brassicGamer
Experienced Member
Hello folks.
I've done as much troubleshooting on this problem as I possibly could before coming here, so hopefully we can find a solution to this particularly odd issue. The system in question used to work perfectly and now there is a specific problem: the mouse does not track when an ISA sound card is installed. Specifically, I load a mouse driver on COM1 and it recognises it. I go into any program that uses the mouse (EDIT, MSD, Windows 3.11) and the mouse cursor is static. When I remove the sound card, the mouse works perfectly. The only thing that has changed inbetween it working and not working is that I have been benchmarking various CPUs but, aside from that, the system has been restored to the original state it was in before this (in terms of jumpers, CPU, etc.)
I have tried an AdLib, SB16, GUS, ESS - all do the same thing. My Voyetra MIDI card doesn't affect it, however, nor do SCSI cards, controller cards, game card, NICs. A different graphics card makes no difference and it also doesn't matter whether I use a serial port built into an I/O controller, or a standalone card. It almost seems it could be related to any card using an audio DAC, because an ISA modem had the same effect. I have tried nearly every combination I can think of and the same problem occurs each time. The only thing I haven't changed is the PSU and the motherboard / RAM. It is an EISA board, so I can't use the Intel PnP tools to track down a possible conflict. Using the EISA config tool allows me to load config files for the ISA cards but this also makes no difference - they are all hard-configured or configured in software at startup anyway.
I only have one serial port enabled, at IRQ4 with the default port of 0x3F8. The SB16 is non-pnp and is configured for IRQ5, while the GUS is IRQ7 and it doesn't matter which card is installed. I even tried a different CPU and tweaked the cache settings out of desperation, even though this makes no logical sense in relation to the issue. Someone suggested it might be linked to the -12V rail, but I have taken readings and it's stable. Thanks in advance for any suggestions - hopefully I haven't overlooked anything obvious.
Edit: new symptom. Noticed that when I use an ISA I/O card and install a sound card, the hard drive controller is not recognised also. If I disable the serial port on the card the same thing happens. When I move the slot the sound card is installed in, however, the hdd starts working again! The controller on my VLB card is unaffected and so is another ISA card I tried. So that just got weirder.
I've done as much troubleshooting on this problem as I possibly could before coming here, so hopefully we can find a solution to this particularly odd issue. The system in question used to work perfectly and now there is a specific problem: the mouse does not track when an ISA sound card is installed. Specifically, I load a mouse driver on COM1 and it recognises it. I go into any program that uses the mouse (EDIT, MSD, Windows 3.11) and the mouse cursor is static. When I remove the sound card, the mouse works perfectly. The only thing that has changed inbetween it working and not working is that I have been benchmarking various CPUs but, aside from that, the system has been restored to the original state it was in before this (in terms of jumpers, CPU, etc.)
I have tried an AdLib, SB16, GUS, ESS - all do the same thing. My Voyetra MIDI card doesn't affect it, however, nor do SCSI cards, controller cards, game card, NICs. A different graphics card makes no difference and it also doesn't matter whether I use a serial port built into an I/O controller, or a standalone card. It almost seems it could be related to any card using an audio DAC, because an ISA modem had the same effect. I have tried nearly every combination I can think of and the same problem occurs each time. The only thing I haven't changed is the PSU and the motherboard / RAM. It is an EISA board, so I can't use the Intel PnP tools to track down a possible conflict. Using the EISA config tool allows me to load config files for the ISA cards but this also makes no difference - they are all hard-configured or configured in software at startup anyway.
I only have one serial port enabled, at IRQ4 with the default port of 0x3F8. The SB16 is non-pnp and is configured for IRQ5, while the GUS is IRQ7 and it doesn't matter which card is installed. I even tried a different CPU and tweaked the cache settings out of desperation, even though this makes no logical sense in relation to the issue. Someone suggested it might be linked to the -12V rail, but I have taken readings and it's stable. Thanks in advance for any suggestions - hopefully I haven't overlooked anything obvious.
Edit: new symptom. Noticed that when I use an ISA I/O card and install a sound card, the hard drive controller is not recognised also. If I disable the serial port on the card the same thing happens. When I move the slot the sound card is installed in, however, the hdd starts working again! The controller on my VLB card is unaffected and so is another ISA card I tried. So that just got weirder.
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