Having trouble with a PC System

[Cerek the Barbaric]

I am trying to set up a desktop computer system for one of the departments in our hospital and I've run into a snag from the very beginning.

All the peripherals are connected correctly, but when I turn the machine on, I get a message saying that No Mouse has been detected by the system. The mouse IS plugged in (and it is the mouse that originally came with this particular PC), but the system still won't recognize it.

It tells me I must turn the machine off before installing a mouse - which I've tried several times with no success. We've also tried using a different mouse, but still got the same message.

Any suggestions on what else I could try to make the machine recognize the mouse?

BTW, this is an older machine and has Windows98 as the OS. Thanks for your help.

[RoSs_bg2_rox]

well did the mouse come with the machine or what? If not then try another mouse. Some old machines only recognize some types of mouses, or mouses made by the same company etc. What company is the computer made by?

[Vaskez]

LOL ross, did you read the original post or not? [img]tongue.gif[/img] I don't know the answer to this one off the top of my head, Cerek, but try going into the BIOS setup (if it gets that far) - BIOSes vary a lot but some have options to force it not to check for mice etc. have a look at all the boot-up options. You might also try disabling "use plug ang play OS"

[Paladin2000]

Some PC BIOS can disable the PS/2 port. Check if the port is disabled. If you are trying to install COM mouse, check the BIOS if the COM ports are enabled.

To test if the mouse if okay, install the mouse onto another PC.

To check if the mouse port/com port/USB port is working, grab another working mouse from another PC and install it onto the PC in question.

[ 03-17-2004, 03:44 PM: Message edited by: Paladin2000 ]

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Paladin2000: Some PC BIOS can disable the PS/2 port. Check if the port is disabled. If you are trying to install COM mouse, check the BIOS if the COM ports are enabled. To test if the mouse if okay, install the mouse onto another PC. To check if the mouse port/com port/USB port is working, grab another working mouse from another PC and install it onto the PC in question.

How do I get into the PC BIOS if the mouse won't work? One of the staff members DID try a different mouse and it did not work, so I don't think it is a problem with the mouse itself. Sounds like the PS/2 port could have been disabled, though. How do I fix that if it is the problem?

[andrewas]

Hit del (usualy, check the prompt) while POST is going on. That should get you into the BIOS.

[VulcanRider]

Like Paladin2000 said, plug this mouse into another machine & make sure the mouse works. If it's ok, I'd suggest re-installing the mouse driver. If you don't have the OS disk(s) that came with the machine, you should be able to go to the website of whoever built it & download the driver to diskette. Then in Control Panel --> System --> Hardware --> Device Manager you should be able to update the mouse driver. I think that navigation works, I haven't looked at Win98 in a long time.

[Paladin2000]

First, you will have to figure out how to get to the BIOS setup. Some motherboards requires you to hit F1, while others F2 or Del key. If you have the motherboard manual of the PC, just look it up there.

Reset your PC and hit the key repeatedly until the BIOS setup screen comes up. If you see the Windows screen loading up, that means that you have either hit the wrong key or you have missed the BIOS setup.

Because some BIOS feature do have the ability to supress the POST screen, you might not seen it; therefore I would advise to hit the BIOS setup key repeatedly until the BIOS setup screen comes up.

Normally if I missed it, I would hit the reset button and try again. But if you are worried about corruptiong the OS, you might want to wait for the PC to fully booted up and shut the PC down. Then start the PC and try again.

[ 03-18-2004, 01:26 AM: Message edited by: Paladin2000 ]

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Thanks everyone. I finally got it working. The keyboard I had hooked to it was also apparantly no good, so it wouldn't let me hit DELETE to go into BIOS. I changed keyboards and finally managed to enter the SET-UP screen.

Went to Peripherals and - sure enough - the IR port (which was right next to the mouse port) was Disabled. I hit the F1 key and got a pop up menu offering 3 options - Disable and two with letter combos that I'm sure mean something to somebody, but not to me. Still, I figured I would just try each one to see what happened, but the system would NOT allow me to change the Option from Disable.

So I just hit F6 and F7 to restore BIOS Defaults and Set Options for max performance.

Restarted the computer and it suddenly started recognizing ALL the periphals connected to it, including the mouse. Don't know what did it and I don't really care...at least the system is up and running now.

Thanks again for all the tips. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]