Windows not detecting mouse in cold boot

[BarryMurphy]

I have a P166 running Windows 98 SE. When I cold boot the machine after it has been off for several hours, the startup sequence stops at a DOS screen with a couple of statements: "Floppy Disc(s) Fail (C0)", and "Press F1 to continue, DEL to enter SETUP". When I press F1 the boot process resumes, but stops again at a blank Windows desktop with the following error message:

Windows Mouse Support
Windows did not detect a mouse attached to the computer. You can safely attach a serial mouse now.
To attach a mouse to a PS/2 mouse port, you must first turn the computer off.

A nice touch from Microsoft is an OK button, and the error message also has an option, "Do not show this message in future" next to a tick box. I must admit I am seriously challenged to click either of those controls with an inoperative mouse.

The only thing I can do at this point is to switch the power off and cold boot the computer. After Scandisk has checked my hard drive the PC finishes booting up without any further problem (without my touching the mouse or its cable).

If the computer hasn't been switched off for some time, then it normally cold-boots without any problem. The mouse is a basic Microsoft Serial Mouse 2.0A, and the floppy disc has never failed when I have used it. "640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981

 

[crisc]

Try clearing the CMOS. Since this is probably an older board, there should be jumpers to accomplish this.


"I must admit I am seriously challenged to click either of those controls with an inoperative mouse."

LOL, isn't it nice how Windows taunts you?

When you get to the desktop and want to reboot, but have no operative mouse, an alternative to hitting the power button is the keyboard combo "alt-f4". This should bring up the shutdown menu. Use arrow keys to select the option you want and hit enter.

Does this PC have another serial port you can try the mouse in?

 

[WMH]

Could be a bad motherboard. If the Floppy Disk is showing bad in POST and the mouse is not working correctly (if at all), either the board is toast or you have some bad componets. You can try to replace the CMOS or even a BIOS flash but I don't think it's gonna make much difference.
As for the "mouse not detected" java box, using keystrokes can save you from not having to do a hard shutdown. If your keyboard has the windows key (located between the Ctrl and Alt on your left side), this brings up the start menu, or press shift and Esc together will also bring up the start menu, at which point you can use the arrow keys to toggle to shutdown.

Hope this helps, WMH
MCP+I, MCSE

 

[ceh4702]

Take a mouse off another computer plug it in yours and see if the message goes away. It is normally a bad mouse when this happens. Assume it is the mouse before taking your computer apart.

Warning the Mouse port is not Hot-pluggable and the computer needs to be off completely to take the mouse plug out. Should be unplugged. After shutdown there may be a program running looking for a wakeup event on the mouse.

It is a good idea to have all your computer electrical plugs go into a power strip and to turn the power strip off before working on the computer. It is safer to unplug it from the power strip.

It is possible to completely ruin a printer/PS2/keyboard port by unplugging it while it still has power. The computer may be off and power still be supplied to the motherboard. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[BarryMurphy]

I don't think this is a bad mouse problem. I've tried a different mouse and it makes no difference. And as I said, it's not a bad floppy disc drive either. The problem only occurs in the boot process.

The error message box appears at the top left corner of an otherwise totally blank background; there is no task bar, so pressing the Windows key, or shift + esc, or alt + f4 won't do anything. But what I have found is that at that point if I just press Enter, then the message box disappears and the bootup sequence resumes. However, when it finishes and my desktop is complete, the mouse doesn't work. At that point I can use the windows key to bring up the start menu and then I can use the arrow keys and the enter key to restart the PC. This time it invariably boots up without any problem and when it's finished the mouse works perfectly. This is consistent with the fact that the bootup problem only happens when the machine is totally cold. And to complicate matters, sometimes even when the PC is cold it boots up without a hitch (especially on a warm day).

PS: I've just discovered that when bootup stops at "Floppy Disc(s) Fail (C0)" and "Press F1 to continue...", if I press ctrl + alt + del, then it will bootup correctly. "640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981

 

[BarryMurphy]

crisc - how might clearing the CMOS help? "640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981

 

[crisc]

On another technical forum I say the error code "Floppy Disk Fail (C0)" referenced, and the person said clearing the CMOS fixed it for him.

 

[BarryMurphy]

I looked at my mobo as closely as I could (some parts are difficult to see without removing components) and I think I was able to see all the jumpers, but none of them had a marking that would identify it as the one to clear CMOS settings. From what I've been able to gather after looking into this a little, this method seems to be most often used by people who have been prevented from gaining access to their system BIOS due to a BIOS password (this is not my problem).

I could clear all my BIOS settings by removing the CMOS battery for a period of time, but that would clear all CMOS settings, but I am not confident about manually reconfiguring my BIOS settings. If I simply note all the settings beforehand and restore them again afterwards, then I am back to square one. "640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981