cant find my mouse

[ton]

i have just put together an old computer.it is a dx4 .the motherboard is a pine pt432b,i cant get a mouse to work,windows will not recognize it,i have tried a ps2 and a serial
mouse ,can anyone please help
tony

[linton]

onboard or expansion card serial ports? are they installed properly? any conflicts with com ports?

[ton]

onboard ports,there are no conflicts,i have also tried an external
modem on a serial port,no luck with that either
tony

[jim chase]

Some cables for serial ports are proprietary, meaning they only work with motherboards they were designed for. Try another set of cables or some from pine if they're available. Also check the bios and be sure they're enabled.

Last and maybe easiest option, add a serial card from an old 486 and disable the onboard ports in the bios.

Jim

[linton]

I had exactly the same problem quite a while ago while upgrading from 486 to 586 (like i said, quite a while ago:D )
good luck trying to find the right cables, you could go through quite a large box full and still not find the right ones. Believe me I did. Little help from the computer shop guy either, although he did let me loose on the box. :p

[ton]

thanks for your help,i think i will try adding a serial card and see what happens
tony

[walter degroot]

the i/o cards used on older computers come is 3 basic kinds
1) have jumpers to turn ports off and on
( and they really work)
2)have jumpers to turn ports off and on
( and the port isn't really turned off - very common)
3) have no jumpers or limited port control jumpers
----------------------------
dont truse MSD it is lousy about reporting ports / addresses
many other utils won't even find a working modem.

if the i/o card is integrated with the ide / floppy card , let the modem be set at com3 irq 5 - sometimes interferes with sound cards.
======
many newer modems simply won't work in a 486 even if it has pci slots.
a good try is to install the INTEL pnp
extensions. if the modem is jumperless.
-------------
above assumes that the mb has no serial /parallel / ide/floppy controllers
---------------
if your board DOES have controllers, then the suggestion about trying a different lind of mb header ---> serial connector cable is right.
in this case i turn OFF com 2( in setup) and let the modem be com2 orq 3

[ton]

got to thinking about trying different cables to see if i could get
the mouse to work,then i thought trying different cables would be the same as swapping the ones i a have around,as there are
only four wires that means 24 combinations,so i swapped them
around 24 times,and quess what,it still wont work,i wonder if
the motherboard is faulty
tony

[jim chase]

Faulty motherboard? It's possible but I would try finding the pin outs to properly set up the cable (I had to do this with a Tyan M/B which had proprietary cables) before giving up on the onboard serial ports.

Jim

[ton]

if i have tried every combination with the wires i dont see what else i can do,i was very carful to write down the combinations so
i was sure i had done them all
tony

[linton]

I think there is a few diffrent brands of cables, and some only work on certain motherboards, because i went through the same thing. I had a set of cables from the motherboard i was replacing, and tried them on the new motherboard and it didn't work, anywhich way, still didn't work. So i went to the computer store, and the guy brought out the big box full of cables, and i had to go through and find ones that would work.