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Help with Windows 98 Screen Error Message

Hi,

I think this is a simple one. A friend of mine has a Dell Inspiron 7000 laptop. Of course, there's a touch-pad to control the mouse cursor.

Some time ago she installed an actual mouse. Of course, she installed the driver, and the mouse worked fine. Now, however, she never uses the mouse. She disconnected it from the laptop. The problem is that everytime the laptop starts up she gets an error message saying the system can't locate the mouse. I wanted to "uninstall" it for her, but I can't find a way to do that. I did consider the following, two things, however:

1. Going into the "System" area under Control Panel under "Device Manager" and then "Mouse", and then deleting the listed mouse there (as I recall it says "PS-2 mouse"). But, I'm worried that I might be deleting the "touch-pad" rather than the missing mouse here. Where does the "touch-pad" show up under "Device Manager". Anyway, am I on the right track by deleting the PS-2 mouse here?

2. Using the "msconfig" command from "Run" and unchecking where the mouse driver is being loaded at startup under Win.ini. I only see one mouse driver being loaded at start-up here. Where is the touch-pad driver being loaded?

I'd hate to uninstall her touch-pad in the process of trying to remove that mouse screen message.

Can anyone help me as to which procedure to use here?

Thanks :))

Marylyn

nfroio

You are correct, it would be the PS2 that you want to delete, PS2 is the type of connector that the external mouse connects to the laptop with, PS2 connectors are the round, circular pinned connected that attach to the back of the laptop, and are generally referred to as PS2 mice.

So, go ahead and remove that entry, and you should not get that error anymore..

nfroio

buddhole

Maybe a bit to paranoid, but ps/2 port could be your touchpad. Which driver did you installed ? Regular windows ?

SysExpert

I would backup the registry *.dat files, and then feel free to make any changes.

I hope this helps !

marylyn27

ASKER

hi...you see this is the same concern i had. one of you said just go ahead and delete the "PS/2" mouse entry in Device Manager. But then another of you suggested this might be the touch-pad. Does anyone know for sure? I can't locate a specific reference to a "touch pad" in Device Manager.

How would I back up the registry, exactly?

Thanks to all...

marylyn

rayt333

What are you worried for?

Delete any and all mouse entries from the Device Manager, then reboot and it will find the touchpad and reinstall it. These computers are plug and pray you know.

If the error doesn't go away, then maybe you need to check the auto-exec.bat for an entry there for loading the dos drivers (and delete it)

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nfroio

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rid

Most touchpads are recognized as PS/2 mice. Deleting the PS/2 thing should be OK, because 98 will find the touchpad (emulating a PS/2 mouse) and install usable drivers. If your friend wants to use the enhanced features of a touchpad, like disabling tap=click, gestures, edge motion scrolling etc, the correct drivers must be installed. Dell will probably have these available on their site. They had for my Dell laptop anyway.

Regards
/RID

SysExpert

In the \windows directory, backup all the *.dat files and *.ini files to a backup dir that you can create on any drive.

Then you can make changes and not have to be worried about restoring.

Yes win98 is plugnPray, but the mouse can cause serious problems and lockups.

I hope this helps !

marylyn27

ASKER

thank you to everyone!!