Missing Mouse

[Bleep]

I have a problem with a machine of a friend of mine. She was playing some card game on her machine and the mouse just dissappeared. She bought a new mouse and the machine will not see it. I sent her a ps2 to serial adapter and it still does not see the mouse, do you think if I went over and reloaded her windows 98SE that it would help or is there some other solution, she lives about 85 miles so I would like to do it over the phone if possible. I dont want to do a reformat as she has no way to back up her stuff.

Thanks
Bleep

 

[altonb1]

Sounds like a corrupt mouse driver. i would have her go into system properties (right click My Computer, select properties, then select device manager) and see if there are any yellow exclamation points or red X's on any of the hardware. if so, try deleting the device completely, then reboot and see if 98 finds the hardware when it boots up again. More than likey, it is the mouse driver and it just needs to be reloaded.

 

[Bleep]

Whoah! I dont think that I can do that because the mouse wont work.

Bleep

 

[microAmp]

You can do it through the keyboard also, takes longer but it'll work.

If on W2K, WinXp, press the "Windows" key and "Pause/Break" button at same time, it'll bring up the System Properties. Use the "Tab" key to navigate around to the tabs, use arrow keys to select the tab to Device Manager.

Shift-Tab will let you go backwards from "Tab"-ing forward.

 

[Bleep]

I am sorry I should have said she is running 98SE. [Went back and read my post and I guess I did say win 98}
I did a search on google and found a generic mouse driver, it is a Zip file, How do I go about installing it.
The windows key / pause will get me into device manager but I cannot scroll down the list to mouse, all I can do is scroll through the tabs at the top and the stuff at the bottom.

Thanks
Bleep

 

[microAmp]

Sorry, didn't really pay attention too much to the first post about Win98.

I know the Tab-ing method worked for me on a Win98 computer once for me while working on a similar issue.

When in Device Manager and Tab-ing through, does it highlight at least one part in the Device Manager list where are the "+" signs are? If so, you use the arrow keys at that point to scroll down to the mouse and use the right arrow key to open the "+" and tree it. If that does work and get you to the mouse properties, press "Enter" and that'll open up the properties.

I'm also trying to think of another way to get the drivers installed.....

 

[redbeard1]

It may be the port is bad. A virus might do odd things like that. Ps2 to serial adapters almost never work for me. The only time they would was when I was using the old original ms mouse, and it said it would work for both. I've never had it work otherwise.

On getting to the device manager. Get into windows. Hit the ctrl-esc keys, this brings the start menu up. Arrow to settings, then arrow over to control panel and hit enter. Now in the control panel, arrow down to system, which is the device manager. Now hit the right arrow once to move which top tab is selected, and you will see the device list.

 

[Bleep]

Thanks guys. but

When in Device Manager and Tab-ing through, does it highlight at least one part in the Device Manager list where are the "+" signs are?

Well it all goes well except I cannot scroll to any of the devices in device manager, I have tried almost all combinations of keys that I can think of but the only thing that is highlighted in device manager is Computer.

As to loading a driver for a mouse the only way I have ever done this is to go into device manager and do the change driver option. It is getting more and more like I will have to reload windows on top of itself, I have done this before but sometimes it dont work. There may be some way to extract the driver from the 98 CD but I dont know how to do that either.

I dont think that it is a virus as she does not have a internet connection. She just uses the machine for games and editing photos.

Bleep

 

[redbeard1]

Part duex:

When you arrow over and have the device manager highlighted, use the 'tab' key to move the highlighting box where you want it. Hitting the tab key twice form the device manager, will get computer highlighted, then arrow down from there. To open the + or tree on the device, use the right arrow key.

How about trying a little trouble shooting? When the computer first boots up, start pressing the F8 key. This will bring up the windows boot menu. Arrow down to #3, and go into windows in safe mode. Going into windows in safe mode means that drivers are not loaded, including the regular mouse driver. If you have a mouse in safe mode then it's some sort of driver issue. If you still don't have a mouse then it's hardware.

Another thing to try is get a serial mouse. If the ps2 port is bad a serial mouse should work.

 

[Bleep]

The up/down arrow keys will not work.
I will call her tommorrow and have her try safe mode, I should have thought of that.

Thanks for the time and effort you guys are taking I really appriciate it.

Bleep

 

[altonb1]

Originally posted by: Bleep
Whoah! I dont think that I can do that because the mouse wont work. Bleep

Okay, sorry...I gave ID-10-T advice, i guess. Ooops! I just wasn't thinking. (It's funny how accustomed we become with the mouse that when troubleshooting a mouse problem, the advice still gives mouse movement instructions...heh)

Anyway, it was covered, but you can go to Start, settings, Control panel, then scroll to System and get to the device settings that way. Then using <tab> and arrow keys, you can get to the properties of the mouse.

 

[Bleep]

altonb1

Heck I have made bigger errors than that. Troubleshooting something like this is really hard sometimes because I get something stuck in my head and just end up going around in circles. I appriciate your responding to my question.

Bleep

 

[Bleep]

Well I went over to her house today (monday) and the mouse worked fine in safe mode so I loaded a mouse driver that came with the new mouse that she has purchased and that did not work either. I fiddled with the darn think for 3 hours even trying to reload windows, but every time that I tried that it kept telling me that it needed windows to load the program. I had never had this problem before.
I ended up reformating and at least got windows working, It will not load the motherboard drivers so the video is stuck at 16 colors, not good, I know the drivers are on the disk and when doing a dir onthe disk they are there and will let me select them but then says that there are no drivers on the disk. Same with the audio, they are all onboard the MB, so still stumped I wish she would buy a new machine.

Bleep

 

[gwlam12]

try 2K or xp and see if the problem is fixed. how old is that system anyway?

 

[gwlam12]

or maybe its a bad mobo?

 

[Bleep]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I solved the problem by building her a new machine, it was a pentium 233 AT motherboard of some unknown manifacture. I used her hard drive floppy CD Rom Put together a system with 1.3 Duron took hers in trade she also gave me a Cushman motor scooter, a great deal for me.
and her.

Bleep