issue.
I still use a serial port on a near daily basis for custom hardware. Thankfully a lot of motherboards still support it via a header. True, it can be emulated with a USB device, but that adds a level of failure in drivers and the port number can change between uses (COM4, 5, 6....). That physical port is always COM1 and always works.
The fact that ps/2 is not hot swappable is a major pain. Many people are caught by this. The number of times that I've had to tell people to turn off their computer, unplug the mouse/keyboard, plug it back in again, then turn the computer back on. If I had a nickel... Also, with the lovely Windows 10 fast startup feature, ps/2 peripherals are often not detected. Grrr
i used a ps/2 keyboard for years that was made for windows 2000, it was warped, and years later the top row of numbers stopped working but it was definitely "ole faithful" for anything that needed repaired
One thing that I love about PS/2 is that you don’t have to use up any of your USB ports and having to buy adapters for more of them to get more extensions or accessories.
James TheGamer usb devices need to have signed drivers associated with them when connected. You can inject malware or tell a system to get fake drivers which can then grab viruses and such. Which is why you should never use a USB key that you found on the ground.
Usb ports can be used for other things such as flash drives so things that have a USB port can put unwanted files onto your computer. Ps/2 ports will not allow files to be transferred. This is why IT workers and government buildings will use ps/2
There always is a workaround. You could just emulate a PS2 keyboard, and your done. This is like BasUSB but with ps2 edit: so if you're afraid of USB ports, then better not use computers at all :b
The day I got a Gravis GamePad, I wept with joy, then hooked it up to my sound card, which is where we generally hooked up our joysticks. As for my keyboard, the first (486) PC I got in '94 was still using the 5 pin AT connector, and the mouse used that 9-pin serial connection..... 16-year-old me was so naive. 23 years later, wireless mechanical keyboard, wireless laser mouse and wireless Xbox 360 controller.
Logitech G613, might not have all that tricked RGB lighting and such, but got it on Black Friday for $100 Canadian (as opposed to $170) so I'm not complaining too heavily. Sure, it would have been nice to get Cherry switches and thusly the much larger selection of after-market keycaps, but the Romer-G ones seem to on par with Cherry MX Browns.
I've recently run into those USB compatibility issues when upgrading my PC and building a new one for my wife. I had to try a handful of USB keyboards before finding one that the BIOS would see. The next step would have been to dig out a PS/2 model from the technology graveyard.
most motherboard companies actually have KB/M PS/2 combination ports on their motherboards, even on some high end ones. But not the majority, you are right. What's less common is separate ports for KB/M PS/2 (one port for mouse and one port for keyboard).
PS2 keybaord much better for gaming, unless you have a special Gaming keyboard. I cna press 7-8 keys at the same time and they all work, while on a normal USM keyboard it starts beeping with just 2-3 key presses at the same time.
Direct memory mapped IO is the new standard from what I understand. Polling died with interrupts and from what I understand it is certainly possible for a USB mouse to send an interrupt in a modern OS if the OS can understand it and the USB device has well written and current drivers. Memory Mapped IO works by simply giving the USB device direct access to say an 8 byte chunk of memory. Whenever the mouse needs do do anything it writes data to this memory segment and then places an interrupt in the CPU interrupt queue to tell the CPU to act on it. The CPU then picks from the work list in the queue. Works much faster and better depending on system load and doesnt waste CPU cycles.
USB does not have a way for a device to send an interrupt, ever. It physically does not support that so even if the OS supports it, the hardware cannot. The only way for USB to cause an interrupt would be for the CPU to poll the keyboard/mouse, process the data and then have the CPU throw an interrupt for no reason. Memory mapped IO is a general term in hardware, as of USB4 this is not supported nor has it been. The functionality you describe is basically how USB works, a device is polled, the response is stored in memory and the CPU processes it. I have not ever seen a USB controller that has an interrupt signal output, so this is purely timed by the CPU.
USB is for modern systems and with USB legacy enable in the mainboard bios it works for older operating systems with DOS mouse driver like the Cutemouse-driver too.
Iller Chiller it depends on the way the board was wired. I have a model M which means that it was really only wired for 2-key rollover. I good test is to hit both shift keys and type "the lazy brown fox....." and if any keys don't show up it means you have some "number"-key rollover but not n-key rollover.
Ghosting and NKRO are not the same thing. You test NKRO by pressing all keys down at once, and if all of them register properly, it's NKRO. Ghosting is if the wiring of some key combination interferes with another key, either making it not register, or sometimes even register without you pressing it. THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOG. (Typed on a 4KRO PS/2 keyboard with both shift keys pressed down, Also it has ghosting, just not with the shift keys) On the other hand a keyboard may "support" NKRO, but it can have ghosting (effectively making it NOT NKRO). So no, stop recommending the "press both shift keys and try every key to test" for testing NKRO. All you may find out is that it's got ghosting, which isn't even reliable. You're better off with a test like this: www.gigahype.com/nkey-rollover-test-page/
The Phoenix long live both :D I still have two working ps2s and a ton of keyboards and mice. One ps2 is for the back of the car and the other for at home
I have to say, I never had much of an issue with any of the PS/2 peripherals. They seemed to work just fine. USB is a bit more convenient though, as you can plug whatever into it, but if in some alternate dimension we'd stuck with PS/2 I'm sure they wouldn't be having any trouble with the keyboard and mouse in the modern day.
I still rock a PS/2 keyboard that I got well over 15 years ago. It's a Microsoft branded keyboard that has those fancy macro buttons at the top that don't work unless you install their software but I' don't use them. I'll probably continue to use it until it stops working but until then, if it a'int broke, don't fix it.
I totally forgot about this phase Linus went through- where each sentence was delivered like he was presenting closing points of a TED talk- but it was throughout the ENTIRE video
![[RANT] The DUMBEST Thing About USB](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gShRBsahzXg/mqdefault.jpg)
no keyboard detected press any key to continue
never found the 'any key' :(
Ikr it funny cause it not there
or just click a mouse button?
plot twist
It sounds like a joke nowadays, but in the days before PS/2 it was actually pretty useful. The predecessor of PS/2 was hot plug capable and many PCs did not use but some rather obscure key-presses to get into the BIOS setup. If the system did not show you the necessary key by default and you didn't know the correct key, you simply pulled the keyboard plug out and started the system.
