VOGONS


First post, by ChrisK

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Hi,
I have a really not so funny effect with my system.
Does anybody did ever have something similar and what could be the reason?

The problem is that my mouse stops working when running ANY game/demo (3dfx Donut) that uses the Voodoo 2s in SLI mode.
The system starts lagging seriously an no mouse movement does appear any more right after starting a program. It first fall in my eyes with Quake II while I tried to get the game's CD music from an ISO mounted with Deamon tools to work. The mouse stopped working at all right after starting the game. At first I thought it would be just a Quake II issue but the problem persists in any application that runs in SLI mode. The mouse's (Logitech MouseMan Optical Dual) sensor lights completely go off and that's it.

The "funny" thing is that the mouse starts working just normally again when I leave the program and enter desktop (without dis-/reconnecting it).
The programs also run normally again when I disconnect the mouse while they are running. No lags, nothing. Only with no mouse.
And: this effect seems only to appear with this special one mouse. Any other mouse I tested works completely normal.
Also when I disable SLI in the drivers everything works as before.
So it seems to be the combination of SLI and this special mouse. WTF...!?!?!

I already removed/reinstalled daemon tools, the Logitech mouse driver, Direct X, the Voodoo 2 drivers. I removed any USB device from hardware manager and restarted the system a houndred times. Also tested both Voodoo II cards on their own (both are good). I don't have any clue what's going on.
The system always worked with this mouse and SLI, whatever game or progam was run on it.

Just thinking about reinstalling Win 98...

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Last edited by ChrisK on 2022-09-06, 10:39. Edited 1 time in total.

RetroPC: K6-III+/400ATZ @6x83@1.7V / CT-5SIM / 2x 64M SDR / 40G HDD / RIVA TNT / V2 SLI / CT4520
ModernPC: Phenom II 910e @ 3GHz / ALiveDual-eSATA2 / 4x 2GB DDR-II / 512G SSD / 750G HDD / RX470

Reply 1 of 4, by kolderman

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Irq conflict? Can you move one of the boards to a different slot?

Reply 2 of 4, by ChrisK

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

It always worked like it is before. I did not change any hardware component.
Besides that, IRQs look ok.

BUT, guess what: think I got it working again. THIS is so weird, I can't tell.
It just fu..ed up my hole last day... 😠

In a last attempt and in the hope to not have to reinstall Win98 I tested again this morning. But same story and in the end the mouse even didn't work at all on that system. It wasn't recognized any more. Strangely, on another two systems it did work...
So I desperately opened the mouse to see if anything looks suspicious and cleaned out the common fluff that assembles under the wheel over time.
But nothing looked wrong. So connected it again and it instantly worked again. Not only that but no problem with SLI anymore!!! 😂
This is so abstruse! I'd never have thought a bit that a dirty mouse can make your retro rig refuse to work in SLI mode and just in SLI mode. Man...

Issue solved.

RetroPC: K6-III+/400ATZ @6x83@1.7V / CT-5SIM / 2x 64M SDR / 40G HDD / RIVA TNT / V2 SLI / CT4520
ModernPC: Phenom II 910e @ 3GHz / ALiveDual-eSATA2 / 4x 2GB DDR-II / 512G SSD / 750G HDD / RX470

Reply 3 of 4, by kolderman

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Weird!

Reply 4 of 4, by ChrisK

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I think the mouse must have generated massive USB transactions because of some dirt triggered the mouse wheel's sensor and that made the machine almost unresponsible. Or something in that way. But why this only affected SLI mode maintains a mystery.

RetroPC: K6-III+/400ATZ @6x83@1.7V / CT-5SIM / 2x 64M SDR / 40G HDD / RIVA TNT / V2 SLI / CT4520
ModernPC: Phenom II 910e @ 3GHz / ALiveDual-eSATA2 / 4x 2GB DDR-II / 512G SSD / 750G HDD / RX470