[time-nuts] Thunderbolt and Windows XP

[GandalfG8 at aol.com]

In a message dated 16/06/2008 00:04:30 GMT Daylight Time,  
stanw1le at verizon.net writes:

I added  a serial switch box. I boot up when the T'bolt serial is 
switched  off
and turn on the serial connection with the switch box to do t'bolt  mon.


------------------------
Hi Stan
 
I guess that's one way, but there is an easier fix that worked for me  and 
it's shown below.
 
I had a similar problem about a year ago, when testing some Motorola  Oncores 
on a PC running XP, and after asking here was pointed to the following  info 
in the TAC32 manual....
 
----------
 
Windows 2000 and Windows XP
Microsoft has finally admitted that this is  a problem with Windows 2000. The
same fix works for Windows XP. In August  2001 they published
knowledgebase article Q283063 on this subject, which can  be viewed at
_http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q283/0/63.ASP_ 
(http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q283/0/63.ASP)   This article
has detailed instructions on a complex fix that requires direct  contact with
Microsoft. The article also suggests a workaround that seems to  be very
effective.
“To work around this problem, allow the [mouse] device  to be detected
incorrectly, use Device Manager to disable the [mouse] device  that is not the
port to which the [mouse] device is attached, and then reboot  your computer.
When you do this, the port works correctly and the incorrectly  detected
[mouse] device is disabled.”
To access the device manager open  the System icon in the Control Panel,
select the Hardware tab and click on  Device Manager. You will find the
incorrectly detected mouse in the mouse  group. It is often shown as a
Microsoft Ball Mouse. Do not delete it as  Windows will just detect it and
reinstall it (incorrectly) next time.  Instead, disable the incorrectly 
detected
mouse device. Open the properties  dialog for the incorrectly detected mouse
device, select the General tab and,  down at the bottom in the Device usage
field, select Do not use this device  (disable).
How do you accomplish this if your mouse is bouncing all over the  screen?
Disconnect the serial port while you are accessing the Device  Manager, of
course! Then restore the connection to the CNS Clock II and you  are in
business. No more problems!
 
----------
 
I used the workaround as shown and have not had any problems since.
At the moment I'm running two Thunderbolts and one or the other is  
permanently connected to COM1, whether the PC is on or off.
Once the PC is running I can boot up Tboltmon with either connected and all  
works as expected.
With Tboltmon running I can also hot swap the serial lead to the other  
Thunderbolt and it will happily report the new data without any  problems.
Obviously a switch box would be tidier but it's working well so far without  
one:-)
 
regards
 
Nigel
GM8PZR