Then you got the infamous "No keyboard found. Press any key to continue." message, often followed by something like "Or press to enter setup." Then you just plug the keyboard back in and continue. We had some systems where provoking this error was the only way to get into the BIOS setup. Ah, those were the days...
Beaker those were the (bad) days
PS/2 is obviously superior as you don't have to flip it 13 times to figure out which way it plugs in.
Zared Martorana proof that USBs exist in 4 dimensions.
Zared Martorana 1 year 1 month 1 day ._.
lmao
nice
WHY DO PEOPLE STILL SAY THIS?
THERES 2 FUCKING POSSIBLE WAYS AND ONLY 1 WORKS
ON TOP OF THAT, IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH LIGHT TO SEE YOU CAN FUCKING SEE WHICH WAY IS CORRECT
AND IF YOU CANT SEE YOUR OWN FUCKING HANDS WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TRYING TO PLUG SOMETHING IN
TURN A FUCKING LIGHT ON EVEN IF ITS YOUR PHONE SCREEN
I CANT TELL IF THIS IS A JOKE
FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!
feel like its time for a new version of the PS/2 maybe PS/3?
da, gamers needs separate keyboard and mice ports like PS/#, that directly rule CPU.
A PS/3 would be perfect as a dedicated USB port with more features and backwards compatible. or Maybe special drivers that can make USB send System Interrupts.
we'll put valve right on it.
@@nacroni PS/2 was named after an IBM computer lineup. The PersonalSystem/2
And then comes PS/4 and PS/4 pro.
The virgin usb keyboard:
> Has to wait his turn to get the cpu's attention
> Politely asks the cpu to accept the new input
> General purpose port, has to identify himself as a keyboard before the system know what to do with him
> Gets blocked when a virus kills all access to usb devices
> Hot sawappable and is okay with that
> Gets confused when you hit too many keys
The chad PS/2 keyboard:
> Always works, doesn't stop until power goes down
> Literally interrupts the cpu, tells it to work on its input before anything else
> Has his own dedicated port, system know who he is before even the bios is loaded
> Literally impossible to kill besides unplugging it
> Not hot swappable, when unplugged it crashes the whole system like a true alpha peripheral
> Couldn't care less how many keys you press, has full native n-key rollover
Yes
alpha peripheral 😂
I love this.
ThatLonelyFox you spent way too much time on this for just 100 or so likes
FUCK YEAH!
Holy crap! That's my stock photo for the ps2 adapter in the video thumbnail!
Wow!
Really!? Or are you joking?
Your photo's link please
He is joking lmfao
@@wof8131 How do you know? I barely know anything about stockphotos but how do you know.
For extreme overclockers, the USB controller will stop working at very low temperatures which is inconvenient for liquid nitrogen or helium overclocking. PS/2 on the other hand will work nonetheless allowing you to change the overclocking settings. This is why many high end overclocking motherboard still includes PS/2 ports.
Another advantage of PS/2 that seems nobody mentioned is the fact that dedicated ports also free up space for another USB devices you want to connect.
Tbh it's not like people constantly use the USBs at the back. Heck, most people cannot even use them without moving the case.
@@azaria_phd that takes away advantage of USB,its plug and play features
@@UsmanSiddiq1 Yup, many people too lazy to use the USB port in the back, and only rely to use front panel USB or use USB hub in their desk lol
@@da_pawz Really? Just about all my back ports are used - I'd welcome freeing one from my keyboard. Almost seems like a waste of a slot, honestly.
Currently chilling with my Mac that must have a hub connected if i want USB type a. A bit too much of one type of you ask me, HDMI and USB a would be nice
Hey, you should use that high speed camera to measure PS/2 vs USB latency.
With and without Ps2 Rate running I presume ;)
Kind of strange this about latency didn't came up in the video.
People who claim that PS/2 is superior speaks straight bullshit, especially if they bring up latency. The difference is so unsignificant that it doesnt bring an advantage. In compatibility, PS/2 is very superior tho
I agree!
Poll rate is 1ms for USB1 and 0.125ms for USB2. Hardware and drivers are free to do worse than that, of course.
@@tormodhag6824 I disagree. N-key-rollover is the biggest (and frankly, only) selling point I've seen people mention. And in my opinion it's a decent one. Especially if your USB keyboard comes with a PS/2 adaptor.
The PS/2 ports also have higher interrupt priority than the USB ports.
This means it is possible for the PC to become so braindead that it will not accept any input from the USB device,. This means that even though the ctrl+alt+delete key combo would normally generate an unmaskable interrupt and crash the system, in certain cases of bad brain death the computer will refuse to respond to the keyboard and not do as told.
With a PS/2 keyboard, you don't have this problem and ctrl+alt+delete will reliably crash the system as intended.
Thats some usefull info
Had this happen last week, at startup, with an old computer. Good thing I have a spare ps/2.
sadly my G15 logitech doesnt work with the USB adapter to PS/2
Nor my mouse m100 normaly usb or the g9 mouse none of them :( i waste my money.
@@PescaitoFrito usb adapters aren't always wired the same and are only supported by specific keyboard. They were a transition technology and the keyboard would need to be able to run in either ps2 or usb mode, I doubt you'll find modern keyboards that support this. If it doesn't come in the box it's not supported. PS2 isn't any better than a quality USB keyboard. Back when keyboard first went USB they were all crap you could clearly see the difference, it was a few years before you started getting 8+ key rollover and 1000hz polling rates. These days you can't tell the difference and the benefits of USB outway PS2. However I'm still glad I have a PS2 port, I haven't used it for years but I like having the option. Also who cares if ctrl+alt+del doesn't work, your restarting your pc anyway at that point or you could just replug the usb keyboard.
@@Commander_ZiN So for games specifically requiring speed and key combinations of more than 1, is it better to use PS / 2 or USB?
Yo, I have a decent reason for using a PS/2 port: saving USB ports if you're low on them.
