I've just reinstalled BeOS 5 (Max edition) on my PC, after a few months, and I have a big problem: as soon as I press any key on the keyboard, All input Freezes: the mouse pointer is frozen, etc. I have a PS/2 keyboard, a USB mouse (working through a PS/2 adapter), and a KVM switch. Does anyone have any ideas? The main changes I've made (since BeOS did work the previous intall) are the KVM switch, and changing my earlier keyboard for a cheaper one.

The good news is you know that it did work.

The bad news is to try to figure out if it is because of the install, the kvm or keyboard. The easy first step is to move off the kvm. Might try a "safe mode" start?? Then you might have to borrow a keyboard. Then a wild shot might be to look at bios for maybe a typematic rate?? Most bios's don't have one to set. Last is a look at the CD for errors. OK, you really have no way to tell on that. Might think about using Ranish for partition overlaps. Might use default settings or fail safe bios settings.
Reload Max or try Developer Edition???

Well, after experimenting:

Changing the keyboard for a more expensive one: No change in behaviour.

Plugging a different keyboard into the machine (bypassing the KVM) : the mouse and keyboard are locked up when booting is finished. However, I've found out (quite by accident) that if I then unplug the keyboard and plug the KVM keyboard cord back in, everything works. Huh??

Incidentally, I also experienced this problem when istallling from CD (I put it down to installer problems).

I hope Zeta does not have this problem.

Great!

The only time I have seen that was with some older dec computers with a special keyboard. Seemed that the keyboard was drawing too much current and somehow slowed the init of the mouse/keyboard chip. There are some non-us keyboards that seem to cause this.

I guess it could be the usb mouse but mine works great as a usb to ps/2. I also use a kvm switch. The KVM has a sort of keep alive feature.

Might try to slow down the machine in bios?

Since very few people report this issue it must be some oddity that no one has yet to figure out for sure.

The is a zeta demo cd out there that is a good try to start. Again no md5checksum to tell good download. I think they did zip it to protect some data.

As a rule I wouldn't plug in keyboards.

Get the zeta demo and try it. It loads to German but if you find the preferences then change language you are 99% good to go. There are a few leftover german words but if you know beos there should be no problems.