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Topic: Rats!!! Lost Mouse. |
Paul Crawford
From:
Orlando, Fl
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Posted 29 Feb 2000 1:37 pm |
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OK, I surrender. I use to be able to work on my own computer. I even built my first 2 computers from kits. But Gatesware has defeated me. This might be my last step before taking a hammer to a hard disk.
My mouse checked out Window 98. I was hooking up a new cable, (nothing even plugged in!) on a spare serial port when the mouse died. As best I can figure, I have a serial mouse and the adaptor for my new serial cable, (digital camera interface), must have strapped a couple of CTS/RTS lines on the serial port and that spare port shared in IRQ with my mouse. I have been able to look at a hardware profile to see that Com2 and Com3 are both on IRQ 3.
Without the mouse to help me search, I can't find the menu necessary to reset the IRQs and don't have a clue on where I should be to reinstall the mouse. The damn thing is off in some degraded mode now, (thanks to "help" from my oldest while I was out of the house on Sunday), where the display will only go to 640 x 480 and I can't even get all of the default screens on the display without a mouse to reposition them.
Who has the magic decoder ring??? |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 29 Feb 2000 2:27 pm
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Try disconnecting the digital camera and then starting win98 in the safe mode. That may get you up enough to try and change the IRQ so there's no conflict.
Hit F8, as it's first booting and it should give you a menu with one option being safe mode.
How old a machine do you have, that it still has an RS232C serial mouse??
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George Rozak
From:
Braidwood, Illinois USA
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Posted 29 Feb 2000 9:51 pm
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Normally Com1 & Com3 share IRQ 4, while Com2 & Com4 share IRQ 3. With those default settings, devices can use COM1 or Com3, but not both. Same for Com2 & Com4. Sounds like the IRQs for your Com Ports somehow got hosed up. You might try temporarily disabling all of your Com Ports except for the one that the mouse is attached to. Or you may beable to change them back to their default settings. You can normally do this by accessing the BIOS/Setup when the computer boots up. Most newer computers seem to use the Delete key to access the BIOS, but it could be another key or key combination. Watch the screen as the computer boots and it will probably tell you how to access setup.
Hope this helps,
George
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RickRichtmyer
From:
Beautiful Adamstown, MD
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Posted 1 Mar 2000 5:31 am
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Paul,
You may find it helpful to learn how to navigate around your computer without using the mouse. This saved me some months back when the mouse on my wife's computer died. The fix in that case was to reinstall the mouse driver. Of course, as you noted, that can be tough when you don't have a mouse - a real Catch 22.
You may find it useful to know that you can access the Start menu on Win95/98 by pressing CTRL+Esc at the same time. SOme keyboards (this one does) have a key that does that all by itself.
In any case, if you can open the Start menu, you can type "S" to get to settings and then "C" to get to the control panel and then "S" until you get to "System." Press Enter to get to the System Dialogue Box and use the arrow keys to get to the Device Manager tab. Then you can hit the tab key twice to get into the device list. Use the down arrow key to get down to Mouse and the right arrow key to expand the mouse listing (so you can get to the driver). Remove the driver for the mouse. You should then be able to use the Add New Hardware function of the Control Panel to reinstall your mouse driver.
I hope this helps.
------------------
Rick Richtmyer
users.erols.com/rickrichtmyer
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Paul Crawford
From:
Orlando, Fl
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Posted 1 Mar 2000 7:58 am
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Thanks guys, we'll give it a try and see where we get.  |
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Bill Crook
From:
Goodlettsville, TN , Spending my kid's inheritance
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Posted 2 Mar 2000 4:29 pm
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Paul C....
Your mouse will insist on using comm port 1 !!
you need to set the digital camera up on comm2.
I had the same problem as you with the mouse and camera,set photodevice to comm2 and problem went away !!
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Rich Paton
From:
Santa Maria, CA.,
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Posted 3 Mar 2000 4:41 pm
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Gateway, Schmateway!
Does the motherboard allow a PS2 mouse option? I went to this style with a "new" (September 1999) motherboard (FIC VA-503+). Now (sigh) the many annoying mouse / modem / serial port hassles I've seen over the years are but a distant [bad] memory!
This mouse's resource allocation is IRQ12. |
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Jonathan Cullifer
From:
Gallatin, TN
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Posted 6 Mar 2000 9:10 am
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| I have always been a fan of PS/2 Mice and keyboards. That is what they were designed for, and you don't clog up you USB/Serial ports. PS/2 mice are fairly cheap, most are around $15, although I have seen them for as high as $79.99. I would buy a PS/2 mouse if you don't get your problem fixed. |
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