Valid
i am with you man thats right
Amen.
USB expansion bays
But why not _both_ ?
Most of those downsides wouldn't affect me as i never unplug my mouse or keyboard unless they are having an issue.
2:13
The legend says that the mouse is still waiting for a response from the CPU
stil waiting.....
But the CPU never wrote back...
"Right click" -Last online 69 years ago
Notice me CPU-senpai!!
The mouse said it was moving left. It didn't know that it was also left behind.
Where is the any key?
@@Deaft_shot i was looking at the monitor
on the pc front, but you can also open your pc and mash a piece of metal around the motherboard to turn it off (permanent change)
@HOSEK1 idiot, it was on my table not the keyboard.
Nice Simpsons reference 🤣
on the PS/3 keyboards
PS/2 connections are also BAE for troubleshooting. Like Linus stated, PS/2 can be recognized as soon as the computer is powered on unlike USB where the USB-Controller has to be loaded.
But yes, it is also annoying not being able to hot swap...
Pros and cons to everything in life really.
PS/2 devices can be hot-swapped, just not all the time. I've experienced times when doing so causes the keyboard or mouse to not be recognized until you reboot, but instances of it causing damage are very rare. And a lot of times you can get away with it with no problems.
VWestlife careful, VW, saying that kind of thing is liable the get a $user to break something.
usually you can buy PS/2 splitters, but sometimes said splitters are unreliable.
Officially not hot swappable, but rarely causes any problems if you do. If it was plugged in and already recognized at boot time, then most of the time you can unplug and replug without reboot.
"Having my D pushed down" - Linus 2017
"...D key..."
Sounds even better
Ash Ketchum LOLLLLL
LinusSexTips 😂
Lol
+Specter Oh shut up...
Me: so my pc has 3 usb ports and 1 ps2 por-
My Friend: So it can play ps2 games?
Me: Well yes, but actually kind of
Tyler Dietz so what games do you have ?
Nothing lol
Hes too young
@@svenskafilosofem because its modern motherboard
Snag
Ps2 mice and keyboards have saved my butt many times when Windows 10 decided it didn't want to recognize their USB counterparts anymore.
Lawrence Lentini fr ? WTH were you using bc that sounds damn near impossible
31337 Clan Certain emulators, dual booting and other stuff I do can cause you to have driver glitches with Windows 10 and when that happens you can't use USB mice or keyboards that require drivers.
What are you talking about? I've used Windows 10 since its release and it has never rejected my keyboard or mouse or had problems with connectivity or response. I hate Microsuck as much as anyone but ironically, the connectivity has never been an issue for me.
I do weird things with Linux and emulators that Windows 10 doesn't like, it really isn't a big deal though because it's easily fixed with a Ps2 keyboard. My main problem with windows 10 is the constant forced updates that change my settings and always seem to make something stop working.
Same here, the forced update made my bios got glitch regarding USB ports
The good about PS/2 is that you don't use the USB, so if you have not so much USB Ports, you use the PS/2 the problem is: Don't have in Laptop's.
And laptops, are where the USB problem starts.
If you really are that desperate, a small USB hub would work.
This is legit , especially lately , when every mobile device moves to less and less ports .
Get a laptop with 3 USB ports. 3 aren't enough for you ??? Get a gadget that makes more USB portes from 1.
I have a usb hub so it isnt a problem ;)
3 is just enough ports for me, but if I ever wanted to connect another thing to a port I'll need to swap something out. I usually don't need more than three but if I do it's an annoyance.
It used to make a difference, when processors were slower, and so many things used USB & competed for its bandwidth. I gave up on PS\2, when it stopped offering a performance advantage & actually seemed to hinder performance. The baud rate is limited on PS\2.
This Linus guy is awesome,he should make a channel named Linus tech tips
Yeah, i feel he could make an entire business outta that.
Yeah! And maybe like... hire some other guys, help others RUclipsrs make like cool JARVIS type systems in their companies
he does it’s called linus drops every fucking thing and breaks it on youtube!!
Wouldnt that be amazing
Viral Dev a good idea from a very good boy
I play old games on a nuclear reactor so i don't need to worry about latency
Jj BB i have a 1 core 2 ghz and 512 mb ram with 400 clock speed with a asus something gpu with 256 mb vram. I play gta vii, witcher 5, fallout 13 old vegas and half life 3 with extra high settings. I think im going to sell it to nasa they said it was a super computer and they want to pay 10000billion bitcoins.
Also latency doesnt even exist on it
Oh good.
keep dat boi cool
That would be pb for 'petabyte'
Still today, if the computer has a PS2 port. It is more reliable with keyboards when there are problems. It is still my first choice and is my tech keyboard when I'm working on other people's computers.
Also leaves more USB ports to be free and open for other devices.
The other reason why it's nicer, is trouble shooting and trying to get into BIOS. PS/2 seems to work better.
Personally, my primary keyboard was made in 1995. They don't make it like that anymore. Only two or three keyboards in the world has its much better layout. Really, it is not difficult to make a keyboard with a big backspace key and a big L shape enter key.
BenQ makes one... Finally.
4 Month late:
But what you describe is any ISO keyboard (instead of ANSI)? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#/media/File:Physical_keyboard_layouts_comparison_ANSI_ISO_KS_ABNT_JIS.png
@Toby Henderson The Adapter I use is not just a "Plug-Plug" thing the size of a Thimble but a KVM Switch. Does both Keyboard & Mouse. I do not think a simple Non-Electronic Adapter will work.
@TexasCat99, its Ps/2 NOT Ps2. Ps2 is a gaming console NOT a computer port.
@@kalijasin Oh for christ's sake shut the fuck up
@@kalijasin stfu
"Having my D key pushed down".... dang dude, thats deep
*deep*
Lmao
I had an old PS/2 KVM switch so that I could access all my PCs (servers) from a single console. It became increasingly more difficult to find motherboards with PS2 ports and so I turned to USB to PS/2 adapters. That was a nightmare - you never knew when the system would stop recognizing the devices. So I broke down and bought a USB KVM switch and, except for a slight bit of latency between switching from one computer to another, it works well. Also, Tunnelbear does not support Torrent software, making it almost worthless.
