jorge@dg.dg.com (Jorge Lach) (07/14/90)
I've got a Leading Edge D3/SX with a 42 Mb HD, Trident-based SVGA card and 4 MB RAM. I also have a Microsoft serial mouse, which until now was connected to COM2. I was running Windows 2.11 until a week ago, when I finally received my Win3 upgrade. I was using the Microsoft provided driver that came with the mouse for mouse use outside of Win286 (using the switch /c2 for COM2), and Win286 was using (I presume) the mouse.drv driver that also came with the mouse, rather than the original one in the Win286 package, as suggested in the mouse user's manual. Sounds more complicated than it is, and everything was fine and rosy. Except, that is, when I tried to install Win3. Setup recogined a Microsoft mouse when it sized up the hardware, but during setup (and later, when I starte Win3), the cursor appears on the screen, but would not move. Win3 appears to work fine, and it was a good example on how stupid it is to use a GUI with only a keyboard. So I started calling Microsoft... Of course, each call started with a 30 minute wait, on a non-toll-free coast to coast call, so that by now my $50 investment on Win3 is up by more than $20. Every time I call, a new suggestion was made about what to strip off my config.sys and/or autoexec. By the third or so call, somebody suggested that dmdrvr.bin was the culprit: somehow it must be corrupting the installation. I thought it was strange that ALWAYS the mouse gets corrupted, of all pieces of the hardware, but... They told me to reformat my HD, which I did... That did not fix the problem either. Enter the specifics of the Leading Edge D3/SX: it has a port in its back labeled "mouse port". Since none of the adaptors supplied with the mouse (a 9-to-25 pin and a 9-to-6 pin ps/2) would fit, I just connected the mouse to COM2 and that was it. As it turns out, that port is for a "bus mouse". The problem seems to be that when the Win3 mouse drives sees that port, it thinks that is where the mouse is. Of course, since there is no mouse in there, the cursor does not move. Microsoft tech support does not know of any way of telling the mouse driver not to look there (or telling it to look specifically at one of the COM ports). Right now, I'm ready to put Win3 back in its box and ship it to Microsoft, and stick to Win286 (at least it's usable). I still don't understand what exactly is a bus mouse, and why somebody at Microsoft suggested that I could get an adapter to plug in my serial mouse into that bus mouse port. (and yes, I know what a bus is and what a serial port is - I happen to design computers for a living). Does anybody out there know what the different pinouts for these ports are? Is it possible to adapt one mouse to the other? Are all mice (as in the actual thing sitting on my desk) serial, while the "Bus mouse" is just another serial port which plugs into the AT bus? What is going on here? Has anybody installed Win3 on a Leading Edge D3/SX? with a serial mouse? Microsoft? Does anybody know if that mouse port can be disabled in such a way as to make it invisible to Win3? Humm... I've also been trying Leading Edge, but they seem completely ignorant. Thanks in advance, and sorry for making a short story long. jorge@dg.dg.com Technical Systems Division Jorge Lach Data General Corp, Westboro, MA
johnha@microsoft.UUCP (John HAGERSON) (07/21/90)
Microsoft has a standard interface called InPort. It is usually implemented as a card that goes into a slot in the machine. The so-called "bus mouse" connects to this interface. The serial mouse connects directly to the serial port and draws its power there. The major difference between these mice is that the logic is on the board for the bus mouse and its case is almost empty. The serial mouse is jammed with electronics that control its function. As to the problem of getting Windows to recognize your mouse on COM2, you might try going into Windows Setup and changing to the MouseSystems driver for COM2. I can't guarantee that this will work, but you might try it. It sounds like a situation that the Setup people didn't anticipate. John Hagerson Disclaimer: I don't speak for Microsoft and it doesn't speak for me.
pgd@bbt.se (P.Garbha) (07/24/90)
In article <639@dg.dg.com> jorge@dg.dg.com (Jorge Lach) writes: >As it turns out, that port is for a "bus mouse". The problem seems to be >that when the Win3 mouse drives sees that port, it thinks that is where the >mouse is. Of course, since there is no mouse in there, the cursor does not >move. Microsoft tech support does not know of any way of telling the mouse >driver not to look there (or telling it to look specifically at one of >the COM ports). Right now, I'm ready to put Win3 back in its box and ship >it to Microsoft, and stick to Win286 (at least it's usable). We have a screen card with a microsoft bus-mouse-port on, but no mouse that fits the port. On win286 we had exactly the problem you are speaking about. Our solution was to use a non-microsoft serial mouse. (Are microsoft trying to decrease their own sales of mice, or what?)