I am new to the Apple II GS (and pretty new to retro apple computers). And I found this forum in hopes to find some help.
I have experience with IBM PC's going back a ways. But becoming more interested in other old computers from Atari, Amiga, and Apple too.
Recently picked up a nice Apple II GS with keyboard and mouse and disk drives. It boots up fine, and I played a few games on it using keyboard and a joystick too. They work fine. But for some reason the mouse doesnt work when I boot into something like GE OS, or a game like zany golf which is supposed to use the mouse. I had another ADB keyboard and mouse from a slightly newer Apple computer, but that mouse didnt work either. I tried plugging mouse into port on back of the computer, and into both of the other keyboards I found. It just seems like the IIGS doesnt want to talk to the mouse. I am very excited to have the IIGS running, but pretty bummed the mouse isnt working.
Was hoping someone has seen this before and has some ideas about what is going on. I dont think I need any drivers to make it work like I did on old DOS computers and some old DOS games.
Also, it has a memory expanstion card, and with or without the card in there the mouse still doesnt work.
Also, I was able to go into (what I would call the control panel of the IIGS) by hitting some option key+ combination. I saw dozens and dozens of settings in there. There was only one setting about the mouse which was about enabling a high speed mouse setting, which was enabled.
Thanks for any advice or tips!
You might have a problem with the card slot settings in classic control panel. press I believe Apple-control-escape and then goto slots, goto slot 4 and use the left or right arrow key to put it to mouse port, and you should be good.
here are some pictures,
when you press the key combo you get this
scroll to control panel and press the return key (enter)
you'll see this
scroll to slots and press enter
your's will probably look like this,
scroll to slot 4 and make it "mouse" with the arrow keys, it should then look like this
then press enter,
then press escape,
then press enter,
and then press enter,
then you should be out of the control panel.
Then do the "three finger salute" (control-apple-reset), and hold control and apple about a second longer than the reset key and you should have reset the computer to look at the disk drive.
If the mouse works in the program you have loaded, GOOD! if not some assistance from other members are required.
Avery (PINKBOY1006)
Thanks so much for taking time to post all those pictures. Before I posted my question, I did learn about how to get into that Control Panel for the IIGS. I saw that slot 4 was set to mouse. In fact, all those settings look like what mine was set to. I tried 3 different ADB keyboards and mice combination, and never did the mouse move around in that zany golf game nor when I loaded up GEOS or PRODOS. The moue pointer just sat up in the upper left corner of the screen.
So that leaves me wondering, am I supposed to be loading some kind of a mouse driver before a game like zany golf would work? From what I have learned so far is that the mouse should be working after booting into that game because the Apple IIGS is supposed to make it work on its own without my loading drivers.
Also, it says ROM 1 on one of the screens I saw. Just wanted to mention that.
I am also going to try this out too
https://www.bigmessowires.com/usb-wombat/
It looks pretty slick.
Have you opened your computer and looked under the power supply for corrosion from the clock battery? http://www.instructables.com/id/Replace-an-Apple-IIGS-clock-battery/
Yep, first thing I did. Believe it or not, its totally clean. This IIGS is super duper clean, and no exploded battery. The thing pratically looks brand new inside and out except for a little yellowing of the case.
I know I will need to deal with that battery sooner than later
Also, it does retain the system date.
Has anyone seen this happen, where the mouse just is not working, but keyboard and joysticks are working OK?
It's very odd, since the keyboard and mouse share the same circuit path.
yes, that is what I thought too. I dont understand why the mouse would not work. From what I can tell a game like zany golf loads its own mouse support. And would not require me to load any mouse drivers myself. As I mentioned, I tried 3 different ADB keyboards and ADB mice, and mixed and matched them. And the mouse never moved around in the game or in the OS. I dont get it....
I have an older mac or maybe it was a power mac (that uses the same AdB devices). I will pull it out of the attic, and try all the 3 different keyboards and mice, and see if they all work properly (assuming that old Apple machine still boots up)
PS
ALSO I found this slick product called ADB-USB which apparently lets you use any USB mouse (and probably other USB devices maybe??) with the Apple ADB bus. So I am hoping that will give me my mouse back. Until maybe I can understand why its not just working correctly at this point on the ADB bus. Was just hoping someone else has seen this before, and has idea what would cause it to act this way.
Hi. Do you have a link or more info on that? Thank you.
its from Big Mess O' Wires here's the link http://www.bigmessowires.com/usb-wombat/
So the ANB-USB wombat device did not make the mouse work. How wierd. They USB keyboard worked fine when connect to a usb hub => which was connected to the wombat. Its a great device, but something must be wrong with my Apple IIGS.
The mouse just does not want to work. Also, I found a manual on the Apple IIGS, and it said if there are problems with the mouse, to replace the logic board
Maybe I have a slightly bad logic board?
I am still assuming, correct me if I am wrong, that I am not supposed to be loading mouse drivers 'first' before using the GEOS operating system or play zany golf which requires the mouse.
