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CHAPTER 5: Operation
5.4 Things to Keep in Mind About the Keyboards and Mice
CPU bootup sequence:
When your computer CPUs are powered on, they
communicate with any attached keyboards and mice and load the setup
parameters required by their particular operating systems. It’s necessary for the
ServSwitch Wizard MP to be attached and powered on during this sequence so that
it can give the CPUs the required responses and keep track of all the modes and
settings requested by each of the connected CPUs.
Mouse characteristics:
Do not unplug a PS/2 mouse connection from a IBM PC
compatible CPU while the CPU is on. Because of the way PS/2 mice communicate,
the CPU will lose mouse function and you will have to reboot the CPU to regain
normal operation. Unplugging a shared PS/2 mouse from the ServSwitch Wizard
MP will have no immediate effect, but any selected PC CPU will lose mouse
function as soon as you plug the mouse back in. (RS-232 mouse-port connections
can usually be freely unplugged and replugged, provided that a mouse was
connected when the operating system initially booted.) The ServSwitch Wizard MP
has a PS/2 mouse-recovery system which allows you to disconnect and reconnect
the shared mouse without powering down the system, but we recommend using
this only when absolutely necessary. See
Section 5.9
for details.
Keyboard- and mouse-mode handling during channel switching:
The ServSwitch
Wizard MP keeps a log of the keyboard and mouse modes and resolution settings
requested by each of the connected computer CPUs, including the keyboard Num
Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock states. These settings are automatically restored
to the shared keyboard and mouse when the ServSwitch Wizard MP channel is
switched, ensuring maximum software compatibility.
