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Both a Trackball and Mouse on XP

O

owensdj

Golden Member
I'm helping someone with XP Home SP1 who wants to use both a Logitech cordless trackball and a Logitech corded MX500 optical mouse on his desktop computer. If he plugs the trackball into the PS/2 port and the mouse into a USB port, XP will let the trackball control the pointer but not the mouse. He has to unplug the mouse from the USB port and plug it in again to get them both working at the same time.

Is this normal behavior for XP? Does it see the PS/2 pointing device and then assume there are no others?
 
This is not normal XP behavior. In theory it can support as many pointing devices as one would like. I've used a Logitech MX500 on PS/2 and a 2nd Gen standard logitech optical mouse on USB at the same time w/out issue on XP pro. I've also used a logitech Marble mouse (trackball) on PS/2 and a no name optical mouse on usb w/out issue as well. Hope this helps...
 
I've run PS2 and USB mice side by side before several times with no problem. In fact at work I have a computer setup for presentations (classroom) with a couple keyboards (1 PS2, 1 USB) and three mice (1PS2, 1 USB, 1 serial (to overhead projector).
 
LiLithTecH, both the cordless trackball and the optical mouse are USB devices with PS/2 adapters, so they can be used either way.
 
A lot of it depends on the Hardware you are using it with.
Are there any COM ports in use?

I have seen this happen with Winmodems installed.

Have you tried BOTH PS/2 adapters? While there is not much
to them, they are very prone to defects.
 
LiLithTecH, thanks for the reply. This machine doesn't have any modems installed, just a graphics card and a NIC.

I haven't tried switching the USB to PS/2 adapters. I think the problem is just when the mouse and/or trackball are being used in a USB port. The problem with the pointer and buttons not responding happens when I try just one of them in a USB port with nothing in the PS/2 mouse port.
 
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