Help, moving mouse in MS-DOS Mode restarts whole computer.

Posted by ThruMy4Eyes@reddit | retrobattlestations | View on Reddit | 21 comments

Help?? Moving the mouse AT ALL while in Win98 MS-DOS Mode will reset the computer. Haven't used the computer in a year, but it didn't do this last time it was used. BIOS default settings, Intel motherboard, Intel onboard GPU, SB Audigy. Those are also the only drivers I have installed.

https://reddit.com/link/1f8z14v/video/vvht2o2httmd1/player

[-]

Lucertola_Picara@reddit

A short cut on the device or USB port?

[-]

SaturnFive@reddit

Is it loading a mouse driver in autoexec.bat? Maybe try removing the line if so; or trying another mouse driver like CuteMouse.

[-]

ThruMy4Eyes@reddit (OP)

No, i dont have any DOS mouse drivers installed or loaded at all.

[-]

WingedGundark@reddit

If you don’t have even a driver loaded, it certainly sounds like this is a HW issue. To rule out that this indeed isn’t some weird windows issue, I would create a clean dos floppy and boot with that and if it still does that, I’d say it is electrical issue. Then I would test with another mouse. Strange thing here is, though, that in Windows it seems to work just fine.

[-]

ThruMy4Eyes@reddit (OP)

That's the funny part is it aint a hardware issue either. The DOS and Win98 setup process goes without an issue. Fast forward to now, and I did just boot F8 mashing Win98 into Command Prompt Only mode, and it stayed up, moving the mouse did nothing. So it seems after the GUI loads, and then I drop back to DOS with the "Restart To..." option, something isn't happy and causes that issue. So damn weird! The new part for this build is my SB Audigy, before I used an ESS soundcard. Maybe I'll try uninstalling the Audigy's DOS drivers....

[-]

WingedGundark@reddit

Worth the shot. Audigy is next to useless in DOS anyways. It sounds horrible and it may be culprit in this whole thing. And especially Audigy 1 has its own issues, it had bugs.

If you indeed have ISA slots, install that ESS card for DOS and use Audigy in Windows.

[-]

ThruMy4Eyes@reddit (OP)

shoot.... if this board had ISA slots, i'd have a real SB16 card in there. But so far I've chocked it up to the motherboard. I swapped it out for the other board I'd used previously, and haven't had any issues. Even tho they're the same 815 chipset, i guess something about this board aint happy. ... As for the Audigy -- I've tested my ESS AudioPCI, ESS Solo-1, Yamaha XG, Aureal Vortex 1, and the Audigy. So far the Audigy sounds the best with DOS games when using classic SB16 support, and been the most compatible (never fails to be detected). I simply install the Windows and DOS drivers, and it just works.-- I'm actually going to sell off my other cards.

[-]

WingedGundark@reddit

I haven’t yet bumped into or heard of any PCI sound card that actually would be good and/or trouble free in DOS and your options are limited to those. Audigy may be relatively good in terms of compatibility, but IMO it still sounds like shit compared to teal OPL cards or ESS ISA cards.

[-]

ThruMy4Eyes@reddit (OP)

So what I ended up doing was swapping out that motherboard. I had that MATX version, but before that I had an extremely similar ATX version, both from Intel, and both with the 815 chipset. I realized my memory was trouble-free with the larger ATX board, so I went back to that board. The smaller MATX board was marketed as a "server" board, but I didn't think that would matter, as it didn't have any additional capabilities or trimmed features that I could tell.

[-]

SaturnFive@reddit

Yeah, if there's no driver then it may be a hardware issue. I'd confirm the pinout of the serial port on the motherboard and the pinout of the breakout cable that leads to the port. Does the serial port work fine under Windows? I'd do a loop back test with Putty.

[-]

ThruMy4Eyes@reddit (OP)

I dont have any serial devices unfortunately. I'd love to test with a serial mouse, but I got rid of all those MANY years ago.

[-]

larsonbp@reddit

Can confirm, cutemouse solved all my troubles.

[-]

Lucertola_Picara@reddit

Does the micro have thermal paste? Maybe it's overheating and restart to avoid burn.

[-]

ThruMy4Eyes@reddit (OP)

the micro? you mean the CPU? Yes it has thermal paste. And it doesn't shut off during hours of gaming.

[-]

pedantci@reddit

IRQ clash?

[-]

ThruMy4Eyes@reddit (OP)

That's what I was thinking too! But I reset the BIOS to all defaults, which sets all the IRQs to Auto. Also disabled the Serial/Parallel/LAN ports to free up more IRQs. The restart would still happen. So I reset BIOS to defaults, left everything as-is, and it will still do it's restart. So I unplugged the PS/2 mouse and used a USB mouse. AND IT WILL STILL DO THE RESTART! I didn't have any issue with this during the Win98 setup process, so that made me just think, I booted to "Command Prompt Only" in 98, and it was fine. From there, typed "win" to load the GUI, then exit to an MS-DOS prompt, and it restarted when I moved the mouse. So something that is loading in 98 is causing it to not be happy when dropping to a DOS prompt after it loads the 98 GUI. I literally only have the chipset, video, and audio drivers installed. The only difference with my build this time VS last time is I'm trying the SB Audigy. Last time I built the machine, I used an ESS soundcard. So I might reformat the machine and see when exactly it starts acting up again at what point during the setup/installing of stuff.

[-]