Apple IIGS mouse not working HELP!!! :-)

[joyce]

I recently picked up an Apple IIgs. Everything is working except the mouse. I even tried using the ADB-USB Wombat (which allows you to connect USB mouse and keyboards to an older Apple computer). And the usb mouse did not work either. The ADB keyboard works fine. The USB keyboard works fine (when hooked up with the ADB-USB)

I checked in the IIGS Control Panel (loading during startup of the Apple) and the Slot 4 is set to Mouse (was told it needed to be that way). The motherboard is super clean, and the battery is not exploded, its actually working and has todays date on it

SO I loaded up zany golf game, and its runs and sounds fine. But the mouse doesnt move anywhere on the screen.

I also had a copy of like GEOS 5.xx  and the mouse cursor looks like its in the upper left of the menu area on the screen, but it never moves anywhere

I tried using 3 different ADB keyboards and 3 different ADB mice, and different combinations of them..and the mouse never works

I am fairly new to these apple retro computers. Have you ever seen the mouse not work. And am I supposed to be loading some kind of a mouse driver first? Maybe that is the simple reason it doesnt work. But I was under the impression that the AppleIIGS would just make the mouse work without any drivers????

Thanks for any advice on this. Am hoping I can get this mouse working

PS
Also, I hooked up a joystick and it worked fine in a game. So its like everything is working except a mouse :-(((

 

[Gorgonops]

That's really strange. An ADB mouse should be plug-and-play on a IIgs.

Is your IIgs a ROM1 or ROM3? Some revisions of the ROM1 motherboard are prone to maddening failures of the keyboard controller IC. (The same chip controls the ADB bus and the IIe-backwards-compatible matrix connector on the ROM1 board.) One of my IIgs' has a dead one, the symptom *it* expresses being doubled keypresses. (Doesn't matter if it's an ADB board or a IIe keyboard connected to the header, the errors are on the Apple II chipset side.) Hopefully it's something less dire than that, but it wouldn't surprise me if a problem with that could put the mouse to sleep.

 

[joyce]

Yeah, I am trying to make sure I dont need to be loading some mouse drivers, like I had to do on old DOS machines before the mouse would work.

Sounds like the ADB mouse should just be working.  And its not. No matter what it just seems to be gone

I really thought at first that the ADB-USB wombat, would have worked. But if its still running logic through those same chips on the motherboard (when trying to use the mouse) guess it doesnt matter if I am trying to trick it (by using a USB mouse or not).  I suppose it makes sense that the hardware on the motherboard would still be doing the same thing. And sticking this ADB-USB wombat device would not fix anything. Because its just on the receiving end of what the motherboard would be doing with those mouse commands. And if for whatever reason that part of the motherboard has failed.....well..... no mouse.  I love this great little machine. Am hoping I can fix it.  I have searched for days and tried anything that is easy.  Seems to just be broken.

I downloaded a Apple IIGS technical manual that had lots of interesting information in it. But very little was said about the mouse. What it did say, is that if the mouse was not working, I needed to replace the logic board.  I wonder if I can find one of those somewhere, and if its possible to just swap it out. I will have to google that logic board and see what it is

.

PS Its a ROM 01 it says on some of the bootup screens I have seen

 

[Gorgonops]

Yeah, that sucks. The ROM1s had a number of teething problems between the keyboard controller issues and issues with early revs of the "Mega II" chip. The fact the keyboard works makes it seem likely it's one of those components, and the only sources for them are another IIgs motherboard. (The IIgs isn't really known for easy fixes like bad capacitors, at least on the motherboard. Power supply is another story.)

Of course, there could be something I'm not thinking of so if anyone else has an idea by all means chime in.

 

[joyce]

Yeah, its probably like you said, the motherboard. Especially in light of what you said about their history or problems. Also, just today  I think when I have seen them talking about replacing the logic board, they actually meant the ENTIRE motherboard, and not just some little extra logic board that you could like swap out. 