We only have an old NEC Windows 95 keyboard and an old Compaq mouse that came from a 5100 or something. The funny thing is this is all being used on a Windows 7 computer. I still like it though.
Creeper 34lol your keyboard should be worth a few hundred
Windows 7 4 life.
@@TheSpiritOfTheWest I was given a Win 95 NEC "complete system" than was used for 4 hours & put away. I recycled the Keyboard/Mouse/CPU but kept his acc. 'bullet proof" HP Deskjet932C Printer & 14" CRT Monitor. I also had a German built Keyboard but it took too much Desk space.
0:35 thats some ugly keyboard u got there
ruclips.net/video/Kpnd4OVf7oo/видео.html
It's like Lil Jon had grillz installed on the keyboard, and then somebody vomited on it.
I mean to me it looks pretty nice its probs just the camera that made it look worse like the flickering lights
give it to lil pump that ugly keyboard
get it? hahah
Violet = Keyboard
Green = Mouse
tris Do you have a PS/2 port where I can plug my tool? If not, I think we are incompatible.
PM Salvo: Or not, this was true on especially old devices, but "recent" (2000+) motherboard are fine if you switch them.
Tom F Wow, I didn't had that when I had a PC back in 2003. Do you know if the ports are still colored green and purple? Because it would be weird if they still color coded the ports if they are interchangeable.
Mine only has one port and the it is colored half green and half purple.
ZNemerald on most modern boards its just a solid colour and can be used for the keyboard or mice
Some older motherboards (5-8 years old) won't let you into the bios because the USB keyboard input isn't recognized initially. PS/2 is then the only way to get the computer into the BIOS setup. Always good to have a PS/2 keyboard available for that if you service older machines.
Linus wants to kill his audience with dad jokes.
i luled
Well, he _is_ a dad.
thats no excuse...
So puns are called dad jokes nowadays.
^Duck Only very bad puns.
I did actually bend one of those pins on one of my PS/2 keyboards
I did that too and it still works fine without the pin only thing i cannot press more then 4 keys at once
From what I've read, since USB 3.0 has full-duplex, that allows hardware interrupts again as well if it's implemented correctly in the keyboard
1:52 didn't see that coming haha
PS/2 is better. Why? Because when I was installing windows onto a new SSD recently, apparently I didn't have the right USB drivers, as my keyboard and mouse were totally useless.
Ever tried installing Windows without a mouse or keyboard?
I had an issue with an error log file somewhere, endlessly filling itself and creating new ones until the drive was full. CPU sat at 90%. Went for a total reinstall, drive died. New drive was perfect, but the mb didn't recognise USB devices. I had to raid the parts bin in the loft for a 20 year old PS/2 keyboard!!
Yes, on my 2014 Dell laptop. Keyboard and trackpad failed during that shitass Windows 8.1 install process. Had to use the touch screen, which functioned. Gee, I wonder what that OS was made for...
Private Custard Yes, by using a touch screen. Hee hee, hoho hahahahahahahaha *HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!*
You can't though with Linux you still have to option of SSH or connecting to the serial port.
All versions of windows have a addon that come with USB drivers so that doesn't happen
I had the a Microsoft Sidewinder Dual Strike controller when it launched in 1999 as one of the first USB only controllers. I was amazed of the nature of USB at the time and how you could attach your device without shutting the computer down. It was such amazing deal!
Worth noting that interrupts have significantly more 'initial' overhead than starting a polling window. Polling is generally bad practice for events that do NOT happen often, since the system will spend a lot of time waiting around for nothing, which is even worse than the interrupt overhead. However, in the case of a mouse which moves around constantly, there's arguably an advantage to polling over firing 100s of interrupts a second to the OS and waiting for the interrupt handler.
If you know that the mouse is always going to be moving (example: FPS game) you may as well check it for yourself frequently instead of waiting to be interrupted over and over again.
This holds even more truth on todays multithreaded systems. However, as a coder, I find polling aesthetically ugly. But that's a problem in my head, not the pc.
Yeah, sure, fps, but that's just only one particular use. For most uses the interrupt system should be better than polling system.
However, we are (sadly) driven by industrial efficiency, rather than user focused. So the predominant idea is to produce more computers with the simpler factory lines, which includes less different ports, if possible only one (some computers are so useless that don't even have an ethernet port)
@@alfredomartinezcaceres3936 None of this is true though, as USB's polling (even USB1.1 with its 12Mbit/s) is still faster than PS/2's interupts.
The total time USB takes to poll and process a scancode from a USB keyboard vs the time it takes a PS/2 keyboard to send its scancode using an interupt is in the range of 15-100 times faster than PS/2 (depending on USB version).
Besides that, most PS/2 ports on computers the last decade or so are just connected to the USB controller on your pc, which has a backwards compatible mode for PS/2. This means for most people that have used PS/2 keyboards the last decade or so, they do not have interupts.
For keyboards it makes sense, as it was designed for, for mice it might make less sense sending 100 or even up to 200 interrupts. I'm not knowledgeable enough to judge. Early ps/2 mice, like the microsoft scroll wheel mouse, did only send 31 interrupts and you could change to a max of 62. Later mice did 100 by default, with easy changeable to 200 in the mouse properties
“VPNs are hard to use”
Uhhhh. I was overseas for 4 years, used countless VPNs, including tunnelbear, which was complete shit, and none of them were more complicated than simply pressing the “on” button.
Major oof
Well at least LTT dumped tunnelbear
I use turbo vpn
@@Ultimateharen I really like ExpressVPN myself.
They used to be. Before you had to type in the ip and manual connect. But that hasn't been true since like 2012?
@@danielhebard1865 me too. It worked in China. That's all that matters to me
Im using a USB to PS/2 adapter just to save a USB port because I only have 2 ._.
Wouldn't it of been better to use a USB hub and get more ports rather then save just one by paying money for a adapter? No sense...
Krytern UK decent powered usb hub = $20. Usb to ps2 adapter = $0.5 (or free since most have one somewhere).
Do you still get nkey rollover this way?
