Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!sgi!shinobu!odin!nelson
From: nelson@sgi.com (Nelson Bolyard)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Crazy mouse SOLVED!
Summary: Use stacks=0,0 with DOS 3.3
Keywords: stacks mouse
Message-ID: <1990Nov15.192401.17396@odin.corp.sgi.com>
Date: 15 Nov 90 19:24:01 GMT
References: <1990Nov14.051545.21285@odin.corp.sgi.com>
Sender: news@odin.corp.sgi.com (Net News)
Distribution: na
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 37

In article <1990Nov14.051545.21285@odin.corp.sgi.com> I wrote that I had a
problem with my serial mouse (on COM2) not working at all well after I ran
a full screen application and then went back into windows, either by
exiting the application, or by typing ALT-ENTER.  The problem would occur
with ANY full screen application; just firing up the DOS COMMAND prompt and
typing exit immediately would cause it.

I only got one e-mail reply 8-( from someone who said that he'd had the same
problem and had fixed it by running the MOUSE.COM program before firing up
windows.  I tried that and it worked, but it bugged me.  I was SURE that I
had read in the Windows manual that you should remove all mouse drivers and
TSRs, so I went into the manual and looked for those instructions.  When I
found those instructions, explicitly telling me to get rid of MOUSE.SYS from
my CONFIG.SYS and MOUSE.COM from AUTOEXEC.BAT, I discovered on the same page
a note that if running DOS 3.3, I should add a line to my config.sys that
reads:  STACKS=0,0

I was surprised that the Windows INSTALL program had not done that for me.
It had certainly made lots of other changes to my CONFIG.SYS file.
So I added the STACKS line to my CONFIG.SYS, and re-booted.  Then I tried
Windows again, without loading MOUSE.COM or MOUSE.SYS.

Voila'  The problem was gone!

Now, if I could just get a non-Windows EGA graphics program to run in a
window (instead of full screen) I'd be a happy camper.  I think the problem
is that EGA 16 color modes are fundamentally incompatible with VGA 256
color modes, and Windows either doesn't give the EGA program its own
virtual memory to use for graphics space, or Windows doesn't know how to
translate the EGA virtual memory into VGA 256 color graphics.  When I try
it, the EGA graphics in the window appear to have been matrix transformed.
I see the graphic image in black and white on the left side of the window,
and lots of bars of colors on the right side of the window.  Sigh.
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Nelson Bolyard      nelson@sgi.COM      {decwrl,sun}!sgi!whizzer!nelson
Disclaimer: Views expressed herein do not represent the views of my employer.
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