Real solution to G4 GPS being detected by Windows as crazy serial mouse?

**johnk** · 03-18-2009, 09:59 PM

I tried completely reinstalling Windows. The crazy-mouse problem even happens during the Windows setup (before it has gotten to the Windows desktop stage).

It also turns out that CF is even buggier than I thought. It worked with XPort for less than a day, and then after a few more resumes from standby/hibernate it completely broke again. Restarting CF would not help, even though my GPS Info program works perfectly showing the data (and no, I am not trying to use the GPS in CF while it is being used by the other program). I had to go into the CF setup, save it to a "wrong" com port, and then save it back to the correct com port. So obviously CF is not properly talking to the com port (since the GPS Info program worked fine).

This is extremely frustrating. GPS is one of the main reasons for me getting an all-in-one solution.

Is there *any* USB GPS that CF supports?

**Curiosity** · 03-19-2009, 12:49 AM

You should probably disable COM1 in the BIOS while installing Windows, then enable it again and do the SerMouse hack. At least you can use your mouse while installing Windows.

A good GPS is the BU-353. Many of us use it.

**johnk** · 03-19-2009, 04:25 AM

> Will you be able to advise if any of the devices listed in XPort is related to the G4 built-in
> GPS on com port 1 cos some of the devices has Infill names but I'm not sure what devices are those

Carz,

I'm almost positive that the "INFILL" device is the touchscreen, and the "InFill" device is a USB controller (they appear almost exactly the same in Device Manager).

**johnk** · 03-19-2009, 04:31 AM

Originally Posted by Curiosity

You should probably disable COM1 in the BIOS while installing Windows, then enable it again and do the SerMouse hack. At least you can use your mouse while installing Windows.

A good GPS is the BU-353. Many of us use it.

Are you saying that even though the SerMouse hack did not work for me already (it keeps the mouse from going crazy, but does not make the G4's internal GPS actually work), it should work if I reinstall Windows with COM1 disabled, and then reenable COM1 and apply the SerMouse hack? I just don't understand what difference that would make (not trying to be argumentative; I'd like to be educated). (I really think the COM port or GPS electronics got fried, to make it just suddenly start having the problem after months of normal use.)

I do have the BU-353 USB GPS, but Centrafuse seems to have a very hard time with it. So I was hoping for something/anything that would actually work for me.

I also found out that just toggling the GPS com port in CF is not enough to fix it. It looks like I have to exit CF, start up the GPS monitoring in the GPS Info utility that came with the BU-353, stop the GPS monitoring, and then restart CF. At least that worked the last 2 times I tried this evening. (This is with or without XPort.)

**johnk** · 03-19-2009, 04:45 PM

I reenabled my COM1 port and used the sermouse registry hack to keep it from going crazy (this makes a MS Serial Mouse item appear in the Device Manager, with an exclamation point).

Then I set XPort to redirect COM1 to COM7. The GPS data *does* appear at the bottom of the XPort window. But it never works in CF. And even in my GPS Information utility from GlobalSat, I only see GPS data if I tell XPort to do a scan while the GPS Information app is already in its GPS read mode.

**johnk** · 03-19-2009, 06:39 PM

Very strange. Even though I had selected COM1 in XPort, it was apparently grabbing the GPS data from the USB GPS (and even sending that to the virtual COM7). I realized that after unplugging the USB GPS and no longer getting the data.

Sigh.

**Curiosity** · 03-21-2009, 03:19 AM

Originally Posted by johnk

Are you saying that even though the SerMouse hack did not work for me already (it keeps the mouse from going crazy, but does not make the G4's internal GPS actually work), it should work if I reinstall Windows with COM1 disabled, and then reenable COM1 and apply the SerMouse hack? I just don't understand what difference that would make (not trying to be argumentative; I'd like to be educated). (I really think the COM port or GPS electronics got fried, to make it just suddenly start having the problem after months of normal use.)

I was just saying that when installing Windows you should disable COM1 to make it easier to use your mouse during setup. Just next time you need to.

Disabling SerMouse just stops Windows from using the GPS as a mouse and tying up the com port so that it can't be used by other applications. It has no affect on the GPS working or not.

Originally Posted by johnk

Very strange. Even though I had selected COM1 in XPort, it was apparently grabbing the GPS data from the USB GPS (and even sending that to the virtual COM7). I realized that after unplugging the USB GPS and no longer getting the data.

It's possible that your USB GPS is using COM1. Make sure it's not. That would cause COM1 to stop working. What COM port is your BU-353 using?

**johnk** · 03-22-2009, 11:00 AM

My BU-353 is on COM6.

**afjfam** · 03-18-2010, 07:11 PM

Originally Posted by Carz

Are you using XPort. If so, it is reported:

"Cursor sometimes jumps all over the screen clicking left/right? Here's the fix: Open Regedit. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\SerMouse, and change the value "Start" from 3 to 4. Reboot."

http://curioustech.home.insightbb.com/xport.html

Carz, thanks for this post. I am not using XPort but this fix worked on my Windows 7 machine. My USB GPS receiver would send the mouse balistic until I found this fix and applied it.