lee@chsun1.uchicago.edu (Dwight A Lee) (01/31/91)
Can two serial ports and an ATI VGA Wonder bus mouse coexist in the same
system? I have a 386/20MHz-AT running MS-DOS 3.30. I have two AT
serial ports as COM1 and COM2. COM1 works fine, but COM2 is flaky,
and I'm not sure why. Could it have something to do with the mouse
port on the ATI VGA Wonder, even though it's currently DISABLED (or so
says VSETUP)?
When I plug the mouse in and activate it, one of the serial ports
seems to go dead. Why does this happen? I've tried various "Primary"
and "Secondary" addresses which are settable from 2 to 5 (I suppose
that these are IRQ numbers) - but to no avail.
Other information about my environment (shown at coldstart):
ATI VGA Wonder Bios, Version V3M-1.02
Phoenix 80386 ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 01
Copyright (C) 1985-1988 Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
PC BRAND 386
The ATI manual shows a table of IRQs and how they are commonly used,
but makes no mention of which I should choose, what the difference
between a primary and a secondary address is, or whether having more
than one serial port is going to affect the VGA card's operation.
Table as listed in manual:
IRQ Lvl Used by
2 IBM AT
5 IBM PC w/fixed disk
5 IBM PC/XT
4 Async Comm Adapt (com1)
4 or 3 Binary Sync Comm Adap (com1)
4 or 3 Sync Data Link Ctrl Comm Adap
3 Async Comm Adapt (com2)
2 IBM EGA
2 IBM Network Adapt
A summary of what I'd like to know:
- can I have both serial ports working, and use the mouse as well?
-- if so, can I do it with my existing setup? or will I need a ROM
update or something like that?
- is the VGA card interfering with the operation of the COM2 serial
port?
Please post replies if you feel that many readers will benefit. Email
replies will be summarized to this group if there are more than two.
Thank you all for any assistance you can render.
--
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Dwight A Lee / lee@chsun1.uchicago.edu / T904107@niucs.BITNET / tCS/BB / Font
I speak only for myself. / "I am not the only dust my mother raised" - TMBGcd5340@mars.njit.edu (Charlap) (02/01/91)
Well, here is the list of the interrupts used by systems, as they
pertain to mice:
INT Do not use for a mouse if you have a
---- ---------------------------------------------------------
5 An IBM PC or PC/XT with a hard disk (or an AT with an XT
hard disk controller)
4 Serial ports COM1: or COM3:
3 Serial ports COM2: or COM4:
2 An IBM PC/AT, an EGA card, or a network adapter
Needless to say, if you have 2 serial ports, an XT hard drive controller
and an EGA card, you can't use a mouse without conflict. You'd have to
use a serial mouse on one of your COM ports or disable a COM port.
--- Dave (cd5340@mars.njit.edu)thoger@solan.unit.no (Terje Th|gersen) (02/02/91)
In article <2194@njitgw.njit.edu> cd5340@mars.njit.edu (Charlap) writes: Well, here is the list of the interrupts used by systems, as they pertain to mice: INT Do not use for a mouse if you have a ---- --------------------------------------------------------- 5 An IBM PC or PC/XT with a hard disk (or an AT with an XT hard disk controller) 4 Serial ports COM1: or COM3: 3 Serial ports COM2: or COM4: 2 An IBM PC/AT, an EGA card, or a network adapter Needless to say, if you have 2 serial ports, an XT hard drive controller and an EGA card, you can't use a mouse without conflict. You'd have to use a serial mouse on one of your COM ports or disable a COM port. --- Dave (cd5340@mars.njit.edu) About using IRQ2 in an AT.. I'm using a 386sx, with 2 COM-ports using IRQ4 and 3, a network adapter using IRQ5, and a bus-mouse on the net-adapter that's set for IRQ2. The mouse is *not* used/installed. In spite of this, I'm able to get a RS485-card set as IRQ2 to work nicely. I didn't think it would work, but decided to give it a try, since all other IRQ's were busy and ebabled. So, as far as I can tell, you *can* use IRQ2 in an AT, although this is just connected to the second 8359A, and it's possible for two devices to share the same IRQ, as long as only one of the devices has interrupts enabled. What bothers me a bit is *why* this works.. I thought the IRQ2 line was reserved for that second PIC.. Oh, what the heck.. it works.. -Terje -- ____________________________________________________________________________ thoger@solan.unit.no | Institute of Physical Chemistry THOGER AT NORUNIT.BITNET | Div. of Computer Assisted Instrumental Analysis | Norwegian Institute of Technology