Installed new Mouse, Computer melt-down! Help!

[LawyerRon]

I bought a new Logitech Optical Mouse for my computer and it installed just fine. My daughter wanted my old Logitech Wheel Mouse so I proceded to install it on her Dell 133. This mouse is about 3 years old and had the drivers on 2 floppies. The drivers seemed to install OK, but when the Dell restarted, and WIN 98SE loaded, and just when the mouse icon popped into the system tray, the Dell rebooted. Windows loaded and the same thing happened again and again. I can't get ANY mouse to work now. I'm pretty sure the old floppies had corrupted drivers on them. Nothing works now. I can only start up in Safe Mode with no mouse attached. If a mouse is installed, it's BSOD city.

Short of re-loading WIN 98, any ideas. Also, if I do have to re-load WIN 98, what's the best way to do it and save all her files. I seem to remember you delete wincom or some such file but I don't recall. Help!!!!!!!!

[HAL9000]

Boot to safe mode, then either use the RUN command to run MSCONFIG and remove the startup references to the mouse, OR if available, remove the mouse software with the Add/Remove programs in control panel.

[K A Hall]

Try and maneuver around in Safe Mode with the keyboard and remove the drivers via Add/Remove Programs. It can be done. Reattach the mouse and do not install the drivers. It should work without them, and you may miss out on a few of the mouse features.

Hal beat me....I was trying to spell maneuver or I would have been first....LOL!

[SARGE]

Lawman, anytime I try and do the drivers for a mouse - kaboom, just like you. Don't need 'em.

[LawyerRon]

I already tried the add/remove trick in safe mode. I was able to remove the Logitech software but that didn't solve the problem.

What's the keyboard shortcut to launch the Start menu again? I'll try the msconfig route.

[glc]

ctrl/esc or Windows key. Windows/R will open the run box directly. You might also want to run sysedit and look in autoexec.bat for a real mode mouse driver and rem it.

[LawyerRon]

Also, I seem to remember you can boot to dos and use scanreg/restore to go back to the last working registry. Is this a viable option? How's it done?

[HAL9000]

Yes, it might be worth a try. Hold down your CTRL key before the Windows boot logo appears and choose "Boot to Command Prompt Only". Then type in scanreg/restore and hit enter. The process is self explanatory from there. You will be given registry options from your last 5 sucessful boots. Simply choose one from before the time that you installed the mouse, let it do its thing and reboot.

[gerrygrit]

If no other way works.....do it the hard way...
Boot into safe mode....using the keyboard....go into
the DEVICE MANAGER......mouse.....drivers.

It will tell you where they are and their names.
Usually are in the c:\windows\system folder.
Write them down go into the folder and delete them.

Sounds like a pain but you can do it!

[LawyerRon]

Hal,
The Scanreg/Restore trick worked. Funny thing though, the 5 registries available were from about 2 years ago. I have to restore some settings and it doesn't reconize the new Supra Express but I can deal with that stuff.

These Logitech mouse drivers totally trashed this computer. I've never seen anything like it. They must have been corrupted or something to that effect.

[glc]

I know a trick to get the middle mouse button working on a Logitech mouse using the default Windows driver - it involves editing the registry. Let me know if you want it. The wheel should work all by itself in apps that support a scroll wheel without the Logitech driver.

[LawyerRon]

Thanks glc,
My new Logitech optical mouse came with ver. 9.0 drivers on cd. Does anyone know if these drivers are backward compatible with the older Logitech wheel mouse? I loaded these drivers on my machine with no problem.

[SARGE]

glc, I'm interested, as have 2 of 'em. Lawman, if you feel froggy, then jump (concerning using new driver with old mouse); now you know how to undo the mess. Why do you want a driver, anyway? My 2 Logitechs were used for 2 years, and the whole time it bugged me that I never used the floppy and driver on it. Tried it - bam, bad idea.

[LawyerRon]

Sarge,
I tried the new optical mouse with the old drivers and it wouldn't work. The new 9.0 drivers worked fine and gave me no grief. It was only when I moved my old Logitech wheel mouse to my daughter's Dell and loaded the 8.0 drivers that it origially came with that everything went south.

[glc]

The current version of Logitech Mouseware is 9.26, and it supports all versions of Windows and all Logitech mice except the new force feedback jobs. If you need the extra functions which the Windows default driver don't provide, give it a try.

Sarge - YGM