No drivers needed. As long as the slot is set to mouse port, it should work. Sounds like it is dead. Very strange, as I would think the keyboard would also be dead in this case if there was a board fault, but you never know.
I've got a couple of good tested IIgs boards if you want to buy a replacement, just PM me.
Hi. Thank you for the link.
I am running into a similar issue here myself. I just received a Apple IIGS bare bones with original 5’25 and 3.5’ Disk drives and ADB keyboard and mouse. When I just have the Keyboard connected using either side of the keyboards ADB ports everything works as usual. When I attempt to connect the mouse and boot up both and mouse and they keyboard do not function. I have even tried the “Control Pannel Settings” Mouse spot is active. At this time I am able to load up any applications. They keyboard only functions when the mouse is not connected. I also attempted to connect the Mouse direct without the keyboard and the mouse still did not function. This is my oly legacy Apple computer and do not have any other way to test the ADB keyboard and mouse and was a little hesitant about purchasing another mouse online. Any further help would be much appreciated.
I saw this chat topic and wanted to add in my experiences; since I was also running into the same issue today. I have a IIgs (ROM 03 version) and connecting to it is a IIgs vintage keyboard (part# 658-4081). I tried both the single button ADB mouse and the ADB ALPS Glidepoint touchpad. After booting in GS/OS (version 6.0.2), both devices could not move that mouse pointer. I also tried connecting each of these devices to both ADB ports (both working) on the keyboard, and that mouse cursor still stayed at the same position on the screen.
Now for those of you looking for a hardware swap solution, I used my other ADB keyboard that I use with my Mac IIci and PowerMac G3; the model for this keyboard is the Mac/IIgs extended keyboard, model M2980. When using this keyboard and connecting it to my IIgs, and using either the mouse or the ALPS Glidepoint touchpad connected to the keyboard, I was able to get the mouse pointer to move after the GS/OS system software loaded.
So if anyone is interested in getting the M2980 keyboard, I was able to get it on eBay some time ago; by the way, I have seen a handful of these keyboards being sold, recently, on eBay. Now, I can't say for sure if this keyboard swap approach will work for anybody who gets the M2980 keyboard model, but given the similar circumstances with the other members who posted here, I think it's worth a shot to try it out. By the way, I recall from a while ago, but I ran into the same issue with my other ROM 01 version of the IIgs, and so I don't think the issue is ROM 01 or ROM 03 related. For the mouse, I wish I had more history with it. I got my first IIgs setup about 20 years ago as a used item (the IIgs ROM 01 version, plus keyboard and mouse). If, only, I had the whole setup back in the 80s as the original owner, then I would have a better idea if the mouse worked at all with the vintage keyboard. I can only assume that the vintage keyboard, mouse, and system were all part of the same setup from the same person who gave it to the Weirdstuff warehouse in the bay area in Cal, and so I can only assume that all three items worked together harmoniously. On the other hand, since the touchpad was not an original supported device for the IIgs system, maybe the mouse model I have falls into that same category. The mouse model I have is model A9M0331. So maybe there is a different mouse model that the IIgs officially supports?
So for the the vintage keyboard, I can't say for sure what the problem is, but I'm guessing that either some clock/Rx/Tx timing issue or encoding/decoding issue could be at play when the vintage IIgs keyboard is used with either of these devices. The interesting thing is that the ALPS touchpad is brand new; I was trying to test it out and I was expecting the touchpad to work right out of the package, but given that the two devices didn't work with the vintage keyboard, I just concluded that there was something wrong with the keyboard and that the touchpad was okay; thus, arriving at this chat topic for research of any other system configurations to try (such as checking for slot 4, etc.), and swapping out the keyboard. At least, now I know that both pointing devices are working as expected with the M2980 keyboard (I was previously worried that I bought a brand new touchpad that was a dud, after realizing that it didn't work just like the mouse when connected to the vintage IIgs keyboard).
So moving forward, I'll probably stick with the ALPS touchpad just because I'm so used to using my touchpad on my Mac laptop, and because it doesn't require much space on my desk; plus it seems to be more responsive than the mouse. I'll see if I change my mind on what to use after seeing how it goes once I start playing Shuffle Puck Cafe :). If anyone has any new steps/info to share on getting the vintage IIgs keyboard to work with the mouse or other pointing devices, or reasons on why the original combination of these devices does not work, it would be great to read about it.
GEOS, but not GS/OS, does require that you load a mouse driver. Do all of the mice fail in GS/OS, too? ProDOS does not have a native mouse driver--that is programme specific implementation. (ProDOS 2.4.1 and above do recognise the mouse in Bitsy Bye.)
Please share a photo of the mice that you are usingt. I can vouch for the ADB Mouse, the ADB Mouse II, and the Kenningston ADB Trackball on the //gs. I have never encountered an ADB mouse that does not work, but perhaps later generic mice did not follow the full ADB ptorocol?!