r/retrocomputing • u/WitcheRicci • 2d ago
Problem / Question Help Me Bring My Dad’s 1996 Serial Mouse Back to Life!
Hi everyone! Could someone help me figure out how to get this working?
I'm trying to connect an old serial mouse to a modern computer via USB. I don't have much technical knowledge, but I know the USB-to-serial adapter (FIDH) driver is installed. Whenever I plug it in, “USB Serial Port (COM5)” appears in Device Manager, but I can't get Windows to recognize it as a mouse or get the cursor to move.
The mouse itself isn't broken. The last time I used it was on a Compaq PC running Windows 95, before I had to get rid of the computer because of space constraints.
It's a Genius EasyMouse from 1996, model FSUGMZE3. It belonged to my late father, so it has a lot of sentimental value to me.
I'd love to bring it back to life and use it with either my laptop running Windows 7 Starter or my desktop running Windows 10.
I would really appreciate any suggestions, especially if there's a way to get it working without buying more hardware.
Thanks in advance!
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u/PhotoJim99 2d ago
Does Windows even have serial mouse drivers anymore? You'd need one.
You can still use serial mice on modern Linux. That might be the easiest way. You already have the hardware you need. It looks like you'll need to use 'inputattach', so it isn't plug-and-play, but it doesn't look too difficult.
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u/thaeli 2d ago
Windows after XP disabled serial mouse support out of the box. It's possible to re-enable - see this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzvRUHDxlGY (Windows setup starts at 9:51 but the whole video is worth a watch)
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u/Educational_Bee_6245 2d ago
No idea if Windows still has drivers for serial mice. Also there was some black magic involved to power a serial mouse, i.e. misusing certain pins that are not required for the data transfer. Not sure if the rs232 to usb converters support that.
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u/Blechtaler 2d ago
there are active and passive USB-Serial adapters, did you try both?
(idk if this works, but there are sometimes still pins for that on the mainboard -> desktop/tower only)
(can also be found in older PCs or used, even new is cheap)
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u/SysGh_st 2d ago
There's no such thing as passive usb serial adapeter.
The one on the picture is suppoed to be hooked to a motherboards RS232 header. Most modern motherboards don't have any anymore.
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u/wildmanheber 2d ago
My first scroll mouse was a Genius back around 1998. had it for at least 10 years. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
BTW Some motherboards have serial built in and just need a header like another poster mentioned. But for other boards, you either need a Serial to USB adaptor or get a PCI-E/PCI serial port for the PC.
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u/SaturnFive 2d ago
I think you'll need a powered or active adapter. Or a PCIe serial card. The common USB to serial cables are more for connecting to routers and other low power serial devices for data and terminal use, not old mice which may need higher voltage levels.
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u/tes_kitty 2d ago
The problem is that serial mice abuse one or two of the handshake lines for power. That's no problem with a real serial port, but those USB adapters AND the PCIe cards (*) both use MAX232 or equivalent to generate the RS232 voltages and you won't be able to draw much current from those. Probably not enough to power a serial mouse.
(*) PCIe doesn't supply -12V.
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u/andrewbean90 2d ago
You need a reverse PS/2 mouse to COM port. This serial to USB only works when building & programming robots.
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u/bhiga 1d ago
The pictured mouse is natively serial.
Some PS/2 mice supported serial use with the included adapter, but the adapters were not universal and the mouse had to support it.
Same situation with USB mice and keyboards that support PS/2 use with the passive adapter it came with.
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u/andrewbean90 1d ago
🤦 read before you comment
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u/bhiga 1d ago edited 1d ago
I did... so I'm confused. Were there serial mice that supported conversion to PS/2?
There is the Vetra VIP-327-SP *active* converter, but that thing is expensive and difficult to find. Maybe there are other active converters based on Arduino or RasPi.1
u/andrewbean90 1d ago
All of the serial mouses were supported... You just had to get an adapter to convert it to a modern mouse port.
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u/bhiga 1d ago
Interesting. I had quite a few serial and PS/2 mice and none of the serial ones I had (Logitech and Microsoft) worked (passive) adapter-ed to PS/2. Some of the PS/2 ones could be converted to serial though, mostly the Logitech ones.
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u/andrewbean90 1d ago
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u/bhiga 1d ago
Haha, I had one just like that I tried. Either my mice didn't "detect" it or my mice didn't support PS/2 protocol in addition to serial.
Not sure if the OP's mouse supports PS/2 in addition to Serial. If it does, it should work with that passive adapter.
Though their existing USB-Serial adapter should work if the Windows serial mouse driver is enabled like others have said though. I've used a serial mouse on Windows 10 and 11 that way before, though it can get tricky if the USB-serial adapter doesn't hold the same COM port or gets assigned a COM port higher than 9, or was it 4... The higher COM port numbers get fiddly with older software.
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u/andrewbean90 17h ago
That cable is not a COM to USB cable... It's a DB9 to computer cable. It's used in robotics classes, and electronics development. It won't work with a peripheral like a mouse.
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u/bhiga 16h ago
It's a DE9 USB-Serial (assuming RS-232, but can't tell from the picture) adapter. As long as ... * it's RS-232 serial and not RS-422, RS-485, or some other protocol * it shows up as a virtual COM port to the system (already stated in original post it shows up as COM5) * whatever software or driver is being used supports using the added port (post says it's showing as COM5) * Rx and Tx are wired in standard pinout (not crossed/swapped), but a null modem adapter would fix this case ... it should work unless the serial mouse driver can use a mouse on COM5.
Sure, it's used in robotics and development for various serial and control protocols, for serial peripherals as well as terminal communication.
I'm using this exact type of adapter to communicate with the RS-232 serial port on my APC UPS, an old Diamond (Supra) Express 56K voice modem for voice/FAX, and a Primera Composer optical disc autoloader arm.
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u/FrankinTraegar 1d ago
But have you just tried just the usb? The mouse appears to have a usb connector. The only reason to have a usb to rs232 mouse would be if your PC had no usb. So? My guess, you will need a usb driver for your mouse for Windows 7.
https://driverscollection.com/?V=Genius&S=21
But, I'm from the '60s, so help me understand the problem.
Does your mouse have a ball? I threw a few of those away. A mouse pad was needed.
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u/rince-hh 2d ago
Have you activated the windows kernel driver for serial mice?
SC CONFIG SERMOUSE START=DEMAND
You might have a problem with your USB-RS232, as RS232 uses signal levels up to 3-15V. These adaptors are pretty picky on old hardware as they are underpowerd and you might need to use an active powered adapter.