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Can NOT get a mouse detected....vintage computer thread

D

dogchainx

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Joined
Dec 19, 2012
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Utah
I asked over at Vogons...still working on the problem there. I'll copy my text verbatim:

Ok guys....is the motherboard at fault here?

I have this: http://museum.ttrk.ee/th99/m/E-H/31137.htm motherboard. First, i LOVE the features of this board. MHz selectable 386 (12,16,25,33,40Mhz..with a switch!)

Right now I have a 386DX-40 chip in there and everything seems to work except it WILL NOT detect any mouse I attach to the serial port. It shows as its configured correctly. Bios System Configuration shows Serial ports active on 3F8, 2F8. I run norton's ndiags.exe and the ports seem to work fine. However, i haven't found a mouse driver yet that will detect any serial mouse attached.

Here's my list of what I've tried after pulling all cards except VIDEO and MULTI-IO:
1. Tried mouse on different motherboard with same MULTI-IO card. Mouse works there
2. Tried different MULTI-IO cards in the motherboard that doesn't work. Mouse doesn't work.
3. Tried microsoft' mouse drive, CuteMouse driver. Does not work.
4. Tried to force comport and IRQ for Cutemouse. Does not work.
5. Tried 4 different serial mice. Non work.
6. Cleared CMOS.

I've gone through the bios, changed almost every setting. No go.

Is there a way to diagnose and solve this issue? Am I missing something very, very simple?

NEW: There is this thread that I didn't want to resurrect. I don't have enough "permission" to send the guy a question to see if he got it solved:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/archive/index.php/t-39611.html

Again, NO serial mouse works with ANY IO card I've tried, though those mice AND the cards work in every other system no problem. I'm about to put this board as a "BUS MOUSE ONLY" board...
 
Taken from the interwebs:

http://retired.beyondlogic.org/serial/serial.htm said:
All the UARTs pins are TTL compatible. That includes TD, RD, RI, DCD, DSR, CTS, DTR and RTS which all interface into your serial plug, typically a D-type connector. Therefore RS232 Level Converters (which we talk about in detail later) are used. These are commonly the DS1489 Receiver and the DS1488 as the PC has +12 and -12 volt rails which can be used by these devices. The RS232 Converters will convert the TTL signal into RS232 Logic Levels.
Click to expand...

If you're missing -12V on your ISA socket, or possibly even +12V - there is a chance you'll have a serial port that doesn't work but passes all diagnostics tests. Depends on the design of the card, but it'd at least be something I'd check quickly. If I'm correct, it'd fail the loopback test with loopback adapter if you had one.

Pinout for ISA slot: http://pinouts.ru/Slots/isa_pinout.shtml

Measure your power supply and make sure it's popping out +12V and -12V signals. (testing for bad power supply)
Then check that B7 and B9 on the ISA connector show 0 ohms between themselves and their appropriate pin on the PSU connector (testing for bad trace / trace damage)

If you've got a multimeter, should only take 5-10 minutes and then you'll either have your answer or one more thing eliminated.
 
Last edited:
SpidersWeb said:
Taken from the interwebs:



If you're missing -12V on your ISA socket, or possibly even +12V - there is a chance you'll have a serial port that doesn't work but passes all diagnostics tests. Depends on the design of the card, but it'd at least be something I'd check quickly. If I'm correct, it'd fail the loopback test with loopback adapter if you had one.

Pinout for ISA slot: http://pinouts.ru/Slots/isa_pinout.shtml

Measure your power supply and make sure it's popping out +12V and -12V signals. (testing for bad power supply)
Then check that B7 and B9 on the ISA connector show 0 ohms between themselves and their appropriate pin on the PSU connector (testing for bad trace / trace damage)

If you've got a multimeter, should only take 5-10 minutes and then you'll either have your answer or one more thing eliminated.
Click to expand...

Thank you! The motherboard -12v power connector was COMPLETELY corroded (I needed about a full minute of scraping to get the corrosion off...the rest of the connectors are in pristine condition!)

I really don't know how I missed that! But just taking a quick voltage test and looking at the connector, that was it.

I got my kick-arse motherboard that has MHz-selectable switches back!
 
An easy way to test the serial port is to use a "crossover plug". Basically connects RXD, TXD; RTS, CTS; and DTR, DSR on the connector, so it will, using a terminal program, echo anything you type.
 
I'll add that if you have a terminal program, set it to 1200,n,8,1 with the mouse plugged in and roll the mouse around a bit. You should see some garbage on the screen.
 
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