Damian Anlauf Using an adapter means that you get the worst of both worlds, so I'd guess not.
qwertyuiopzxcfgh I'm not so sure because considering how PS/2 works, a USB to PS/2 adapter should not work at all, at least not a passive one.
*Pretty much, yeah.*
ye stfu
yup, even with a solid 240 fps, 1ms polling is roughly 4 times faster than the monitor refresh rate
i cant tell 40 fps from 60 fps
Potatonitep
Also interesting to know: Extreme Overclockers prefer the PS/2 Interface, because USB tends to stop working at very low temperatures
5:37
Linus: *winks*
Me: He knows!
Then I suppose you should get tunnelbear
Lol
Lmfaoooo
I have desktops with hot swappable PS/2 ports. Pins don't bend by themselves ;)
I'd rather use PS/2 to leave more USB ports open
I have never heard of hot swapping ps2 and you can use usb hubs to increase your usb ports, they don't slow down the USB transfer speed
It's actually been a thing for a while, if a given bios is compatable with it. Plug in PS/2, hear a beep, and it's ready to go. No hassle, no waiting.
usb hubs may damage your mobo by extra heating or sometimes by static
@@Nobody-eg4bi decent mobos have static protection on all ports, there are usb expansion cards, you can put like 4x usb 3.0 in a pci-e slot.
@@Humaricslastcall There are very few BIOS's which actually support this though. Mostly because USB has become so prevalent that there's simply no need to even include a PS/2 port, much less provide additional functions for it.
Systems often come with more USB ports than most people will ever need to use. I have USB ports on the front, on the back and on the top of the machine. Of which I use about 6 at most, and that's if I'm using the Occulus Rift (3x USB 3.0 for Occulus, 1x Mouse, 1x KB, 1xGamepad). I still have another 6 unused ports in total.
Mileage will differ for everyone, I guess, but for most people USB is more than sufficient.
Another downside to PS/2 interfaces is that they talk at around 10kbps, so you're going to get delay from the data transfer instead of the polling delay.
10000 bytes per second, just to send a single byte signal. that's 10k operations per second.
if we convert that to milliseconds, that's 10 operations a millisecond (aka 0,1 milliseconds per operation). my monitor refreshes every 2.4 milliseconds.
I think I can handle a 0,1 millisecond operation, by the time my screen has refreshed i could have pressed 24 keys, at least if i was from X-Men.
PS2 isn't superior at all. It is the same than usb 1.0 only if you push one key at a time, but if there are more more keys pressed, it's always worse. This is because one USB 1.0 packet takes equal time to transmit as one PS2 packet, but the ps2 packets only hold one key on/off command, and the USB ones hold up to 6 key states plus the ALT/SHIFT/CTRL/WINDOWS states (left and right ones), totalling 12 keys. (and that's just usb 1.0, it gets faster on the later versions.)
Also, on PS2 , the message of a key release , takes twice the time than the message of pressing a key.
The lack of speed is by far more important than any other usb latency problem.
I used as reference Ben Eater's video "The USB Protocol"
@@JackPorter 10Kbps is 10,000 Bytes per second now? No, 10KBps would be 10,000 Bytes per second (notice the b vs B, bit vs Byte, seems like a small difference but it matters here :P)
PS/2 doesn't just send a keystroke, it sends a scancode. Each key press generates a scancode, each key release also generates a scancode. Most keys have a 1 Byte scancode generating around 10 bits of data, some keys have a 2 Byte scancode.
So in reality the bandwidth isn't 10,000 keys per second but more like 600-700, which still seems higher than a human would type but isn't anything special in terms of speed.
Btw, your monitor doesn't refresh every 2.4 milliseconds, or it would have a 461.7Hz refreshrate, many times higher than even the best HDMI standard can handle.
3:30 when Linus gets too excited and smiles a lot you know he's gonna change his mind and say hold on
1:53 My ears… 😂😂
This comment was typed on my IBM PS2 Model M mechanical keyboard on Windows Vista Ultimate SP2, and a TinyTech PS2 mouse.
Those ps/2 port look badass and colorful
This reply was typed on my IBM PS/2 Model M mechanical keyboard. We are more numerous than people think. :D
I was with you until "Vista." Why
I still have a M$ bus mouse card and mouse, worked last time I tried it years ago, I just can't find a mobo with an ISA slot any more to plug it into.
my school uses all ps2 keyboards
The students at my old middle school use to unplug the keyboards and mice. The IT guys were always in alcoves
Broken Bucket Yeah same at my old school too.
Francisco Santos maybe.....😂
My ps2 keyboard uses all schools
My uses school all ps/2 keyboards.
Actually hdmi already has audio and video included in the cables but you can also buy ones with usb and ethernet connection integrated in the cable
but that's digital audio, gross!
Thays primerly for TV equpment use as, your monitor wont need internet connection and ethernet cables are a lot cheaper
Your reference to the advantages that PS/2 can give you when you are having boot problems -- this is SPOT ON. I realized this the first time I upgraded my Linux OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and it didn't want to recognize any USB keyboards I plugged in. It was time to return to PS/2.
And yes, I am also an IT guy. :-) Sometimes, simpler is better.
And then there's me, still having some computers who haves a serial mouse, DIN keyboard, and LPT1 printer xD
Amen
A serial mouse?
Sir, you make me proud!
Have you tried using the COM-port for LAN?
I tried once, it took 5 minutes to send an "end turn" of Heroes of might and magic.
Xd
Same here
I can Turn On my PC using PS/2 Keyboard...
James Valentine how?
Great for you, I can do the same with an USB keyboard using my UEFI mainboard.
It's nothing special
Same
I can turn on my pc just by opening my trench coat.
I can turn on my PC just by looking at it
...and then pushing the power button
Can one port to rule them all ever exist?
TheBodyOnPC USB C
Justin Noker Nope...,That would be either USB or the Antenna socket on the back of any TV. Good luck using type c to watch tv or finding type c sticks.
Plus a type A would fit on most phones had they made them half a centemeter thicker.
Doesn't offer the security and compatibility of PS/2.
