Re: laptop serial port

[Matt Ion <soundy106@xxxxxxxxx>]

SMS wrote:
> Matt Ion wrote:
>
>> SMS wrote:
>>
>>> Matt Ion wrote:
>>>
>>>> I've run into a couple machines recently that the PS/2 ports have
>>>> simply stopped working on... these little gems have saved the day.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Often the picofuse on the +5V line will blow. It's replaceable if
>>> you're good at soldering.
>>
>>
>> There is that... but $25 for an adapter is a lot cheaper and easier
>> than an hour or more of my time to pull all the cards, remove the
>> board, desolder one fuse, find an appropriate replacement, solder it
>> back in, and reassemble everything, and pray that that was the actual
>> fix :)
>
>
> You don't have to use a fuse, just jumper it. The fuse is there because
> of stupid UL requirement, where they are worried that a short in the
> keyboard cable will heat the cable up and start a fire. When I worked at
> a motherboard company, we didn't use a fuse for countries where the
> safety agency didn't require it. I couldn't believe that is was actually
> any cheaper to put in a jumper than a fuse, but it saved about 3 cents
> per motherboard, and we were manufacturing hundreds of thousands of
> boards per month.

Fair'nuff... it's still more effort than simply plugging in an adapter that I'm
gonna bill back to the client anyway :)