Black Box ACU5011A, ACU5010A manual Things to Keep in Mind About the Keyboards and Mice

CHAPTER 5: Operation

5.4 Things to Keep in Mind About the Keyboards and Mice

PC bootup sequence: When your PC CPUs 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 Extender 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 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 Extender 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 an RS-232 mouse was connected when the operating system initially booted.) The Extender has a PS/2 mouse-recovery system which allows you to disconnect and reconnect the mouse without powering down the system, but we recommend using this only when absolutely necessary. See Section 5.6 for details.

Keyboard- and mouse-mode handling during CPU switching: The Extender keeps a log of the keyboard and mouse modes and resolution settings requested by each of the connected CPUs, including the keyboard Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock states. These settings are automatically restored to the primary keyboard and mouse when you switch to the other CPU, as well as when the Extender is returned from configuration, password-lockout, or control-lockout mode to normal operation, ensuring maximum software compatibility.

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