Roman Bukins ... It's not yet but usb c will be the next thing unless something else comes out
Coaxial
Yes. Recently, I was working on creating my own USB drivers for homemade USB devices but we can't imagine the quantity of data sent over USB ports especially for keyboards and mice!
Btw, by looking at the PS/2 connector pinout, it seems that we have the same signals as I2C or unidirectionnal SPI buses! It should be interesting to make a few experiments with it. There is this interrupt controller 8259A that allows the CPU to do its own business and switch to keyboard/mouse activity whenever a PS/2 signal triggers an IRQ.
My motherboard has only one PS/2 port (half green half purple) which is strange. So someone has to choose between using it for keyboard or for mouse. As far as I know, I have never seen PS/2 wireless devices like keyb and mouse so for comfort I guess it would be easier to choose USB. Lately, the USB mice I had, demonstrated erratic behaviours (no response to moves as well as to buttons pressed) and I guess (but have no proof) that a PS/2 mouse would work better.
Regarding the other ports, I am perfectly happy with no LPT DB 25 port at all but having so electronic stuff to do every now and again, I miss the serial port DB9 a lot!
Thank you, Techquickie!!! I just saw this video and it explains a recent phenomenon with my PC--my USB keyboard has been shutting down (and not waking up) after inactivity during the day (my USB mouse connection seems immune to this issue). After much Internet searching I discovered that USB connections are subject to Win 10 power settings. But this video went further by highlighting what is actually happening when the PC turns off inactive USB peripherals. I am going back to PS/2 connections!!
I have a model M keyboard someone recycled at where I work. It feels fantastic.
Years ago our office IT people swapped out our department's IBM Model M keyboards for the newer "better" DELL PS/2 keyboards during an upgrade. I asked IT if I could have the "old" keyboards and they said "sure take them we are just going to throw them out"-I took five Model Ms home that night. I still have them 20 years later and working fine.
+ExWEIMan-- Check out the price on Ebay...you shoulda taken all of them!
Unicomp, Inc. bought the IBM molds and tooling for model M keyboards and still makes the! They sell both USB and PS/2 versions.
The best keyboard ever made, without a doubt.
Model M keyboards are lovely, I have one of the USB ones from Unicomp. However, unless they've changed their trackball tech in the past few years, the atrocious inbuilt trackball on the version I have _really_ isn't worth the extra money. It's some outdated analogue roller design. Still a great keyboard, even if part of it is essentially useless!
Psh ps/2 is cool... but only if you have a mouse with balls!
my mouse is neutered, more cyborg, lazers, ect, but soon ill reinstall his balls, with logitech brand trackballs, 100% ready to take on the track and field sports
Ball mice suck. You have to keep cleaning them and they keep on dying on me. laser mice are much more reliable.
geo58impala Optical mice are even better
I only use optical mice if I can.
Isn't laser mice the same thing as optical mice?
you can even use the PS/2 keyboard to power on the computer when it's off, by pressing a certain key or key combination, depending on the motherboard BIOS settings, which saves me from having to reach to my desktop to press the power key, when I can just simply press Right Alt + Print Screen key to power it on
Well you cannot use them no more as PS/2 don't exist anymore hence that is why all modern day devices use USB as USB is much more durable and robust
I'm actually glad that 6 years later - they are still putting a combined keyb/mouse ps/2 port on motherboards because I like old tech and I like to use new old stock input devices on my modern computer. It's especially useful for vintage mechanical keyboard enjoyers but I like a few different membrane boards from back in the day as well as my mechanicals. You can get some good quality serial/ps/2 to USB adapters these days but it's just satisfying to use it the way it was intended 15-30 years after it was made.
So USB is the computer equivalent of Isabella from Phineas & Ferb?
Darian Mccants I see what you did there
Darian Mccants I don't. What
Explaining the joke makes it not funny anymore:
Isabella is one of the main characters from Phineas & Ferb. Most episodes have her ask the protagonist the question "What are you doing?" and the answer is usually something unusual.
Micky strange to find a Russian time here
actually usb stands for usabella 2.0 or usabella 3.0 which is a lot more annoying
I recently got my hands on an old Model M keyboard for free... It was gonna get thrown away at my University... So I snatched it :P
Rourke Hikari Wow. Score.
They are too expensive for my liking, good find!
Ps/2 will always be useful for PC repair because sometimes the BIOS only wants to respond to a PS/2 keyboard
To make matters worse, some motherboard in my experience doesn't accept inputs from certain USB ports during boot, much less USB hubs.
PS/2 pins are plenty durable. In my 5 years of plugging and replugging connectors when swapping computer towers, I've never damaged the connecter pins. Well all I typically use are 15 years and older keyboards anyway. So they are of course built better than modern keyboards.
Never had a problem too, provided you aren’t too rough with plugging it in. My keyboard is from 2003.
Model-M user here. You will pry the beige clicky keys from my cold dead hands.
Same here. The Model M is just awesome!
Sgt Moose, Dam near governmental intervention up on old fabulous tech!.
I would rather drop dead than be forced to throw away my rubber ball mouse.
I wish I had a model M but I do have an old gateway clone that's awesome
I have an active PS2 to USB converter since half of my hardware doesn't have PS2 ports.
(this thing : www.amazon.com/Sewell-Active-Adapter-Keyboard-Mouse/dp/B008J56RVY )
A company called Unicomp, Inc., still produces the model M from IBM's original tooling. They also make a USB version.
3:28 now thats a lot of damage
FLEX TAPE!!!
How about a little more? BUCKET
I've been using the same IBM keyboard for 20+years via ps/2 connection. It's just a good keyboard. It's comfortable and I can rest my hand on it without accidentally pressing and unwanted keys. Idk, it just feels right.
He doesn't even mention the biggest reason that i use a PS2 keyboard: i can boot up my PC from being shut down (not sleeping) by pressing a key (PS2 BIOS option).
Yeah.... USB can do that too though.
No. I'm not talking about any kind of sleep or hibernation, I'm talking about Shut Down (fast startup can also be turned off). I've never seen an option for USB to do this.
