Rant - StarTech Snake Oil

[BestPCBuilder2017]

Wow. After the shit support that I received, I don't think I will ever be buying a StarTech product. 

 

So I sent StarTech support an email about a question in regards to a splitter adapter they have and as it turns out, it looks like they lied to me. Not only that, but they are selling a product that doesn't actually work. -Either that or the product is extremely mislabeled according to another Newegg reviewer. Either way, it definitely needs more information/a better description. 

 

Product page: https://www.startech.com/uk/Cables/Serial-Parallel-PS-2/PS-2-Cables/6in-PS2-Keyboard-Mouse-Splitter-Cable-Adapter~KYC1MF

 

Newegg Reviews: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200078&Tpk=PS%2f2 Splitter&ignorebbr=1 

 

Bull shit email responses: 

-----------------------------------------------

 

If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me. 

[RadiatingLight]

AFAIK it's not mislabeled, just that motherboard manufacturers only support one device. it's a mobo connection problem, not an adapter problem i think.

[jnmbhj]

It seems its deceiving. And would fall under "Deceiving business practices" But its not completely "false advertising" because it does seem to work for some motherboards. The "Tech" support sounds like he is just trying to sell you something. I bet that they are Bulk manufacture that wants to sell quantity.   

[BestPCBuilder2017]

Just now, RadiatingLight said:

AFAIK it's not mislabeled, just that motherboard manufacturers only support one device.

I don't understand. It's a combo PS/2 port. That's the entire purpose of the adapter. 

Just now, RadiatingLight said:

it's a mobo connection problem, not an adapter problem i think.

Please explain. 

[kalnick]

5 hours ago, NCIX Lampy said:

I don't understand. It's a combo PS/2 port. That's the entire purpose of the adapter. 

Please explain. 

The adapter is designed to allow you to use 2 devices over a single connection.

It separates the signals from each device by assigning specific pins to each branch on the adapter.

 

The question you need to be asking is does your motherboard support this two way spiting of the pins and signals. If it doesn't then that's a mobo issue not a star-tech issue.

 

Before purchasing anything you need make sure that your current hardware supports the product your looking to purchase. Do your research, maybe your mobo uses a different pin arrangement  to separate the signals or maybe your mobo can't handle both signals over the one port.

[RadiatingLight]

8 hours ago, NCIX Lampy said:

I don't understand. It's a combo PS/2 port. That's the entire purpose of the adapter. 

Please explain. 

as far as i can tell, everyone in the reviews has an ASUS motherboard, and from what I've seen, ASUS designs their PS2 ports to be either a keyboard OR a mouse, so the adapter is fine, but the motherboard can't support both peripherals.

[BestPCBuilder2017]

Just now, RadiatingLight said:

as far as i can tell, everyone in the reviews has an ASUS motherboard, and from what I've seen, ASUS designs their PS2 ports to be either a keyboard OR a mouse,

What do you mean? You're saying it was designed like that even though it's a combo PS/2 port? 

Just now, RadiatingLight said:

so the adapter is fine, but the motherboard can't support both peripherals.

You're saying it's only with Asus motherboards? 

[kalnick]

1 hour ago, NCIX Lampy said:

What do you mean? You're saying it was designed like that even though it's a combo PS/2 port? 

You're saying it's only with Asus motherboards? 

Yes that is what he is saying. Your board may only support either a mouse or a keyboard but not both at the same time.

 

Other manufactures may have the same issue. Its possible some Asus boards may work just fine.

 

 

.

[ARikozuM]

For boards that use the green & pink PS/2 (not to be confused with PS2) this adapter should work as PS/2 devices will use certain pins for their functions, i.e. KB and mice use different pins. 

 

Do you have the adapter or are you looking to buy?

[BestPCBuilder2017]

3 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

For boards that use the green & pink PS/2 (not to be confused with PS2) this adapter should work as PS/2 devices will use certain pins for their functions, i.e. KB and mice use different pins. 

example?

3 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

Do you have the adapter or are you looking to buy?

Well I don't see how that matters exactly, I mean they told me it would work for my board and as it turns out it looks like it won't. 

[ARikozuM]

6 minutes ago, NCIX Lampy said:

Well I don't see how that matters exactly, I mean they told me it would work for my board and as it turns out it looks like it won't. 

Have you read your manual? It should tell you if the board the PS/2 can accept split adapters. 

[BestPCBuilder2017]

3 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

Have you read your manual? It should tell you if the board the PS/2 can accept split adapters. 

Doesn't say. 

 

Looks like I'll have to ask Asus. 

[ARikozuM]

9 minutes ago, NCIX Lampy said:

Looks like I'll have to ask Asus. 

That'd be best. I don't have any PS/2 PC's in my house, so I wouldn't be able to help you out and my servers have dedicated ports for each. 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

16 hours ago, NCIX Lampy said:

example?

From your link:

Quote

This thing is mislabeled. Most desktop motherboards do not support running mouse & keyboard from 1 PS/2 port. However, most older style laptops that have a PS/2 connector DO support hooking up an external mouse & keyboard through the one PS/2 using this kind of adapter. I have some older Thinkpads and this adapter worked perfectly after reversing the mouse & keyboard as others suggested.

These are getting hard to find and the price was so cheap, I bought 2. They both worked after reversing the connectors.

So it does seem to depend on the hardware you are hooking the adapter to.

[HunterSkater429]

I love startech, I get all my adapters from them. VGA to HDMI, dp to VGA Al that fun stuff 

[divito]

Sorry, but this rant is a bit misguided.

This style adapter is older and when motherboard manufacturers didn't skimp on the usability of their ports, and laptops that had a single PS/2 port could be expanded with adapters like this. That being said, some combo ports still work just fine with adapters like these; but as others have said, it's on the motherboard manufacturers, not StarTech.

Secondly, why not use an adapter that goes to USB and you'd avoid the compatibility issues altogether?

[Mira Yurizaki]

To explain this further

 

On the the PS/2 port, only pins 1, 3, 4, and 5 are actually used for the hardware. Meaning 4 out of the 6 pins are normally used. However, some hardware (notably IBM Thinkpads) wired pins 2 and 6 for mouse use while 1 and 5 were for keyboard use. However, this is not a standard practice since every PS/2 device uses pins 1, 3, 4, and 5. All the splitter is doing is routing pins 1 and 5 from the mouse to 2 and 6 to the port, if it supports it.

 

tl;dr, the splitter is meant for a technically non-standard PS/2 port that can do keyboard and mouse at the same time.