External keyboard on an iBook

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A friend of mine ended up with an extra mouse and keyboard from a G5 deal and he gave them to me for us with my iBook. They are the clear acryllic kind that I see on the desktop units at CompUSA.

The mouse works awesomely, even if it is just a one button model. Plus, it matches my machine.

I wanted to use the keyboard primarily because of the two extra USB ports on it for when I am home and needing to plug in several things. However, with the keyboard plugged in, my iBook refused to boot up. It would start and then give me that little Black Screen of Death in Three Languages telling me to restart the computer. I tried this multiple times.

Once I unplugged the keyboard, no problems at all.

Am I doing something wrong or is there some kind of software issue I need to address in order to get this to work?
 
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Dual 2.2GHz powered by AMD Opteron - *Sends G5 & 8Gb Ram to scrap heap* Yeah! finally switched BACK!
Nop.. there's no need for device drivers for any Apple branded products. That's assuming yours is an Apple Keyboard. Sounds like there's a faulty keyboard controller chip. Take to an Apple reseller or centre and ask then to test it.

But, not all third party keyboards work on the Mac.. even if they have USB.
 
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Ragle
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It's an Apple branded keyboard alright, and it worked just fine on the G5 he had. I will look into it a little more thoroughly and report back with anything I find.
 
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Ragle
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Ok, this time I booted the machine with nothing in the USB ports.

I plugged in the mouse. No problem.

I plugged in the keyboard. Again, no problem and I was able to use both devices as if they were the native components.

I then plugged a wireless USB dongle and a USB keydrive into the two USB ports on the keyboard.

OS-X gave me a Low USB Power warning and advised me to use some sort external power source, even though both extra devices seemed to be functioning normally. I went ahead and unplugged everything except the mouse just to be safe.

Am I really so limited in how many USB devices I can have? I had planned on using a USB hub, and it is self-powered so this really isn't an issue, but I can't recall ever having this kind of problem on a PC.
 
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No that's normal, buy yourself a Powered USB Hub.

The internal USB's only have enough power for a Keyboard and Mouse, maybe having all your USB devices plugged in is drawing too much current. I trust you wont be using your keyboard while out and about, try it with your mouse and your USB pen drive.

If anything I only take my mouse. I hate the track-pad, useful but annoying as ****. You can't draw FA with it....

Good luck.
 
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Yes, I think I will be taking this mouse with me when I cart the laptop out. I have actually come to like its feel and response and, let's face it, it looks **** cool next to the shining white iBook!

Do they make a cordless version?
 
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Yup... it's uses Bluetooth Technology to communicate... Helps if your PowerBook has built-in BlueTooth. Here's the URL:

http://www.apple.com/keyboard/
 

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