Funky Mouse crashing system
Rudi Nunlist (Rudi)
Thu, 26 May 1994 14:04:44 -0700
We had problems on our AMX-300 caused by a bad mouse. Initially, uxnmr would
complain about not finding the mouse. Eventually, it found it after
re-start and shut up. Unfortunately, the enire system would lock up solid as
soon as the mouse was moved or a button pressed. A spare mouse produced the same
problem.
Since we have, in the past, seen the 'mouse not found message' for no reason at all
(i.e., the mouse _was_ fine!), we ignored it as usual. (The ususal fix for this was
to run Marat and Sebastians's "assign" program...) Swapping every board (except
fot the memory extension) did not solve the problem. 'Endtest' complained about
an array processor problem (a bogus message, I have been advised).
Eventually I came accros the (un-documented, as far as I can tell)
/u/systest/unix/graph/mouse program (run this as 'mouse' it the mouse is connected
to channel B on a TDC, 'mouse 10' if it is connected to the SIO serial board).
Moving the mouse, or pressing buttons, produced no output, not even with the spare.
However, a Logitech mouse borrowed from a PC worked! Most likely, the mouse cable
started to break, at first causing intermittant problems, then breaking completely
and locking up the system.
At least, now I have a high-tech way of testing serial mice, amazing what
spectrometers can be used for!
Rudi Nunlist
P. S. The regular Logitech Serial Mouse works on an X32, simply use a male-to-male
Gender Changer. Other 3-button mice might work as well.