+ Mouse prolems....

Wishing Bubble · Post by **Wishing Bubble** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 9:26 am

Hi, I have read a number of the postings on this site for answers to my problem, but can't find one. Can anyone please help me?
I have windows xp and have installed Sherlock Holmes and the Serrated Scapel. Everything install fine, I have music, but the mouse don't work. I'm not too sure if it's a mouse driver problem or my machine is too fast and that's why the mouse isn't working. When I use the keyboard the mouse moves once - either from left to right or up to down and vice versa - then I have to shut the program down as all mouse movement is kaput! Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

procerus · Post by **procerus** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 12:08 pm

Is this a DOS game?

If the mouse were merely stuck in the top-left corner of the screen then there is a utility to fix the issue. But for the mouse to entirely fail implies a more serious problem.

I don't think that Windows XP will take kindly to having a DOS mouse driver loaded. Assuming that Sherlock Holmes and the Serrated Scalpel is a DOS game our best option would be to use a boot disk. But that would require that your system is formatted using the FAT32 file system rather than NTFS (which is more likely).

Anyone know what happens if someone loads a DOS mouse driver in XP? Oh alright. I'll go and try. See you in a minute or two...

procerus · Post by **procerus** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 12:17 pm

No surprise. CuteMouse (DOS mouse driver) does not work under XP here at least. There was a punch up over the COM ports and then CuteMouse claimed to have installed itself on COM1 which didn't work since my mouse is PS2 anyway.

So, assuming the game is a DOS game, your best hope is if your system is formatted using FAT32. Sorry.

Wishing Bubble · Post by **Wishing Bubble** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 5:28 pm

Hi Procerus and thanks for the reply.

Yes it's a Dos game, and as I don't have the foggiest notion or technical know-how to have my system formatted to FAT32, then it looks like I'll not be playing sherlock holmes. Unless anyone else has any other ideas to get my mouse working within the game, with out formatting my system, I'd be truely grateful.

Thunderdog · Post by **Thunderdog** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 6:16 pm

If you mean getting a drive FAT32, I can get you there. But System FAT32, I dont know....

Wishing Bubble · Post by **Wishing Bubble** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 4:57 am

Hi Thunderdog and thanks for replying.

I'm not sure what the difference is regarding drive FAT32 and system FAT32, it was a comment made by Procerus.

Anyways, I went back into the game and tried again. There is still no movement from the mouse but if I use the keyboard arrow keys the hand icon in the game moves in fits and starts, intermittantly, but when it does move you can't stop it. it shoots from one side of the screen to the other left to right, up to down, etc). Any ideas?
Thanks in advance to any for any help given.

And if this is going to cause you guys a too many headaches

, let me know and I'll just ditch the game and look for another.

Amro · Post by **Amro** » Wed Mar 12, 2003 12:01 pm

NTFS is a more secure filesystem than FAT32. System FAT32 is the same thing as FAT32. It's how your File System is organized/works. NTFS has more options and is only compatile with NT technology (NT,2k,XP). I don't think there's a way of formatting your drive to FAT32. After all, why would you want to?

Try using the compatibility tab in the EXE's properties menu.

But that would require that your system is formatted using the FAT32 file system rather than NTFS

I don't think so. Usually the BIOS looks for a boot record in the floppies first. Once it finds one, it doesn't matter what Filesystem Your harddrive is. But he wouldn't be able to access his harddrive, so maybe a secondary floppy or a CD (you would need MSCDEX).

Fake Fargo · Post by **Fake Fargo** » Fri Mar 14, 2003 1:26 am

When you install XP, you are given an option on what file system you want: Fat32 (Which is what used to be the standard) or NTFS (New Technology File System...the new standard) You are really suppose to use NTFS. If you want to switch though, you'd have to reformat the drive, and re-install a fresh copy of Win XP and when it asks you the question (NTFS or Fat32) you pick Fat32.

procerus · Post by **procerus** » Fri Mar 14, 2003 11:03 am

NTFS is a more secure file system.

But the only way to play some DOS games once you have installed Windows XP is to boot up with a DOS boot disk and then navigate to the game on the hard disk and then run it. Since MS-DOS can't read NTFS this will only work if you have formatted originally with FAT32.

As a DOS gamer I use FAT16 and FAT32 for my partitions. I've been using PCs for more than ten years on a daily basis and never lost files or an operating system due to a FAT (File Allocation Table) failure. FAT's real limitations are more due to partition size limits and cluster sizes (and consequent space considerations). When we get terabyte hard disks then the FAT system will finally be redundant. In the meantime I'm going to play some DOS games!

Kazer0 · Post by **Kazer0** » Fri Mar 14, 2003 11:41 am

get partition magic somewhere and you can select fat32 when formattinmg. That helped me

486 player · Post by **486 player** » Fri Mar 14, 2003 3:10 pm

I still keep my 4y, untill it can't been fixed any more.