My new Dell AT101w keyboard

If you’ve read my previous post about my attempts to get an IBM ThinkCenter S50 from 2005 to boot past its Power-on self-test (POST), you are aware that I required a PS/2 keyboard. These are no longer available in local electronics or computer shops, so, once again, I took to Marktplaats.nl. There I found a handful of PS/2 keyboards, none of them small and none of them black.

The most beautiful keyboard I could find was a Dell AT101w (with the “w” indicating a Windows key) that was at that moment in Haarlem and of which the seller claimed he had meticulously cleaned and tested it. It arrived at the day of writing this post and, after unwrapping, looked positively beige.

I wonder if I can get matching Super keys

With the keyboard’s purple cable end attached to its purple PC counterpart, the ThinkCenter still complained about a missing disk drive but F1 allowed me to enter the IBM Setup utility, in which I changed nothing. Using my new keyboard to browse around the menus gave me the chance to get to know the keyboard somewhat. It has ALPS switches which I am unfamiliar with. They type slighty heavier than my UHK cherry brown switches. The sound is clicky but not too high pitched, if a little loud. I think they will type comfortably, but I need more experience to determine that. I won’t take this keyboard to the office.

A keyboard with cable management

Turning the keyboard over, there is a cable gutter that allows for the keyboard cable attached to exit the keyboard in one of three places. The cable is fixed and cannot be removed. In the corners, there are two feet that can anti-ergonomically be lowered. I won’t be doing that. Just one odd angle per wrist is enough.

After exiting and pressing F2, the ThinkCenter resumed to power off. Subsequently, I reattached the disk drive, the hard disk and the DVD ROM drive. I had put the original 40 GB one back in, just to make sure there were as little differences as possible from what supposedly booted last time before I bought the PC.

Powering the ThinkCenter on again still made it beep for using the default configuration but then it started Windows XP.

Windows XP booting on my ThinkCenter

It took a while, but then I got the familiar Windows XP login screen indicating a single user called Gebruiker, which is dutch for User. Windows did not recognise the modern USB mouse that I had plugged into one of the eight USB-1 ports. Using the TAB and Return key I was let in without a password. I looked at a blue loading screen, heard the Windows XP welcome tune and, minutes later, found myself at an unbearably slow Windows XP that cost me all of my patience just to turn it off, but not before I saw a Snapchat toolbar along the top of the screen and a systray at the lower right corner filled to the brim with icons. Those can't have helped. Here’s to hoping the SuSE Linux Professional 7.2 installer will at least accept my mouse. If not, I’ll have to find a PS/2 mouse as well.