aurel Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 If I plug a USB keyboard into a PCI to USB card adaptor, will I be able to go into BIOS menu at boot by pressing Del, or this kind of PCI card will let me use the USB keyboard in Windows only, by installing its drivers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tripredacus Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Welcome to the forum! I had a PCI USB card in my old computer and I could not go into the BIOS with a USB keyboard. This was a long time ago, so your motherboard might allow you to do it. You'd have to try it and see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puntoMX Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Even on new motherboards it's not working well, so the chance that it will work on an older PC, besides some DELL, is very small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aurel Posted March 26, 2009 Author Share Posted March 26, 2009 Thanks for welcoming me on this forum and for your answers! I don't want to spend any money on a device that wouldn't work after all. This is a 2001's Apollo Pro 133A mobo, maybe somebody has experienced a connection of a USB Keyboard to a PCI to USB Adaptor and knows if it's detected at boot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoffeeFiend Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 maybe somebody has experienced a connection of a USB Keyboard to a PCI to USB Adaptor and knows if it's detected at boot.BIOSes detect PCI USB cards past that stage, so the HIDs connected to them won't be detected.But then again, you could get a replacement motherboard from the same era for less than a PCI USB card costs pretty much. Apollo Pro 133A is Socket 370 (or sometimes Slot 1), and if you look around, you could find such motherboards for under $5 (there's even some on ebay for $0.99 with 0 bids). Or you could upgrade. Lots of newer PCs can be had for very little money too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 Just for the record, and not necessarily applicable in your case, in ye old times (when DIN connector was used as well as "PS/2" ones) a common problem was the little fuse:http://www.computer-engineering.org/ps2protocol/I guess the same happens on newish ones, though I never had the occasion/need to fix one.jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puntoMX Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 I guess the same happens on newish ones, though I never had the occasion/need to fix one.Yes they have the fuse and I tried to replace them before (or bridged them), also for the USB ports (mostly broken and short-circuited) but I never could get one to work again.I wonder aurel, did you break a USB port? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aurel Posted March 28, 2009 Author Share Posted March 28, 2009 I wonder aurel, did you break a USB port?I'm not sure I did! The mobo had 2 USB ports only usable via headers, but they never worked, no matter what device I plugged in them. I don't know what was in my head when I first bought this mobo, even the PS/2 port was available to use via a header too. It was always very hard to connect devices to it. Anyway, yesterday I threw the mobo as I've tried almost everything I could, took the battery out, clearing CMOS, reading on the internet about PCI USB card and I learned that if I connected a USB keyboard to such a card, I woudn't be able to access the BIOS menu at boot time.But, "the mobo is dead, long live the mobo!". I also have a boxed, never-used k7vt4a pro mobo for socket A(462). I'll try to find a sempron proc as I don't have one yet. The pc I write this from is also a piece of antiquity: 11 year old Mendocino 520 MHz/ Intel440BX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointertovoid Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 (edited) Hi everybody!- I'm not quite sure the Bios associated with an Apollo 133 can use a Usb keyboard, even connected to the mobo's Usb. Did you check in the doc? Maybe your Usb port works.- With a Usb keyboard and a mobo of this age, you're looking for trouble. Why shouldn't you buy a PS/2 keyboard? They're so cheap at eBay for instance!- You i440bx is way better (much faster, no bugs) than the Via. Unless you want >256MB Ram, keep the i440bx. It runs over 133MHz. Some people can run 512MB on it. Just improve the Northbridge cooling.- The Apollo 133 has never and will never work properly. Throw it away. Replace it with an Intel i815ep for instance : quick, no bug, Tualatin-capable (but Ram 512MB max). Such a mobo costs about 5€ +shipment on eBay now. Twice the throughput on Pci, Ram.But avoid the Tusl2-c from Asus (yes!) as it forces Cas and Ras to 3 and Agp to 4x when you increase the Fsb - regardless of your hardware's capability. Take a Msi 815ept or a Ga 6oxt: they don't fool the user as Asus does with this chipset. Edited March 28, 2009 by pointertovoid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puntoMX Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 The mobo had 2 USB ports only usable via headers, but they never worked, no matter what device I plugged in them. I don't know what was in my head when I first bought this mobo, even the PS/2 port was available to use via a header too.Ow crap, it's one with the big DIN connector and not even ATX. PC-Chips perhaps? I would not even invest in something like that but that's me.That ASUS board is okay, it has some flaws with AGP timings and sometimes switches back from UDMA to PIO mode in windows. there must be tons of cheap CPUs out there . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aurel Posted March 29, 2009 Author Share Posted March 29, 2009 (edited) I just threw away that PC Partner mobo, baby AT form factor, very unstable, almost unusable, it was giving me only headaches. I had bought it at that time because it was very cheap and I was at the beginning of learning how to use a pc or assembling it. Anyway, I have had always problems with via chipsets. I remember having an AMD K6/2 proc with another via chipset mobo and always freezing into a "windows protection error". Thanks for your answers! Edited March 29, 2009 by aurel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James_A Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Interesting comments, just goes to show how experiences vary:-- The Apollo 133 has never and will never work properly. Throw it away. Replace it with an Intel i815ep for instance :I just threw away that PC Partner mobo, baby AT form factor, very unstable, almost unusable, it was giving me only headaches. I had bought it at that time because it was very cheap ...I've worked my way through quite a few PC-Partner micro-ATX boards, mostly with the Via chipset on. Socket 370 or Slot 1 (as already mentioned above). Two USB 1.1 sockets and two PS/2 sockets (no fuse) on the rear panel on all the boards I've seen from about 1998/9 to 2001/2. After adding a PCI-card NIC (no on-board LAN) they were rock-solid stable with Windows 2000 but, if I remember correctly, somewhat less happy on Windows 9x. Maybe the secret was finding the right chipset driver for Windows 2000, which could not be found directly from PC-Partner's home page, since the links never cross-connected. PSU's used to blow-up regularly, however. Most of them had a hopelessly underpowerd Celeron or low-end PIII, because the whole point was that they were cheap. OK in their day, but far too slow for today, of course, which is why $0.99 is about the current price.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now