Win9x Upgrade Issue... 1

[mventour]

A friend recently upgraded his Windows 95 to Windows 2000 Professional. After that, he stopped getting sound from Windows and its applications. I tried to make him use Windows 98 until Windows XP was out but, he let the number fool him. He called me over yesterday to help him with the problem. I managed to get the sound to work, and fixed his modem settings, Win2K was incorrectly detecting it. Okay, so he can connect to the Internet, the sound works, but this is where it gets reeeeally weird. The mouse just won't work.

Whenever you log on, you can't see the cursor, but you can see tool tips where the cursor is supposed to be at the centre of the screen. The only time you can see the cursor, is when you try to move a window using keyboard commands.

He has on of those computers with everything integrated on the motherboard, so it came with a CD containing drivers for all the integrated stuff. I tried to re-install the drivers for the mouse, but the mouse still isn't detected by Win2K, at all. I thought that it must be a driver for 9x, but they don't know the name of the OEM, so I couldn't go hunting for Win2K drivers for the mouse. I even tried unplugging the mouse and restarting. It didn't even acknowledge that there wasn't a mouse connected.


If anyone can provide some information on how to fix this mouse issue, a thousand thanks to you. If you sting me, I won't mind.

 

[a073235]

Rather than upgrading or supplying the OEM mouse drivers, what if you just remove the device from Device Manager, unplug the mouse, and shutdown. Re-insert the mouse and power up, allowing Win2K to choose?

I'm not a fan of Win2K upgrades rather then fresh installs and this is probably why Hope this helps!

Heath Racine
Principal Systems Engineer
Desktop and Mobile Platforms

 

[mventour]

I tried that trick, and Win2K still didn't detect it. I'm really not sure what is causing this problem, but I'm just about ready to chalk it up to plain old evil.

Any other suggestions, or some links to some drivers would be more than welcome. If you sting me, I won't mind.

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

Format the hard drive (after backing up all personal files needed, of course) then try a fresh install of Windows 2k...NEVER upgrade. Many problems can occur when you upgrade... That would be my next step, eliminate all possible software conflicts. Please let us (Tek-Tips members) know if the solutions I provide are helpful to you. Not only do my posts help you but they may help others.

Mike Wills
IT Corporate Support
RPG Programmer
koldark@koldark.net

 

[dkediger]

Also - Is the mobo on Win2k's HCL. It simply may not provide the proper device support for Win2k.

 

[butchrecon]

Is this a MS PS2 mouse? Or is this a generic PS2 mouse? If its a PS2 mouse, turn off the computer and unplug the mouse. Look in the connector and ensure the pins are not bent. Then, if you can, get another PS2 mouse and hook it up. If the system does not see it then it is probebly a bad PS2 port. If it does see the mouse then it is a bad mouse. If it is a bad PS2 port then replace the board.
Now if it is a serial mouse (runs off of a serial port) again try another mouse. If that fails try another Serial port. There should not be any need for mouse drivers under Win 2000. Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.


James Collins
Computer Hardware Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

 

[conceptumator]

Listen to Koldark -- do a clean install. I took my son-in-law's advice on this (he's a MCSE) and I have been overjoyed with the improvements from Win98. No more blue screens and the computer will actually shut down! It may be a pain to clean install, but it's really worth it.

 

[mventour]

i did a clean install on mine, and it works just fine. a lot more than jsut fine. but my friend's problem just got worse.

since when he first installed it the mouse was working, i figured, try to upgrade the Win2K. I should have initially copied the install files to the hard drive and then run the install, but it slipped my mind. so during the DOS portiion of the setup, several times it had problems reading from the cd, and prompted for a retry. it must have been a sign from the heavens or something, and i didn't pay any attention, i just retried every file that gave trouble to copy and then it restarted for the home stretch.

so it starts, and at the point where it checks for hardware and installs drivers to suit, it reaches a little over half way, there's a millisecond of some strange blue screen message before the machine it self seems to reset. this happens in the same pattern for eternity. i figured "maybe if i can change what ever settings are in place to make Win2K boot into setup, i could probably make it start normally and do a dual boot instead". no dice. can't quite figure it out. i'm lost. HELP!!! REALLY!!

oh, and DARN YOU BILL GATES' PROGRAMMERS FOR EXCLUDING SOME LAST MINUTE CANCEL OPTION! If you sting me, I won't mind.

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

I'd hate to say it, but it sounds like the motherboard has some major issues. He was having problems in Win95 also? If so I would seriously look for hardware problems.
Mike Wills
RPG Programmer

"I am bad at math because God forgot to include math.h into my programming!"

Please let us (Tek-Tips members) know if the solutions I provide are helpful to you. Not only do my posts help you but they may help others.

 

[mventour]

nah. no hardware problems. the only problem he had with Win95 was that it ran really slow.

any other ideas? If you sting me, I won't mind.

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

I still would, Windows 2000 is more sensitive to hardware glitches. If you are having that many problems I would double check. Then try installing Windows 95 agian. See how that runs, then if all goes well, install Win2k.
Mike Wills
RPG Programmer

"I am bad at math because God forgot to include math.h into my programming!"

Please let us (Tek-Tips members) know if the solutions I provide are helpful to you. Not only do my posts help you but they may help others.

 

[mventour]

can't figure out how to abort the install. i was even contemplating a reformat. i told them to discuss it amongst themselves, and they said no to the idea.

is there a way to abort the install at this stage? If you sting me, I won't mind.