I have a always on option for USB in my BIOS. I can turn on pc by a keyboard press from a shut down state
and how do u do that shit
USB Can do that too from shutdown. It's an option in BIOS as long as your computer detects that the USB device is a keyboard
Happy 30th Birthday PS/2 Port!
David Summers damn
David Summers damn, is that it, only 30? Honestly I would have guessed 35ish.
In my experience, in a data center environment, PS2 style keyboards and mice work more reliably with KVM switches than USB ones do.
That's false
USB devices are 100% better than the outdated PS/2 DEVICES
@@stephensnell5707 And yet, switching USB keyboard and mouse over a KVM switch is usually unreliable. We're not even talking about the cheap KVM switches people have at home, we're talking >$3500 KVM switches with RJ45 (not ethernet) cabling and they still often drop the mouse or keyboard connection when switching...
PS/2 has never had that issue so in most deployments we still use PS/2, even though technically it is inferior, switching USB between computers was never intended and as such, rarely works stable.
Long time ago, my friend had usb to ps2 converter. His old pc none any usb port. He tried thumbdrive with that connverter. Never heard of him since.
So he plugged a USB drive through a PS/2 port??
@large monke No he transcended time and space and gets transferred into the cyber land.
USB is a bus! The more USB devices on it, the slower it gets. You can't get into some BIOS's with a USB keyboard. PS/2 rules!
Kev G sir what year do you think it is
@@nasc1333 2019, and I am still rocking my old PS/2 compaq keyboard!
(Its like 19-21 years old)
PS/2 masterrace represent!
o/
All your ports are belong to us!
@Tiny Metal Tube USB is for more than just HID, imagine what happens to the shared bus when you're cruising through an external drive (as an example, doing routine backups) or a webcam for streaming. Those high bandwidth devices running full steam will choke out nearly all other devices or more likely be throttled by the hub and suffer loss in performance. It's a /universal/ serial bus, not just a slot to stick overpriced flashing RGB keyboards into.
It's bad to tell people there really isn't a need to consider PS/2 over USB when there are very clear and important advantages to reviving the work-horse protocol, and as someone who has had to work with USB hardware I absolutely despise how cluttered and bloated the whole thing is from the chips all the way to the kernel USB stack; dealing with it makes everything slower and particularly affects mobile and embedded devices badly (don't forget the use case of USB isn't limited to desktops with enough cycles to make it imperceptible under normal loads).
PS/2 certainly had issues, but USB took it all and made it suck then suck faster, and now it sucks fast at much higher amperage for extra fun. I can't wait to see how many OEM PSUs fail when the charging ports proliferate on prebuilts and laptops that should never have them and some cheap device actually tries to pull 2.5 or 5A out of a common Dell or HP. (For even more fun, imagine what all that rippling on the USB power rails is and/or can do to all the devices on the bus!)
@@ElenraiSame here only HP PS2 Keyboard & Tracking Ball Mouse, & 1995/96 HP Pavilion Monitor w/ built-in Amplified Loudspeakers. Used everyday, no issues. I also have a Gen 2 Microsoft Mouse. It's kinda slow, but still works without issue.
@@bradsmith1934 man you made me remember my old Logitech mouse, I wonder if modern trackballs exist...
Don't you dare make fun of the LPT port! It's a neat interface for custom IO!
I still use a serial port on a near daily basis for custom hardware. Thankfully a lot of motherboards still support it via a header. True, it can be emulated with a USB device, but that adds a level of failure in drivers and the port number can change between uses (COM4, 5, 6....). That physical port is always COM1 and always works.
The fact that ps/2 is not hot swappable is a major pain. Many people are caught by this. The number of times that I've had to tell people to turn off their computer, unplug the mouse/keyboard, plug it back in again, then turn the computer back on. If I had a nickel...
Also, with the lovely Windows 10 fast startup feature, ps/2 peripherals are often not detected. Grrr
When linus said “Well hold on” the video started buffering and still is XD
This comment was typed on a PS/2 keyboard
Jorno this comment was typed on an iPhone touch screen
This comment was typed on a toilet seat.
i used a ps/2 keyboard for years that was made for windows 2000, it was warped, and years later the top row of numbers stopped working but it was definitely "ole faithful" for anything that needed repaired
Jorno This comment wasn't typed, I used voice to text.
This comment was typed on a touchscreen
One thing that I love about PS/2 is that you don’t have to use up any of your USB ports and having to buy adapters for more of them to get more extensions or accessories.
Watching this years after it was produced and wow Linus you have improved so much with your company
6 years later and this was useful, just glanced at the back of my AM5 board and saw a PS/2 port... And thought why does that still have that...
you should be happy
PS/2 ports are also more secure than usb ports
Patrick Neary explain
what do you mean by "secure" ?
James TheGamer usb devices need to have signed drivers associated with them when connected.
You can inject malware or tell a system to get fake drivers which can then grab viruses and such.
Which is why you should never use a USB key that you found on the ground.
Usb ports can be used for other things such as flash drives so things that have a USB port can put unwanted files onto your computer. Ps/2 ports will not allow files to be transferred. This is why IT workers and government buildings will use ps/2
There always is a workaround. You could just emulate a PS2 keyboard, and your done.
This is like BasUSB but with ps2
edit: so if you're afraid of USB ports, then better not use computers at all :b
I use ps2 cuz *my usb ports should be used for something else*
I like how he tries to cover the connector of the Mouse thinking we wouldn't notice that it was a USB Mouse with a PS/2 adaptor.... >_>
Fun fact: the original PS2 (1987) released 13 years prior to the PS2 console
PIFFFF PS/2.. SERIAL PORT, MASTER RACE!
REDCOW34 dam son....
REDCOW34 You're forgetting Parallel ports xD
Ohh Shitee :/
*_SERIAL NEVER DIES_*
On a serious note:
Most digital interfaces are serial nowadays
REDCOW34 shadilay brother! praise kek!
0:24 looks like a group of sperrm
69
Dope ha
Are u saying connecting cables is just a massive orgy of electronics
@4:50 I wish I still had mine... That's what I played wc3 on love those older keyboards
1:52 I love it when Linus does those things 😂
Turn on your volume at 1:53 it's very hard to hear it.
