External USB keyboard on SWMBO's laptop

Not being very fond of the keyboard on SWMBO's Dell laptop, I thought I'd plug in a keyboard I like into the USB port. Encouraged by invincible ignorance, I figured all I had to do was plug it in and it would work.

The laptop is about five years old, running Windows XP. The keyboard is (don't laugh) a Gateway AnyKey dating back to about 1994. This was before the invention of USB, and I used a PS2 to USB adapter to plug it in.

The good news? Nothing caught on fire. The bad news? Nothing worked. The computer actually did see an unknown device on the USB port, but that was as far as things got. Is it because my keyboard is too old to talk to a USB port even with the adapter? Is it because I need some sort of software driver? Is it because I was supposed to change some configuration option on the laptop? Do laptop computers even support external keyboards?

I ended up doing the typing on the laptop's keyboard, so by this time it's purely a matter of curiosity. What should I have done differently?

tanstaafl.

In my experience (this may or may not be actually true in all cases, but it's what I've found in my daily work):

The PS2-to-USB adapters only work for mice, and only for certain kinds of mice with their internal electronics specifically designed to work as both PS2 and USB.

USB keyboards only work when plugged into a computer whose BIOS supports USB keyboards, and the keyboard must be native USB, not an old PS2 keyboard with a USB plug.

http://www.clickykeyboards.com/index.cfm/fa/items.main/parentcat/11298/subcatid/0/id/124184

You need a PS2 to USB converter, not a PS2 to USB adaptor.

Something like this.