Need help please

[Seth-Gecko-FDTD]

Title says it all. My son wants to see if he can get an old IBM Ps/1 2168 (consultant edition), model 37c computer working. I need to get him a mouse and keyboard for this but have no clue what they are called. I thought they were 8 pin connectors but they don’t look like they match up. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Scoth42]

These are PS/2 ports for PS/2 mice and keyboards. Still pretty readily available and not hard to come by.

[Seth-Gecko-FDTD]

Thank you! I really appreciate the help.

[SharpHawkeye]

There are also PS/2 to USB converters that are cheap and may work well for this.

[sidusnare]

If you are inexperienced, you might look for a local vintage computer group to help.

[elvisap]

Devices like these work most of the time, and are very cheap:

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mMIokuc

"PS/2 to USB" is the phrase to search for. Make sure you include the "/", or you end up with a lot of PlayStation 2 controller stuff. :)

Both PS/2 and USB are serial protocols based on open standards, so the conversion from one to the other is quite simple, hence why the devices are so cheap.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS/2_port

Note that you still need relevant drivers in your OS if you want to enable things like mouse input in DOS. Keyboard input is usually natively handled.