Can I plug a keyboard into a PS2 port labeled for a mouse?

Question

I have an old laptop with a PS2 port and it has a mouse symbol on it. Does this mean I can only plug a mouse into this port and will a keyboard work?

try it. It really depends on the laptop. Sometimes you can use a splitter like this http://www.maplin.co.uk/ps-2-notebook-splitter-97882 but sometimes not. — Sirex, Sep 05 '11 at 15:00

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 31 '11 at 18:47

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As an experiment, I dug up an old desktop with PS/2 connectors, connected the keyboard and mouse backwards, the keyboard did not light up or work while in the BIOS, Windows loaded and the mouse or keyboard did not work, the Windows hardware wizard said it installed a new device and to reboot.

I rebooted, but still they did not work, so I hot unplugged the devices and connected them to the proper ports, the mouse still did not work but the keyboard came to life. Both worked after another reboot.

So no, they will not work when connected to the wrong PS/2 ports on a desktop computer.

Next, I connected a keyboard to the PS/2 mouse port on my old Dell Latitude D600 notebook, booted Windows XP, the keyboard does not work or light up any lights, and the hardware wizard did not show up.

It's a bust. No, it will not work.

...end of smoke test...

edited Dec 31 '11 at 18:47

Peter Mortensen

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answered Sep 05 '11 at 16:15

Moab

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+1 There is a reason that they are color coded on desktops, but nice to have someone actually go through the effort of confirming it for an answer. I had discovered this long ago, before the color coding on motherboards existed, never did test it on a laptop though. – MaQleod Sep 05 '11 at 17:47
Linux supports any device on any PS/2 port. See https://superuser.com/a/1277630/86828 below – David Balažic Dec 17 '21 at 11:43
No one mentioned Linux – Moab Dec 18 '21 at 01:23

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 05 '11 at 15:10

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According to Wikipedia probably not:

The pinouts of the connectors are the same, but most computers will not recognize devices connected to the wrong port.

answered Sep 05 '11 at 15:10

Robert

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Agree. Physically, yes it'll go in, but it may not work as expected. – MBraedley Sep 05 '11 at 15:43

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 05 '11 at 15:22

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You can plug in whatever you want because the pinouts are physically identical. A keyboard however will NOT work without a driver update. Chances are, if you have a old computer (laptop) that kind of driver update won't be available. Sorry.

answered Sep 05 '11 at 15:22

wizlog

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Can I plug a keyboard into a PS2 port labeled for a mouse?

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