First post, by fractal5
I need to use a modern mouse on my 486. This is a USB mouse. My 486 has no PS/2 ports.
I can successfully use this mouse with a USB to PS/2 adapter on a different computer which does support PS/2, but alas my 486 does not.
Therefore I tried with an adapter from USB to PS/2 and then an adapter from PS/2 to serial.
However this does not work (in fact it works so poorly that the computer beeps continuously when it POSTS, as if you were holding several keys on the keyboard at once).
I believe the reason this does not work is that in order to use a PS/2 mouse (keep in mind the conversion step from USB to PS/2 appears to work fine, since I can use it on a PS/2 port on a different PC) on a serial port, the mouse must be a so-called "combo mouse", i.e. it must support both the PS/2 and serial protocol.
For this reason I believe I need a USB to PS/2 adapter which does not only convert to PS/2, but also supports the serial protocol, so that the PS/2 to serial adapter can work. In other words I need a somewhat "intelligent" USB to PS/2 adapter. Either that, or I need an intelligent PS/2 to serial adapter (which can translate between the protocols and not simply cross the wires and add resistors, which is what most such adapters do).
Has anyone else had this problem? How did you solve it? What are the names of candidates that might work?
Edit: Third possible solution: Does there exist any mice which supports USB, PS/2 _and_ serial (obviously you still need physical adapters, but in that case "dumb" adapters would probably suffice)?