USB port not working for mouse

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jo-Anne
  • Start date Start date
Paul said:
OK, the latest driver you pointed me to, would be installing "cntmou.sys"
which is apparently listed in the INF as a service.

Yet, you reported you had "HIDXMSE.SYS" and "HIDMOUSE.SYS" in your
system. As if you'd installed the older driver. And the older
driver doesn't match (INF entry doesn't match), so using the
older install should have stopped.

The two driver types are quite different in design. The latest driver
uses "dpinst.exe" and Microsoft describes it as:

"Driver Package Installer (DPInst)

Driver Package Installer (DPInst) version 2.1 is a component of
Driver Install Frameworks (DIFx) version 2.1. DIFx simplifies
and customizes the installation of driver packages for devices
that have not yet been installed in a computer.

This type of installation is commonly known as a software-first
installation."

Not that the distinction is important or anything. I don't know if the
newer style of driver, was supposed to remove the older one. Your
situation might be perfectly valid, if you had two different Contour
mice, an old one and a newer one.

What bothers me a bit, is you have "Vid_0b33&Pid_08a0" using
"HIDXMSE.SYS" and "HIDMOUSE.SYS", when the latest driver is
using something else. The INF files I have, don't give a way
of ending up that way.

I'm thinking maybe the latest driver is designed to be a filter
driver, but I can't really tell that from the driver files. It's
just a hunch.

Notice that the old driver with the "HIDXMSE.SYS" and "HIDMOUSE.SYS",
that was more of a "real" driver, providing a hardware interface to
the mouse. Whereas the latest driver, is probably intended to "shim" into
an existing set of drivers, such as the Microsoft "mouclass.sys" and
"mouhid.sys".

My mouse seems to create two entries:

Human Interface Device
USB Human Interface Device
Driver files = hidclass.sys, hidparse.sys, hidusb.sys, hid.dll

Mice and other pointing devices
HID-compliant mouse
Driver files = mouclass.sys, mouhid.sys

I suspect the first entry, somehow converts USB\Vid_046d&Pid_c01a to
HID\Vid_046d&Pid_c01a . The first part of one of those chunks of
numbers, is the "bus" the device is on. So they made a fake bus
called "HID" for my mouse. Your mouse seems to use that convention
as well, as your entry is HID\VID_0B33&PID_08A0.

Do you have two entries in Add/Remove from ContourDesign ? Perhaps
for the old and the new driver ? If you did have the old driver,
perhaps it should be uninstalled. Seeing as the new driver actually
matches in terms of the INF file and HID\VID_0B33&PID_08A0.

Paul
Click to expand...

I don't have any Contour programs in Add/Remove Programs. What I do have is
Dell Touchpad and Logitech Setpoint (although the Logitech mouse didn't work
in the bad port either). I've never used the old-style (not optical) Contour
mouse on this computer. My memory is that I bought the computer, plugged in
the Contour optical mouse, and WinXP recognized it--and that was that. I
don't know when I tried plugging it into the other port and found it didn't
work there, but it was a long time ago. It's probable that it hasn't ever
worked in that port.

I checked with the tech guy at Contour Design, and he said, "Yes the Perfit
and Contour mouse use the same driver." Do you think I should plug the
Contour mouse into the bad port and then download and try to install the
Contour Mouse driver at

http://ergo.contour-design.com/support-and-downloads/drivers

Of course, I don't want to screw up the working port... If I set a Restore
Point before downloading the driver, and if installing the software screws
up the good port, is it likely I can get back to the way it was
before--either by deleting the program from Add/Remove Programs or by using
System Restore?

One odd thing I may have mentioned before: When I unplug the mouse from the
good port and plug it into the bad one, the first time I plug it in to the
bad port there's no sound; and when I unplug it there's no sound. If I then
plug it in again, there's the upbeat sound; and when I unplug it this time
there's the downbeat sound.

Thank you!

Jo-Anne
 
Jo-Anne said:
I don't have any Contour programs in Add/Remove Programs. What I do have is
Dell Touchpad and Logitech Setpoint (although the Logitech mouse didn't work
in the bad port either). I've never used the old-style (not optical) Contour
mouse on this computer. My memory is that I bought the computer, plugged in
the Contour optical mouse, and WinXP recognized it--and that was that. I
don't know when I tried plugging it into the other port and found it didn't
work there, but it was a long time ago. It's probable that it hasn't ever
worked in that port.

I checked with the tech guy at Contour Design, and he said, "Yes the Perfit
and Contour mouse use the same driver." Do you think I should plug the
Contour mouse into the bad port and then download and try to install the
Contour Mouse driver at

http://ergo.contour-design.com/support-and-downloads/drivers

Of course, I don't want to screw up the working port... If I set a Restore
Point before downloading the driver, and if installing the software screws
up the good port, is it likely I can get back to the way it was
before--either by deleting the program from Add/Remove Programs or by using
System Restore?

One odd thing I may have mentioned before: When I unplug the mouse from the
good port and plug it into the bad one, the first time I plug it in to the
bad port there's no sound; and when I unplug it there's no sound. If I then
plug it in again, there's the upbeat sound; and when I unplug it this time
there's the downbeat sound.

Thank you!

Jo-Anne
Click to expand...

As long as the latest driver, has a match in the INF for your Contour, that
makes it the "right driver". If you want to try it (subject to setting the
Restore Point, and having a fallback plan), go for it.

If you don't have any entries in Add/Remove, it still raises the question
of where "HIDXMSE.SYS" and "HIDMOUSE.SYS" came from. They're not on my
WinXP SP3 CD. And according to the INF file, your Contour doesn't match
anything in the "old" INF, so there's no reason for the old installer to run
and put those files there.

