Windows 7 on the Intel Alder Lake/Z690 platform

[gordo999]

2 minutes ago, Dixel said:

A good splitter might work in this case.

Thanks for reply. The problem with a splitter is when the PS/2 port is not wired to allow one. The chipset has to identify what device is using the port at any one time. If you have a keyboard plugged in, the system can identify it by interrogating the keyboard internals and supply a proper driver. Same if you have just a mouse plugged in. If you have both plugged in, the system will ID the keyboard when a key is depressed or the mouse when a button is clicked, but what happens when you need to press the shift key and the left mouse button at the same time? The system cannot tell which is which unless there is a delay between each action.

I'll have to try it and see if it freezes. The PS/2 connector has 6 pins and two of them are not used normally. That leaves one for ground and one for +5 volts. One other pin carries data while the remaining pin carries a clock signal. Apparently, when PS/2 is wired for both mouse and keyboard, one of the non-used pins is used for that purpose. That should mean a special driver to decipher the difference. I don't know yet.

 

[Dixel]

4 hours ago, gordo999 said:

Thanks for reply.

 

You're welcome, is your PS/2 a combo one? Marked with two colours. Sorry if I missed.

[Dixel]

Asus B760M-A D4 has a combo PS/2, so a good, proper splitter has to work in this case.

[gordo999]

22 minutes ago, Dixel said:

Asus B760M-A D4 has a combo PS/2, so a good, proper splitter has to work in this case.

Thanks, I'll try to find a splitter. Most splitters I have seen are from PS/2 mouse and keyboard to USB, not from PS/2 to PS/2. These devices are understandably not stocked a lot these days and I may have to make my own. Problem is, as I described earlier, getting the proper pinout. I guess Asus should be able to advise although tech reps from major companies are not always helpful. They tend to farm the work out to other countries where someone reads from a script.

The fact that the B760 has a dual-coloured PS-2 port suggests that two devices can be connected via a splitter, but when you read the Asus manual for that mobo it says 'either' a mouse or a keyboard, which makes absolutely no sense to me. Why would anyone want to run a PS/2 keyboard without a mouse? The B360M has two ports.

[gordo999]

On 6/27/2023 at 11:21 PM, Dixel said:

I just installed Windows 7 on another old kabylake computer and then simply moved the HDD with this fresh installation to the new one. Try.

That's what I am trying to do now. My W7 was installed on an Asus B360M and I think I was running Cannon Lake as a chipset. I had XP running on it fine as well and the only mod I needed was for USB on W7 although extensive mods were required for XP.

[ED_Sln]

14 hours ago, gordo999 said:

Apparently, Windows Defender arbitrarily erases dll files it does not like. You have to disable that dumb feature. When I look at the folder in which I stored your files, several of them had a size of 0 bytes, especially the XHCI sys driver.

Strange, maybe some bug, I checked usbxhci.sys file on Virustotal, no antivirus found anything. https://www.virustotal.com/old-browsers/file/3f06a751897751b7469a4a0b7d86bce21a4aa0c6eec1c6096f05ed6cb3ec0c72
Try to re-download or download on another system, my archive is not corrupted, I checked it now, I have Win7, so there is no defender here.

[gordo999]

7 hours ago, ED_Sln said:

... my archive is not corrupted, I checked it now, I have Win7, so there is no defender here.

I don't think the problem is with your files. I have W10 running on one disk and W7 on another. I think the problem arose when I was running w10 and Defender was checking the w7 disk.

I think I may have other issues. I got W7 running on the Asus B760M by changing the SATA drivers to a w10 variant. The variant is old, dating back to the Intel version 8 chipset level. I need to take a closer look at my chipset drivers, especially the PCI driver. My current setup does not seem to be installing USB drivers at all, marking them as 'UNKNOWN'. That would likely happen if the PCI driver stack was not right.

Might be better if I did a fresh install using some of the packages available, like those of George King. If that works, I could compare the running version with my current version.

