I had this problem with my wife's computer several ones back (the computer - not the wife...)

When DOS loads the real mode code, it loads the real mode DOS mouse driver.
Then Windows looks to see if there is a Autoexec.bat and Config.sys file.
If so, it checks them for drivers (mouse included) that need to be unloaded and transitioned
into protected mode drivers.  You could say the mouse is "Grandfathered" into Windows in
Protected Mode...

We used it this way for three weeks - "Forcing" a mouse this way...
Then one day "out of the blue", Windows would not boot and only gave a protection error.
I removed the lines from the start up file and could boot.
Put them in and out and it was repeatable.
I switched back to an "identical looking" serial mouse (to trick the wife) and never gave it
another thought. (And it still works fine...)
This was is a PCChips(Amptron) MB, and I was never happy with it for other reasons...

                          Rick Glazier


From: "David Gillett" <[log in to unmask]>
>   YEARS ago, I remember having a problem with a couple of machines that
> would only occasionally detect a PS/2 mouse on startup.  I don't recall
> whether the OS was 95, 98, or 98SE, but "Pentium I" sounds about right.
>
>   The solution that seemed to work at the time was to load a DOS serial
> mouse driver via CONFIG.SYS.  Somehow, that would convince Windows that it
> really should look for the mouse, and it would find it just fine every time.

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