Thinkpads Forum

I'm trying to get a serial mouse working in DOS and not getting very far. At first trying to load the driver gave me a "no COM ports available" which I thought was weird since the trackpoint is ps2. Started reading the archives here, saw the stuff about the modem, IR, and serial port IRQ conflicts, and remembered the mini-pci modem. Took that out, and then the driver loads, but the mouse still doesn't work, so I assume it's a problem with the IR.
How do you disable that? I looked at the serial port with PC-Doctor and it says the serial port is working fine. Nothing in there about a IR port. Nothing in the bios setup that I can see about the IR or serial port either one.

hseaver wrote:[...]so I assume it's a problem with the IR.
How do you disable that?

I'm not so sure that the problem is the IR: I would rather suspect a driver compatibility and/or configuration problem. But to answer your question, I think that to disable the IR under DOS, you have to load up the DOS version of the Thinkpad Configuration Utility. That utility will also allow you to control some additional Trackpoint options, which in turn might help you to get your other mouse working correctly.

Later: Mmmm...maybe you're right about the IR port. Here's a relevant webpage describing how to use the DOS PS2 utility to disable the IR and enable the Serial port. The "IBM PS2" utility is the DOS version of the "Thinkpad Configuration Utility".

Phil.

In DOS the serial port and IR do compete for resources. The default is for IR to be enabled and serial port disabled. The configuration utility referenced in the note above allows you to disable IR and enable the serial port. Things will probably start working then.

I think you can have both the IR and serial working on the 600X if you manually allocate the adresses and IRQs (and maybe DMAs). But it's been a while, and the DOS based config util isn't exactly the friendliest thing around. IIRC, it was a bigger challenge to get everything working on the 600E, as the MWAVE modem would also compete for the same resources.

Well, this sure is frustrating thus far. I installed the DOS configuration utility and can disable the IR and enable the serial port, but when I do that, the mouse driver won't load because it says there are no com ports available. And I can tell it to use com 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 -- makes no difference. But if I enable the IR port, then the driver loads, but doesn't work.
So I tried putting the IR on a different com port and irq. I put it on COM 4 and enabled it. So then when I load the mouse driver it loads up okay, but on COM 4. It's supposed to go to COM 1 by default, and only go to the others if you tell it to, so this is very weird.
The only thing I can figure is that the IR thingy is so bound to the serial port that it has to be enabled for there to be a serial port. And turning the serial port on or off with the config utility seems to have zero effect either way.
Has anyone been able to get an external (non mini-pci) modem working with the 600x? Is it possible to totally remove the IR physically? I don't see anything in the hardware manual indicating that, but maybe it could be unsoldered.

hseaver wrote: The only thing I can figure is that the IR thingy is so bound to the serial port that it has to be enabled for there to be a serial port. And turning the serial port on or off with the config utility seems to have zero effect either way.
Has anyone been able to get an external (non mini-pci) modem working with the 600x? Is it possible to totally remove the IR physically? I don't see anything in the hardware manual indicating that, but maybe it could be unsoldered.

I use a 600E in DOS full time running a serial port program. Simply disabling IR and enabling the serial port was enough to get my application to function. Your case is evidently different if you need a special driver for the mouse connected to the serial port. Can you use a PS2 mouse instead? That would bypass all these serial port issues.

Well, this isn't a normal mouse -- it's a Twiddler, made by HandyKey, a combo one-handed keyboard and mouse, and it connects to both the serial port and the ps2 port. Works okay with my old Compaq Concerto laptop and other desktop systems, not sure what the deal is with 600x.

There you go. The PS/2 port on the 600X is for a mouse, not a keyboard. If the device expects a keyboard port, you'll need to buy a laptop PS/2 Y-adapter. You can buy one from Lenovo for a lot, or from any number of places for a reasonable amount. I'd give that a try.

I don't think that's really it, because all the Twiddler does with the PS/2 port is take 5v. All the keystrokes, mouse movements, go through the serial port. There's a newer Twiddler 2 that just has a ps/2 connector and does everything through that, and I think they're coming out with a new one that is either bluetooth or usb. But these puppies are quite expensive, at least $200, so I'm not going to get a new one anytime soon.

IRQ's were a nightmare under Win95 and Win98 on the 600series. What OS are you using? There should be several available configurations in thinkpad configuration to choose from with different allocations to the various hardware (ie IR, serial, modem, etc).

Here is an old link to the default resource setup under WIN98:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... SHY-44HSRS

sktn77a wrote:IRQ's were a nightmare under Win95 and Win98 on the 600series. What OS are you using? There should be several available configurations in thinkpad configuration to choose from with different allocations to the various hardware (ie IR, serial, modem, etc).

I'm using DOS (freedos) and Debian 4.0 linux. Mostly I'm just trying to get it working first in DOS. Quite bizarre that a serial port won't work in DOS.

Ahh, finally got it working. Turns out what is really confusing is that if you do a "ps2 ?" in the configuration utility, what it shows for the serial port is "SErial", but that doesn't do much of anything and won't let you set irq or change com port or anything like that. And "ps2 serial" or "ps2 se" is all that you would think there is to use. But, on the webpage someone else listed -- that is actually not for the 600 series, but for the 560's and a bunch of others, and is for a different config utility altogether -- it says to use "ps2 SERA" for the serial port. So, I tried that -- bingo -- it works, lets you disable and enable, change irq, com port, all that stuff.
So far out -- got the Twiddler working both keyboard and mouse just fine. Thanks all!

hseaver wrote:it says to use "ps2 SERA" for the serial port. So, I tried that -- bingo -- it works,

Thanks a lot... I was looking for a solution to get a serial mouse to work with my TP770ed...
installing the dos version of the TP utility (with the Win version impossible to enable the serial port) and then PS2 IR "Disable" & PS2 SERA "Enable"... restart & finally worked like a charm...
one more time : thanks a lot

Just for reference, for the 600E, the file http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... WIK-3YEQCF shows all the PS2 commands in appendix A. There may be similar documents for other Thinkpad models as well.

BillP wrote:Just for reference, for the 600E, the file http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... WIK-3YEQCF shows all the PS2 commands in appendix A. There may be similar documents for other Thinkpad models as well.

Thanks -- that's a pretty hefty reference, 222 pages. And I found one there for the 600x as well. I already had the hardware manual, which is pretty handy for taking them apart, as well as doing hardware diagnostics. I'm wondering why I didn't find the users guide tthere before when I got that?