[jaclaz]

On 11/15/2023 at 5:47 AM, gordo999 said:

Thanks, I'll try to find a splitter. Most splitters I have seen are from PS/2 mouse and keyboard to USB, not from PS/2 to PS/2. These devices are understandably not stocked a lot these days and I may have to make my own. Problem is, as I described earlier, getting the proper pinout. I guess Asus should be able to advise although tech reps from major companies are not always helpful. They tend to farm the work out to other countries where someone reads from a script.

The fact that the B760 has a dual-coloured PS-2 port suggests that two devices can be connected via a splitter, but when you read the Asus manual for that mobo it says 'either' a mouse or a keyboard, which makes absolutely no sense to me. Why would anyone want to run a PS/2 keyboard without a mouse? The B360M has two ports.

The "common" pinout is also on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS/2_port

On "normal" PS2 port pins 2 and 6 are not connected to anything, on "combo" ports they are connected to a secondary +DATA and +CLK, but it seems like - as always happens - it is not a "proper" standard.

AFAICU each manufacturer using these stupid combo ports uses its own design, some use the "normal" 1 and 5 pins for the keyboard, and the 2 and 6 for the mouse, someone the exact opposite, but it should only be a matter of inverting the devices on the female sockets of the Y splitter.

BUT some manufacturers intend that double coloured port as keyboard or mouse one meaning that you can connect to it either a mouse or a keyboard, i.e. only the 1 and 5 are connected and 2 and 6 are not connected (as in any normal PS/2 port) in which case the splitter cannot work as there is nothing to split.

I suspect that Asus - at least for desktop motherboards - is of this latter kind, the (stupid) idea is that you have only one "old" P/S2 device (mouse or keyboard) and you can connect it to the port, and have the "other" device a new, USB one.

jaclaz

 

[gordo999]

14 hours ago, jaclaz said:

I suspect that Asus - at least for desktop motherboards - is of this latter kind, the (stupid) idea is that you have only one "old" P/S2 device (mouse or keyboard) and you can connect it to the port, and have the "other" device a new, USB one.

jaclaz

 

The troubling things for me is that Asus provided two PS/2 ports on on the B360M and only one on the B760M. Since they have marked the single port as both green and purple, one might think it is intended for two devices but the manual suggests it's either/or. Hopefully the manual is wrong.

Testing this means either pulling the mobo and tracing the circuit, which I am reluctant to do, or taking a chance plugging in a splitter cable. First. I'd need to test the splitter for continuity to ensure no short-circuit is present between the +5V connector on pin 4 and ground on pin 3 or any other pin. If the splitter is using pins 2 and 6, it should pose no problem as far as damaging the mobo.

I am curious as to how the dual port PS/2 is implemented on the B360M mobo. I would not think it relies on logic chips only since there could be a condition where a mouse key and keyboard key are struck simultaneously as in a Shift-Right click. In such a case, the computer logic needs to know what device is operating in order to install drivers for each device and that would be masked by the logic.

As you point out, it makes absolutely no sense to supply one port unless you have USB operational, but then, why would you need to use PS/2? Both my mouse and keyboard are USB and I only need PS/2 when USB is not working.

[jaclaz]

Yes, testing the splitter with a multimeter would be wise, to get the contacts in the female sockets you can use a short piece of copper wire, like the one you can get from a CAT5+ cable.

There is a very similar cable, with a male Mini Din 6 and two female Mini Din 6 that is used for some kind of S-video connection that has a completely incompatible pinout (though - to be fair - in those plugs and sockets are black and red, not the "standard" green or purple).

Being anyway PS/2 ports/device, it is a good idea to NOT hotplug/unplug any device or cable, things should be connected/disconnected with motherboard off, modern motherboards should have electronic fuses, but you never know..

If you look around for this kind of splitters, you will find quite a few "bad" reviews by (presumably clueless) people lamenting that both a keyboard and a mouse work when connect to the green (or purple) socket of the female but that both a keyboard and mouse do not work on the "other" socket blaming the splitter (while I suspect it is simply the 2 and 6 not connected to anything on the motherboard socket).

jaclaz

[Dixel]

ROG - precisely about Asus PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse combo port.

"I have purchased 6 PS/2 Y splitter..."

https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/z170/ps-2-keyboard-mouse-combo-port/td-p/574618