It's possible there is something peculiar about the electrical design
of that USB purt. Like, maybe it's not a pure USB port or something.
But I've never heard of such a thing, so it seems preposterous as an
idea. Does that USB hole have any unique color or markings ? Something
that makes it look different than the others ?

Paul
 
Paul said:
As long as the latest driver, has a match in the INF for your Contour,
that
makes it the "right driver". If you want to try it (subject to setting the
Restore Point, and having a fallback plan), go for it.

If you don't have any entries in Add/Remove, it still raises the question
of where "HIDXMSE.SYS" and "HIDMOUSE.SYS" came from. They're not on my
WinXP SP3 CD. And according to the INF file, your Contour doesn't match
anything in the "old" INF, so there's no reason for the old installer to
run
and put those files there.

It's possible there is something peculiar about the electrical design
of that USB purt. Like, maybe it's not a pure USB port or something.
But I've never heard of such a thing, so it seems preposterous as an
idea. Does that USB hole have any unique color or markings ? Something
that makes it look different than the others ?

Paul
Click to expand...


I haven't yet tried to update the Contour driver, although I'd be surprised
if the update worked, given that the Logitech mouse also doesn't work in the
bad USB port...

While I get up enough nerve to try updating the Contour driver, here's some
info about HIDXMSE.SYS and HIDMOUSE.SYS on my computer. Both files are in
the folder C:\WINDOWS\Contour\Setup\contour.cab. There's also a hidxmse.sys
file in C:\WINDOWS\sysem32\drivers. Both of the hidxmse.sys files are 43 KB.
All three files are dated 12/4/2003. I bought the computer in 2008; and as
far as I know, Microsoft found and installed the driver, so that probably
was what was available at the time.

The two USB ports on the right side of my laptop look the same. I checked
the manual, and there's no difference mentioned between the two. The third
port is on the back of the laptop, and it's a powered one.

Jo-Anne
 
Jo-Anne said:
I haven't yet tried to update the Contour driver, although I'd be surprised
if the update worked, given that the Logitech mouse also doesn't work in the
bad USB port...

While I get up enough nerve to try updating the Contour driver, here's some
info about HIDXMSE.SYS and HIDMOUSE.SYS on my computer. Both files are in
the folder C:\WINDOWS\Contour\Setup\contour.cab. There's also a hidxmse.sys
file in C:\WINDOWS\sysem32\drivers. Both of the hidxmse.sys files are 43 KB.
All three files are dated 12/4/2003. I bought the computer in 2008; and as
far as I know, Microsoft found and installed the driver, so that probably
was what was available at the time.

The two USB ports on the right side of my laptop look the same. I checked
the manual, and there's no difference mentioned between the two. The third
port is on the back of the laptop, and it's a powered one.

Jo-Anne
Click to expand...

But that's the thing, the "contour.cab" file is an artifact of the "old"
installer, the one that when I checked here, doesn't match your mouse
ID/PID numbers.

But the thing is, you could have acquired that driver, from when it was
still offered on the Contour site. And perhaps they added some entries to the
INF file at that time. As I said before, the "old" driver I could get,
was an infected one from driverguide. And the only "safe" part of that
I could touch, is the INF (as that's a text file).

The "new" driver, the one you'd get today from the Contour site, is
of a different design, and doesn't have HIDXMSE.SYS or contour.cab.
And since you've identified the VID and PID of your Contour, as matching
one of the entries in the new driver, something different is going to happen.
Since the "new" driver uses "dpinst.exe", you should be able to install that
driver even without the mouse plugged in. When it comes time to plug it in,
you can try it first in the bad port. And then see, when the drivers have
a fight, who will win. The new driver is likely a filter driver, so the two
filter drivers (the one fouling things up, and the new one), we'll see which
one gets to "latch on first" to the poor mouse. :-)

If no new behavior results from the installation of the "new" driver, have
a look in setupapi.log again, and see what happened. The "new" driver will
likely have an Add/Remove entry, if you want to discard the new driver after
trying it.

Paul
 
Paul said:
But that's the thing, the "contour.cab" file is an artifact of the "old"
installer, the one that when I checked here, doesn't match your mouse
ID/PID numbers.

But the thing is, you could have acquired that driver, from when it was
still offered on the Contour site. And perhaps they added some entries to
the
INF file at that time. As I said before, the "old" driver I could get,
was an infected one from driverguide. And the only "safe" part of that
I could touch, is the INF (as that's a text file).

The "new" driver, the one you'd get today from the Contour site, is
of a different design, and doesn't have HIDXMSE.SYS or contour.cab.
And since you've identified the VID and PID of your Contour, as matching
one of the entries in the new driver, something different is going to
happen.
Since the "new" driver uses "dpinst.exe", you should be able to install
that
driver even without the mouse plugged in. When it comes time to plug it
in,
you can try it first in the bad port. And then see, when the drivers have
a fight, who will win. The new driver is likely a filter driver, so the
two
filter drivers (the one fouling things up, and the new one), we'll see
which
one gets to "latch on first" to the poor mouse. :-)

If no new behavior results from the installation of the "new" driver, have
a look in setupapi.log again, and see what happened. The "new" driver will
likely have an Add/Remove entry, if you want to discard the new driver
after
trying it.

Paul
Click to expand...


Thank you again, Paul! I'll see if I can do it today or tomorrow. I just
found an app that backs up all the drivers, so I might do that first as well
as setting a Restore Point.

Jo-Anne
 
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