Hi:

You did not metion what type of mouse you were using before. Was it a
serial mouse or a ps/2 mouse? Is the board an ATX or AT type? It sounds
like an older socket 7 AT board. If it is ATX, the com port should be hard
wired to the I/O sheild area in the rear were you plug the PS/2 mouse and
keyboard in and if so, why would you be using the com port adapter if you
have a ps/2 port available?

If the system is an older AT board, like it sounds the serial ports were
ususally cable wired to the boards and sometimes the person assembling the
system could either misalign the pins at the connection to the board or if
built from spare parts used a com port cable/gate that came from a
different board and will not work at all on that board, because of wiring
differences.

Sometimes those older at boards had a ps/2 connection on the board but
people assembling the system did not give you access to it becase of the
case design (no ps2 opening in case or did not install additional cable).
So while in bios double check if thesre is a ps/2 fuction that might be
enabled, and disable it.

You really need to test the com Port using a diagnostic program and a loop
back plug to make sure the signal is getting to the external com port that
you want to use.  If it is not, then you need to check:

Is the com port going to the main board or to an IDE/combo controller card?

1) if goint to an IDE/controler card then you need to make sure the jumpers
are set to com 1 and com 2.  (It could be jumpers or dipswitches.) and
again if the com port is not hard wired to the
card but is attached by a cable, make sure the cable is on the card in the
correct position.

2) If to the main board check the bios - make sure the com port is turned
on.  I suggest that you mnanually, change the setting from auto to COM1 if
not already set that way

3) if you have no need of the 2nd com port, manually change it to disabled.

4) if that is set correctly you need to try a different com port cable in
place of the one you have.  Try and PC shop they probably have lots of them
around from different boards.

The other thing is, did the ps/2 to serial adapter really come with the
mouse from the manufacturor of the mouse?  I find that if they do not, the
likely hood of the adapeter working with the mouse is about 1 out of 10.

Hope some of this helps





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