Serial Mouse Does Not Work on a DEC Alpha Computer

 Last reviewed: September 7, 1996
Article ID: Q143329
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5 and 3.51

SYMPTOMS

A Serial Mouse installed on a DEC Alpha machine will not work properly. A mouse cursor does not show up.

CAUSE

The serial driver was not initializing the serial data structures when booting up. It tried to use what ever data was in memory and most of the time this was incorrect. The sermouse driver would fail at this point and not load.

Also note that you must follow the changes mentioned in section 22.1 of the readme.wri. Here is an excerpt of that section.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system-wide problems that may require you to reinstall Windows NT to correct them. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use this tool at your own risk. Open regedt32 and locate the following key in the system registry:

To enable a serial mouse on a RISC-based computer, add one of the following to the Registry: 

    OverrideHardwareBitstring:REG_DWORD:0x1
or 

    OverrideHardwareBitstring:REG_DWORD:0x2
Use the value 0x1 when the mouse is connected to COM1 and the value 0x2 when the mouse is connected to COM2. The value is located in the following Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Sermouse\Parameters

There has also been reports where a later version of the DEC Alpha BIOS was needed in conjunction with this fix.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.51. This problem was corrected in the latest Windows NT 3.51 U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces): 

   S E R V P A C K

KBCategory: kbsetup
KBSubcategory: ntdriver NTSrv
Additional reference words: 3.50 3.51 prodnt digital

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Last reviewed: September 7, 1996
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