Old AT keyboard not working? "Malfunction Error" in Windows

ajax992

Reputable
Dec 25, 2015
4
0
4,520
Hello all,
Recently I came across a keyboard which appears to be from the early 1990's, has an AT connector. Trying to get it working, I went online and bought an AT to PS/2 adapter, then a PS/2 to USB. However, when I plug it into my laptop, Windows tells me that the device has malfunctioned and to remove it. I don't know what is going wrong. The lights for the locks flash on and off for a few seconds then permanently shut off. Is it my AT to PS/2 adapter? The USB one? Or do I need to search the deepest parts of the internet for a driver to make it work? Thanks alot.
By the way, the keyboard is called the FK-2000 Plus, by Focus Electronics.
 

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
That's right at least in part. The heart of the problem likely is that you have no driver for such a keyboard connected to a USB port. I could imagine connecting an old keyboard of that type to a PS/2 port because I GUESS that those two keyboard types worked the same electrically and logically. BUT that old keyboard certainly does not have the communications hardware to work on a USB bus, and so there can be no driver for that.

I know that you can do it the other way: a modern keyboard designed for the USB bus can be used with an adapter to plug into a PS/2 port and it works - Windows has the required driver built in. That adapter does not even have any active electronics - it just connects the proper wires. I'm guessing the system used that way does not actually use the complete USB communications system. But adapting the way you have, I would not expect to work.

Does your computer have a PS/2 connector? You could eliminate the second adapter and try plugging the keyboard into the PS/2 port to see if that works.