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Zida 4DPS v 3.1 Mainboard - COM/Mouse serial port INOP

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First post, by airbone-x

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Hi folks. I am happy I have found this great forum. I have recently got nice 486DX4/100 machine locally (exactly 28 years ago I got the same machine as my first PC, when I was young guy). However I have problem to get serial mouse working on it.... Driver is installed, but mouse does not respond. I have tried used Genius mouse with gmouse.com, then brand new out of the box microsoft ps/2 mouse with ps/2 to com adapter and installed own drivers, and brand new, gm-6 genius mouse (i am stupid I have tamper opened 1987 NOS sealed package just for the test....). Of course none of them working... Inspected internals I have found, that COM1 cable was connected to "gameport" header on the mainboard - well I was happy I have found the problem, and connected it correctly to COM A, but no difference.... I have read through few topics here from people who had the same problem, but noone posted if it was resolved and how.... I know it seems to be most likely a pinout problem from mainboard to COM port.... The question is very simple and clear - please does anybody have correct pinout diagram? Or link for a cable I need to buy to get this thing working? Or maybe some I/O card with which I can get this solved? Please for advice from those who had sorted this out....
btw I see that board has also header marked as "mouse" at the very left bottom, believe to be PS/2 mouse connection, however I do not see any option in BIOS related to this... Bios version says v4.51PG, 1.72F (10072A4IBZ1A), and has modified logo "funworld". Please advise.

Reply 1 of 7, by Vaylo

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I have the same mobo and the ps/2 connector is working without issues. All you need to find is a slot cover with a ps/2 connector and cable. Like this one: https://www.startech.com/en-us/cables/plate6f … ew-125175808091
Don't bother with the serial mouse.

Reply 2 of 7, by airbone-x

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Vaylo wrote on 2024-02-12, 06:07:

I have the same mobo and the ps/2 connector is working without issues. All you need to find is a slot cover with a ps/2 connector and cable. Like this one: https://www.startech.com/en-us/cables/plate6f … ew-125175808091
Don't bother with the serial mouse.

Thank you so much for your input. Yeah I will try to get this cover with ps/2 cable. Just a question, do you have any options regards to PS/2 connection in bios? I haven't found any....

Reply 3 of 7, by Vaylo

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airbone-x wrote on 2024-02-12, 14:50:
Vaylo wrote on 2024-02-12, 06:07:

I have the same mobo and the ps/2 connector is working without issues. All you need to find is a slot cover with a ps/2 connector and cable. Like this one: https://www.startech.com/en-us/cables/plate6f … ew-125175808091
Don't bother with the serial mouse.

Thank you so much for your input. Yeah I will try to get this cover with ps/2 cable. Just a question, do you have any options regards to PS/2 connection in bios? I haven't found any....

No options there.

Reply 4 of 7, by airbone-x

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Ok. I found out that com cable that came with cabinet was incompatible, it was newer standard AT/EVEREX and board has older DTK/INTEL standard. I have resoldered cable properly to DTK pinout, and for sure measured continuity from DB9 to IDC and also to board header soldering points at other side of board. All 100% correct... However no difference.... But another thing that would be probably related to this - I am getting CMOS checksum error - Defaults loaded/CMOS battery failed... although I had feeling that I have replaced battery recently, but I dont remember that for sure, today I have replaced battery again and after powercycle I am always getting this message! Does it mean bios is corrupted or what? I think someone tampered with the board, mouse was not working due to that wrong pinout cable and he probably reflashed bios with some not working version trying to fix this issue.... Bios verson posted at my first post, please could someone advice?

Reply 5 of 7, by airbone-x

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Ok, back again. CMOS checksum / battery failed problem sorted out. JP4 was set to EPROM mode instead of FLASH ROM, which caused the problem reporting bad battery and always loading defaults.... Tried 3-4 different bios versions, but none of them sorted out the problem with serial mouse.... I spent too much time with no results, so I go for PS/2 option.... Vaylo - please last question - could you check your BIOS version which is working with ps/2 mouse? Thank you so much....

Reply 7 of 7, by rasz_pl

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Afaik Bios does nothing when it comes to ps2. Its all inside keyboard controller firmware, mouse driver talks directly to keyboard controller.
For serial mouse you need to make sure com port is working in the first place, connect TX and RX together with a cable, open serial terminal and type something. Then make sure your RTS and DTR lines are wired correctly, mouse uses those to power itself. Lastly RS232 needs to be configured correctly in BIOS, port and IRQ.

Open Source AT&T Globalyst/NCR/FIC 486-GAC-2 proprietary Cache Module reproduction

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