CAUSE
The serial driver was not initializing the serial data structures when
booting up. It tried to use what ever data was in memory and most of the
time this was incorrect. The sermouse driver would fail at this point and
not load.
Also note that you must follow the changes mentioned in section 22.1 of the
readme.wri. Here is an excerpt of that section.
WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system-wide
problems that may require you to reinstall Windows NT to correct them.
Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of
Registry Editor can be solved. Use this tool at your own risk.
Open regedt32 and locate the following key in the system registry:
To enable a serial mouse on a RISC-based computer, add one of the following
to the Registry:
OverrideHardwareBitstring:REG_DWORD:0x1
or
OverrideHardwareBitstring:REG_DWORD:0x2
Use the value 0x1 when the mouse is connected to COM1 and the value 0x2
when the mouse is connected to COM2. The value is located in the following
Registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Sermouse\Paramete
There has also been reports where a later version of the DEC Alpha BIOS was
needed in conjunction with this fix.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.51.
This problem was corrected in the latest Windows NT 3.51 U.S. Service
Pack. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the
following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):