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CHAPTER 5: Operation
5.4 Things To Keep in Mind About the Keyboards and Mice
PC bootup sequence:
When your PCs are powered on, they communicate with any
attached keyboards and mice and load the setup parameters required by their
particular operating systems. It is necessary for the ServSwitch Wizard Pro to be
attached and powered on during this sequence so that it can give the PCs the
required responses and keep track of all the modes and settings requested by each
of the connected PCs.
Mouse characteristics:
Do not unplug a PS/2 mouse connection from a PC while
the PC is on. Because of the way PS/2 mice communicate, the PC will lose mouse
function and you will have to reboot the PC to regain normal operation.
Unplugging a shared PS/2 mouse from the ServSwitch Wizard Pro will have no
immediate effect, but the PC will lose mouse function as soon as you plug the
mouse back in. (RS-232 mice can usually be freely unplugged and replugged,
provided that one was connected when the operating system initially booted.) The
ServSwitch Wizard Pro 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 Pro keeps a log of the keyboard and mouse modes and resolution settings
requested by each of the connected PCs, 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 Pro channel is switched,
ensuring maximum software compatibility.