I had a similar problem a few years ago when I was using a mouse, modem
and a serial connection to our server.  The mouse was on COM1, the serial
port connection was on COM2, and the modem was on COM4.  I never used the
serial connection and the modem at the same time so it was not a
problem...unless I forgot and used both.

You might check and be sure that Windows 95 (I assume) is not "seeing"
your ports differently than you are.

Good Luck,
Brian Clifford


On Sun, 8 Feb 1998, Brad Britton wrote:

> When my pc is downloading a page from the internet, I find that
> when I
> try to do something in the background that involves the mouse
> (click on
> a file to request it, try to paste info into a file,ect.) I most
> often
> have to click several times before the clicks do anything.I only
> began
> noticing this over the past month or two, but it could be that it
> was
> always like this. (Pentium 75, 32Meg RAM).
>  I suspect that this might be happening because I have the modem
> set up
> as COM 2, which I think has a higher priority IRQ than COM 1. The
> mouse
> will work after several clicks, even while the page is being
> downloaded.
> Is this because I happen to click the mouse when the serial port
> buffer
> is empty? I guess having a PS2 mouse would solve this, since the
> IRQ is
> at a higher priority level, but I don't have a PS2 port. If I'm
> right
> about this so far, I guess if I moved the modem to COM1 and the
> mouse to
> COM2 this might fix this annoyance. Also, I don't understand why
> after I
> click the mouse, I can't just wait for the result, instead of
> having to
> keep on clicking the mouse. If an interrupt isn't serviced right
> away,
> does it just disappear? Can someone please comment on any of
> this? I don't
> know how much, if any, of what I have written here is accurate.
> Brad Britton

*************************************
          Brian P. Clifford
  Instructor in CIS and in Business
      Freed-Hardeman University
        Henderson, TN  38340
    e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
*************************************


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