Would a problem (conflict) arise by connecting two (USB) keyboards to one PC if only one of those keyboard is used at any given time? Explanation: My brother uses my desktop PC and now needs a special 'big key' keyboard. But that keyboard doesn't work well for fast touch typists (as myself), so I need to continue using a standard keyboard.
I have two connected to my computer all the time. And two mice too. My primary keyboard and mouse are wireless but connect via a USB dongle. And about 179 days out of every 180 days, they work perfectly. Then the battery dies and suddenly my mouse or keyboard stops working - typically in the middle of something important I am doing. So I just grab the other mouse and keyboard and continue on. The extra keyboard and mouse are wired through other USB ports and I keep them on a shelf under my desk. To avoid dust and dog hair from collecting in the keys, I keep the keyboard upside down. On rare occasions, I have found my primary keyboard behaving very oddly and I discovered I must have kicked the keyboard or something, causing a key to be pressed all the time - messing up the keyboard input. Confusing at first, but a simple adjustment of the extra keyboard and all was good again. So other than making sure you are not pressing keys on both keyboards at the same time (or mouse buttons), there should be no problems.
Bill, I gather from your reply that there should be no problem connecting two wired keyboards (and mice) - is that correct?
Right. It surely will not hurt anything for trying. That is, it is not going to zap or cause any permanent damage to the computer. If suddenly the computer stops taking any keyboard or mouse input, disconnect and at worst, reboot and move on.
on Well, the thing is the special BigKeys keyboard for my brother costs $130 (on ebay) and I would hate to have bought it only to find a conflict when connecting it to my PC (along with my standard wired KB)!
Well, I don't see there being any conflicts just by being connected at the same time. As long as both are not used at the same time I think you will be okay. And again, in any case I cannot see connecting both at once causing any issue that cannot be quickly undone.
I bought a refurbished PS2 keyboard since I might need to get into the BIOS. My PC has the PS2 port. My main keyboard is USB.
That's how I did it with my last computer. I have seen (once, maybe twice) where using both USB and PS/2 resulted in one keyboard not working. But even then, it did not mess up the input from the other, and as soon as the 2nd keyboard was disconnected, everything worked as expected. So again, no harm in trying.
I connected my laptop to a keyboard. There is no problem working on either board at a time. It wouldn't be a problem at all.
I had two running at one time, too. One was a battery mouse and keyboard when I bought the custom desktop, and the other was a wired PS/2 port, leftover over from the old desktop.