Being a PC “gamer” in the 90’s was a nightmare. PC joypads barely worked and were a pain in the ass to set up
The day I got a Gravis GamePad, I wept with joy, then hooked it up to my sound card, which is where we generally hooked up our joysticks. As for my keyboard, the first (486) PC I got in '94 was still using the 5 pin AT connector, and the mouse used that 9-pin serial connection..... 16-year-old me was so naive. 23 years later, wireless mechanical keyboard, wireless laser mouse and wireless Xbox 360 controller.
CanuckGod Whats your wireless mechanical keyboard? The Anne Pro? Or something else?
Logitech G613, might not have all that tricked RGB lighting and such, but got it on Black Friday for $100 Canadian (as opposed to $170) so I'm not complaining too heavily. Sure, it would have been nice to get Cherry switches and thusly the much larger selection of after-market keycaps, but the Romer-G ones seem to on par with Cherry MX Browns.
And sound cards setups either
i dont know how u can call urself pc gamer when using joypads.
Whatever happened to those computers testing positive vs negative air pressure for a year? They're still running, right?
I've recently run into those USB compatibility issues when upgrading my PC and building a new one for my wife. I had to try a handful of USB keyboards before finding one that the BIOS would see. The next step would have been to dig out a PS/2 model from the technology graveyard.
PS/2 keyboards/mice are just nostalgic, that's all. Plus less USB ports being taken up on the back :P
I don't think Motherboard company's build PS/2 connectors on their top-of-the-line motherboards just to please a small group of IBM lovers.
most motherboard companies actually have KB/M PS/2 combination ports on their motherboards, even on some high end ones. But not the majority, you are right.
What's less common is separate ports for KB/M PS/2 (one port for mouse and one port for keyboard).
PS2 keybaord much better for gaming, unless you have a special Gaming keyboard. I cna press 7-8 keys at the same time and they all work, while on a normal USM keyboard it starts beeping with just 2-3 key presses at the same time.
PICT[/.\]CHAT I think the asus prime x370 pro has 2 ps/2 ports and it is from 2017
i've yet to see a motherboard without ps/2 connector. my msi b350 Tomahawk has PS/2 connector on it.
Direct memory mapped IO is the new standard from what I understand. Polling died with interrupts and from what I understand it is certainly possible for a USB mouse to send an interrupt in a modern OS if the OS can understand it and the USB device has well written and current drivers.
Memory Mapped IO works by simply giving the USB device direct access to say an 8 byte chunk of memory. Whenever the mouse needs do do anything it writes data to this memory segment and then places an interrupt in the CPU interrupt queue to tell the CPU to act on it. The CPU then picks from the work list in the queue. Works much faster and better depending on system load and doesnt waste CPU cycles.
USB does not have a way for a device to send an interrupt, ever. It physically does not support that so even if the OS supports it, the hardware cannot.
The only way for USB to cause an interrupt would be for the CPU to poll the keyboard/mouse, process the data and then have the CPU throw an interrupt for no reason.
Memory mapped IO is a general term in hardware, as of USB4 this is not supported nor has it been. The functionality you describe is basically how USB works, a device is polled, the response is stored in memory and the CPU processes it. I have not ever seen a USB controller that has an interrupt signal output, so this is purely timed by the CPU.
Make a gasoline powered PC build! Motor must be in case.
David Summers Yeah, but make it V8. Because everything is better with a V8.
Do you know how computers work?
Oliver Kavanagh on electricity?
I once powered a pc with a diesel generator to play some music on a beach party. Is that close enough, or does it really have to be gasoline?
Oliver Kavanagh do you know how alternators work?
USB is for modern systems and with USB legacy enable in the mainboard bios it works for older operating systems with DOS mouse driver like the Cutemouse-driver too.
So, I have an old Fujitsu PS/2 keyboard.
Does it mean it has N-key rollover?
Iller Chiller it depends on the way the board was wired. I have a model M which means that it was really only wired for 2-key rollover.
I good test is to hit both shift keys and type "the lazy brown fox....." and if any keys don't show up it means you have some "number"-key rollover but not n-key rollover.
Ghosting and NKRO are not the same thing. You test NKRO by pressing all keys down at once, and if all of them register properly, it's NKRO.
Ghosting is if the wiring of some key combination interferes with another key, either making it not register, or sometimes even register without you pressing it.
THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOG. (Typed on a 4KRO PS/2 keyboard with both shift keys pressed down, Also it has ghosting, just not with the shift keys)
On the other hand a keyboard may "support" NKRO, but it can have ghosting (effectively making it NOT NKRO).
So no, stop recommending the "press both shift keys and try every key to test" for testing NKRO. All you may find out is that it's got ghosting, which isn't even reliable. You're better off with a test like this: www.gigahype.com/nkey-rollover-test-page/
for that, i got HE QUIK BROWN FO JUPED OER HE LA DOG
Iller Chiller PS/2 can support NKRO but not all PS/2 keyboards have NKRO.
True. I have Logitech Y-SU45 and the combination W-S-D only results in a beep after I stop pressing.
He said "Long live PS/2
I said "Yes, long live PS2
The Phoenix long live both :D I still have two working ps2s and a ton of keyboards and mice. One ps2 is for the back of the car and the other for at home
I have to say, I never had much of an issue with any of the PS/2 peripherals. They seemed to work just fine. USB is a bit more convenient though, as you can plug whatever into it, but if in some alternate dimension we'd stuck with PS/2 I'm sure they wouldn't be having any trouble with the keyboard and mouse in the modern day.
I still rock a PS/2 keyboard that I got well over 15 years ago. It's a Microsoft branded keyboard that has those fancy macro buttons at the top that don't work unless you install their software but I' don't use them. I'll probably continue to use it until it stops working but until then, if it a'int broke, don't fix it.
I prefer ps/2 sometimes after bios update the USB ports doesn't work, some glitch need to update drivers, especially with windows 10.
4:10 he still has the tag on the hat lol
5:00
"Tolerate"
Well said.
I totally forgot about this phase Linus went through- where each sentence was delivered like he was presenting closing points of a TED talk- but it was throughout the ENTIRE video