Mouse Cursor May Freeze with ATI Video Card

 Last reviewed: September 16, 1996
Article ID: Q87105
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Mouse Driver for MS-DOS, versions 8.2 and 8.2a

SUMMARY

When the Microsoft InPort/bus Mouse card is installed with an ATI graphics card such as Graphics Vantage, Graphics Ultra or 8514 Ultra, the mouse cursor may freeze in Windows, yet work correctly in MS-DOS. If this problem occurs, check for an invalid MOUSE.INI file in the Windows directory. This information applies to the Microsoft InPort/bus Mouse card for MS-DOS systems.

MORE INFORMATION

The 8.2a Microsoft Mouse Setup program for MS-DOS sets an environment variable to point to the location of the MOUSE.INI file. In Windows, the 

   mouse=<path>mouse.drv
in the [Boot] section of the SYSTEM.INI file performs the same function.

The freeze can be caused by Windows not finding the correct MOUSE.INI file. If Windows cannot find the file, it creates one. Windows uses the first available port address, the ATI card, and does not recognize the Microsoft InPort/bus Mouse card.

To correct this problem, change the MOUSE.INI file to the following settings. Also, change the InPort/bus card so that the J3 jumper is on the secondary InPort address (the lower two pins). Correct settings for AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS, SYSTEM.INI, and MOUSE.INI are further below.

MOUSE.INI

Add the following line: 

   MouseType=INPORT2
This forces the driver to look for the mouse at the secondary address: 

       Primary address                  023Ch-023Fh
       Secondary address                0238h-023Bh
Make sure the MOUSE.DRV= line in the SYSTEM.INI [boot] section actually points to a location where both the correct MOUSE.DRV and MOUSE.INI are located. If this line is not correct, Windows creates a new MOUSE.INI file in the Windows directory with only the following line: 

   mousetype=inport1

   AUTOEXEC.BAT
   ------------

      set mouse=C:\MOUSE   ;For using MOUSE.COM with MS-DOS
      C:\MOUSE\mouse /i2

   -or-

   CONFIG.SYS
   ----------

      device=c:\mouse\mouse.sys /i2  ;For using MOUSE.SYS with MS-DOS

SYSTEM.INI

   mouse.drv=c:\mouse\mouse.drv

MOUSE.INI

   mousetype=inport2
If the problem still occurs after making the above corrections, the problem may be from an IRQ conflict. The ATI card may have IRQ 2 set for the mouse; you should use IRQ 5 instead. You can change this setting with the ATI Install utility. The jumper on the Microsoft InPort card must also be changed.

Note: Even if everything is working correctly, the Microsoft Diagnostics (MSD) utility may report the mouse at the LPT2 address on some machines. You can ignore this.

KBCategory: kbhw
KBSubcategory:
Additional reference words: 8.20 8.20a 9check

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Last reviewed: September 16, 1996
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