Mouse pointer locking up on A4tech scrollball mouse

[Nigel Henry]

On Thursday 24 January 2008 22:33, Brian Gaynor wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-01-24 at 13:57 -0700, Karl Larsen wrote:
> > Nigel Henry wrote:
> > > I use these A4tech mice on both machines, but on the machine that I
> > > still use FC2 on, the mouse pointer locks up from time to time. Ctrl
> > > Alt Backspace won't release the pointer, nor will a reboot, only a
> > > complete shutdown. It appears that it's a problem with the mouse, and
> > > the power has to be completely removed from it, as in a complete
> > > shutdown.
> > >
> > > This is on an old Gateway 500 machine, and a complete shutdown means
> > > just that. No power of any sort on the mobo.
> > >
> > > Looking at the mouse problem, is there any way to completely disable
> > > the ps2 port for the mouse, including removing power from the mouse,
> > > then re-enable the ps2 mouse port? I can still use the keyboard when
> > > this problem occurs.
> > >
> > > No doubt if I physically unplugged the mouse it would work, but at the
> > > same time I risk damaging the mobo due to power spikes, and plugging it
> > > back in would create more spikes.
> > >
> > > Please. No comments about using unsupported versions of Fedora. In many
> > > ways IO find that FC2 is better than F8.
> > >
> > > Any comments on the mouse problem welcome.
> > >
> > > Nigel.
> >
> >     Hi Nigel, you will not have serious sparks with your mouse. You can
> > put in and out with no problem. That would be a good test because if a
> > total removal of the mouse solved the problem, you need a new mouse. My
> > money is on the bad mouse because hardware problems are what freeze the
> > screen.
> >
> > Karl
>
> Nigel,
>
> While you may not have a problem PS/2 ports were most definitely not
> designed to be hot-pluggable. They lack even the rudimentary protective
> circuits of the venerable RS232 post, although most modern
> implementations are fairly robust. I have seen systems locked up doing
> this, although I personally haven't seen any permanent damage.
>
> - Brian

Well I wasn't intending to pull the mouse plug on the ps2 port just in case it 
damaged the mobo. I was looking really for some way of taking the power off 
of the ps2 mouse port in software, then putting it back on. It appears that 
when this A4tech scrolltech mouse's pointer locks up, the only option is to 
take the power away from the mouse, then re-connect it, which is tantamount 
to pulling the ps2 plug, then putting it back in.

If there's no way of totally disabling the ps2 mouse port, then re-enabling 
it, using software and the keyboard, then it's no problem. it's only an 
intermittant problem, and even though I may lose some stuff on open consoles 
when having to do a shutdown, it's no big deal.

I just thought that someone might have a quick fix.

I have asked this question before, but have never found a fix for it.

Thanks for the replies.

Nigel.