As soon as i get home i can test my microsoft serial mouse 2.0A on my vlb multi io(Goldstar Prime 2).
Edit: well it should be some incompability on your vlb multi io.
Mine worked flawlessly.
Are you using ctmouse driver?

Yep, tried the ctmouse driver and no luck.

I've now made a PS/2 bracket connecting to the mobo header. That was giving me trouble too and I wondered about the mobo pinout. I found this thread (similar mobo involved) which makes for entertaining reading. Even though the OP got flamed pretty heavily he did eventually fix his problem, possibly as a result of changing RAM (was more likely the IDC cable). Interestingly my PS/2 mouse worked after I swapped out mine too.

My motherboard is the VL/I-486SVGOX4 - can't find any info on it online except that it's probably the predecessor to the VL/I-486SV2GX4. Anyway, it seems a bit finicky with RAM. So given the PS/2 mouse experience I just tried the MS serial mouse again. No luck.

TLDR; yep, gotta be something weird with the SIDEjr Pro card.

InbetweenDays wrote:

Hi all, […]
Show full quote

Hi all,

I have a 486 with a IWill SideJr Pro VLB IDE & multi IO controller in it. I have a Honeywell serial mouse that works with it, and a Microsoft serial mouse (2.0A) that doesn't. The MS mouse works with every other computer I've tried it on, but not with the SideJr card -- tested in DOS and Win95. I tried reseating the card, tried it in both VLB slots, and also went on a wild goose chase checking my -12v lines. To rule out potential motherboard / BIOS issues and confirm it was the SideJr card I tried another IO card in the machine and the MS mouse worked perfectly.

Curious, I opened both mice up to look for differences - the MS mouse only has 4 wires, omitting the pin 4 connection (DTR - data terminal ready). See here for a pic. So I suspect it's something to do with that. Though it seems strange to me that an older ISA IO card wouldn't be as picky as the newer VLB card.

Any thoughts or similar experiences?

FWIW I think I'll just make up a connector bracket to make use of the motherboard PS/2 header. 😀

I think that I still have the manual somewere. Can you add a picture of the controller?

Thanks 😀 Here ya go:

If you do have a manual it would be good to know what the switches are for.

Cheers,
Stu

InbetweenDays wrote:

Thanks :-) Here ya go: […]
Show full quote

Thanks 😀 Here ya go:

20171214_102157.jpg

If you do have a manual it would be good to know what the switches are for.

Cheers,
Stu

Cool. Thats the correct model, wich I bought brand new in 1995. Yes. I have the manual for it, and it is still like brand new. Not so pleased that I gave the controller away though. The switches are for the bios adress. (Pins 1, 2 and 3) pin 4 is the ide port adress.

You can actually download it from vogons drivers.
I have scanned it and uploaded it. Just checked it.

These were the strange (and rare) incompatibilities of yesteryear that were almost never able to be resolved (or never known about since we didn't have the Internet).

I know on certain mice, there were startup options like holding the buttons to make it go into 2-button or 3-button mode. That might be a road to figure out what's up. Otherwise, I'd try to see if a null modem cable between the mouse and port makes a difference (it shouldn't, and you'll like need some gender changers along the way as well).