I will just have to wait to find another good deal on a IIGS motherboard or just the computer

It was exciting to get a complete working IIGS with some extra peripheral cards like SCSI cards, RAM expansion cards, external SCSI hard drive, and all the original boxes numbered 1 through 5 (on the actual shipping labels from the Apple Dealer) from the original owner (was a doctor) who ordered it all at once back in the day, various paperwork came with it too, startup/utility disks from apple, original software application disks too, and included other original legit floppy disks too and two floppy drives> unidisk and the 5 1/4 disk, original mouse keyboard and printer too, joystick, midi cable (I think)... And a few other things too like the Apple RGB color monitor + cable which works great. It all looks super clean like that could be in a museum. too bad the dang mouse doesnt work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[joyce]

at least it can play games ;-) (that dont require a mouse) and having the extra memory card in there helps too, (and I see dozens of other little memory chips stored in plastic tubes) which look like ram could be added to one of those memory expansion cards. I assume those chips all work, since everything else is in primo shape except the mouse logic on the motherboard.

 

[MOS8_030]

It's odd that a joystick works. Does it not use the ADB port?

 

[joyce]

there is a separate 9 pin port for the joystick. Its not ADB based.

 

[Unknown_K]

Make sure the ADB port connector on the keyboard isn't broken. I had one of my IIgs keyboards with a bad connection that drove me crazy until I soldered it.

 

[joyce]

well I tried 3 different ADB keyboard and 3 different ADB mice, and no combination of them ever allowed the mouse to  work. So that makes it seem like something on the motherboard must be whacky? I realize this machine is REALLY old, but everything else is working just fine.

 

[gilles]

seems real strange if adb keyboard works and not mouse. maybe you could try without SCSI and boot with a clean system on floppy.

 

[joyce]

yeah, I could pull the SCSI card out of there, and give it a whirl

 

[Gorgonops]

It's definitely worth trying the machine in a stripped config and see if anything changes.

 

[joyce]

removed the SCSI card and ram expansion, and still didnt work. In fact, I tried 2 other RAM expansion cards too, but then the programs didnt boot. So that could mean those ram expansion cards didnt work or didnt have enough RAM chips on them to boot the zany golf game or  bootup the GEOS 5.x version.

So I put the original ram expansion in there, removed the SCSI card, and no difference. The mouse doesnt work in those two programs I keep using as a test.

 

[NJRoadfan]

Zany Golf requires 512k on the IIgs. On a ROM 01 it just needs a card with 256k. ROM 3 needs no card.

 

[joyce]

There is a fully loaded RAM expansion card in there, which I believe I saw in one of the GEOS or system information screens that I saw one night, that it has a total of like 1.5 MB of RAM

I think that was the GS RAM card.

 

[Gorgonops]

Apple, so far as I'm aware, only made a single RAM card, the 1MB capacity model that holds up to 32 41256 DRAMs in four banks of 8. Off the top of my head I'm pretty sure the first bank of RAM was soldered in those, so even an otherwise unexpanded IIgs should have 512k of RAM if *any* memory card is present. One thing I will say, I guess: out of two Apple IIgs' I started with one had the bad keyboard controller, while the other had bad RAM on the memory card, so I had to make one working one out of two. (I also later ended up taking the power supply out of dead keyboard to put in the working one because the caps in that one were really starting to smell like dead fish.) I suppose it's possible you've got some bad RAM going too.

If you have the ability to generate disks for your GS you could try something like "Mousepaint". It's an 8-bit MacPaint wannabe that will run on a 128k IIe/IIc, so it should work on a IIgs with *no* cards present whatsoever, but I'm sort of thinking we're barking up the wrong tree here.

 

[joyce]

I might have mousepaint or something like it. Let me look for that.  There are also two other ram cards that came with it, one is an Apple brand memory expansion, the one thats in there is a G Ram or something like that (not an apple brand I know that for sure) there is also another ram card like G Plus or something, but it doesnt have very many chips on it, I think just the soldered ones. The computer did boot with both of those cards....but those two test programs would not run. So dont know if that means there wasnt enough memory on the other two cards. But if that is the case, then if I can get a smaller program like mousepaint loaded, then I can throw in those two other cards, and see if anything is different with them installed.

 

[Wilhar0046]

I am running into a similar issue here myself. I just received a Apple IIGS bare bones with original 5’25 and 3.5’ Disk drives and ADB keyboard and mouse. When I just have the Keyboard connected using either side of the keyboards ADB ports everything works as usual. When I attempt to connect the mouse and boot up both and mouse and they keyboard do not function. I have even tried the “Control Pannel Settings” Mouse spot is active. At this time I am able to load up any applications. They keyboard only functions when the mouse is not connected. I also attempted to connect the Mouse direct without the keyboard and the mouse still did not function. This is my oly legacy Apple computer and do not have any other way to test the ADB keyboard and mouse and was a little hesitant about purchasing another mouse online. Any further help would be much appreciated.