Windows detects USB GPS as Serial Ballpoint - please suggest permanent modification to prevent any serial mouse detection

Of course the registry is writeable. Make sure you have administrative permissions.

Tom - Why do you think that line you added will help?  Is that based on info you've seen on other forums?

None of the ID's you mention is a USB ID.  So they shouldn't do anything here.

What's the specific device that you are using?  Are all of the people reporting the issue with the same device?

Also, it would be helpful if you could create a public folder on http://skydrive.live.com, and copy c:\Windows\inf\setupapi.dev.log to that share.  This should allow me to see what exactly is happening during the driver install process.

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Want to know if your current hardware & software will work with Windows 7? Check out these links: **Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor ** **Windows 7 Compatibility Center**

I trimmed the appropriate section (from usb connect to end of log) and uploaded it to my skydrive.

The issue seems to be that once the usb to serial converter is detected, driver loaded, and com port initialized, windows then checks on the newly added com port and identifies the serial device as a microsoft serial ballpoint, when in fact its a serial gps device

The gps works if i can correctly remove the ballpoint from the device manager, but on a touchscreen in my car it is pretty difficult since the incorrect driver moves my cursor and clicks mouse buttons as the NMEA data flows over the com port. if there is no proper workaround, even a script to check for the ballpoint in the device manager and remove it would be fabulous, though a way to exclude the device from being detected at all would be best

 

Thanks for your time, and since i didnt see the original poster provide a log, I did.

Mark, this has been a major issue with most dongle USB GPS devices for ages. I have a GlobalSat ND 100 dongle that every single time it has been plugged in to either my XP Pro laptop, OR my new Windows 7 Home Premium system, that it enumerates my GPS as a "MICROSOFT SERIAL BALLPOINT MOUSE". Now, here's the real problem:  With my old XP Pro system, you could open the control panel, open device manager, and expand the tree - and then open mouse and pointing devices, and wait...when the enumeration process began once you plugged the dongle GPS in, if you were really fast, you could select the freshly-enumerated "MICROSOFT SERIAL BALLPOINT MOUSE" line, right click it (before your cursor went totally NUTS from the GPS words) and then hit ALT-U (uninstall driver).  Then, you could get enough control to hit "OK" to confirm...once done, the GPS driver would enumerate properly...FOR THIS SINGULAR BOOT-UP.

Sadly, with Windows 7, you can try this trick, but the sorry-thing wants to keep checking enumeration, and within seconds, it overrides the GPS enumeration and goes NUTS again.  My $75 GPS dongle no longer works, as a result...Guess I'll keep XP Pro so I can actually work with my computer in the field!

Yes, it is all the fault of the GPS device manufacturer apparently conflicting with MS naming/enumeration...then again, what is so important about 'SERIAL BALLPOINT' that it has to cyclicly check enumeration for itself...XP didn't do this?!!! I mean, geesh, if I UNINSTALL the driver, Win7 should get a clue that I don't want that driver! How about being able to uninstall that complete driver? I mean, you can do that now...but as soon as you plug in the GPS dongle, it re-installs and prioritize-enumerates, overriding other drivers...what gives?

By the way, this is also a majority issue with anyone using plug-in GPS'.  Just do a GOOGLE search for "UNINSTALL MS SERIAL BALLPOINT" and you will see EVERYONE asking how to stop this insanity...dating back over 5-years....

If you get any actual, working, semi-permanent solutions - PLEASE e-mail me! My GlobalSat GPS dongle is EXCELLENT for use with Streets & Trips, especially when ATV and off-roading...but it is worthless when Win7 won't support the dongle to work!

How to completely remove driver for serial ballpoint mouse in Windows 7?

As many other people I am desperately trying to get the issue with the serial ballpoint mouse in Windows 7 solved.
I edited the value "Start" in the registry from 3 to 4 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SerMouse, and this seemed to work for a while, but then suddenly the serial ballpoint mouse driver still took over.

The facts, as apparently not everyone at Microsoft seems to understand what is really happening:
1. The USB-to-serial adapter is installed as a COM-port.
2. Upon connecting to the GPS, the mouse behaved normally, so I assumed that Microsoft had solved the problem (I encountered the same problem in all my previous XP-laptops, but could solve it easily running "comdisable-software" supplied by Microsoft).
3. After a couple of days upon connecting to the GPS again, a driver installed itself, converting my USB-to-serial adapter into a serial ballpoint mouse. Although I have disabled the serial mouse in the registry, the serial ballpoint mouse is definitely there, jumping over the screen and I can only uninstall it by doing a system restore!! I was not online at that moment, so I am convinced that there is a driver incorporated in Windows 7 that found a way around the registry.
THIS DRIVER SHOULD BE COMPLETELY REMOVED, as disabling the serial mouse is not good enough.
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO DO THIS???

I feel like a sailing dinosaur now, back to the Stone Age having an up-to-date operating system but not even being able to connect my navigation software to NMEA. Come on Microsoft, you've got to do something about this, it can't be too difficult!!

After all these years, I can't believe that no one at Microsoft has resolved this.  The answer under NT4 was add /noserialmice to the boot.ini.  Under XP it was changed to /fastdetect:port#.  Here today I worked for three hours trying to figure out why I could not get the USB/Serial adapters to work.  I had remembered years ago there was a problem.  Sure enough when I went looking for the no serial mice there it was.  I went into the Device Manager showing that Windows 7 x64 installed the Microsoft BallPoint mouse into the system on those com's.   I uninstall them, and Windows just puts them right back again after a reboot!  If there isn't anyone at Microsoft old enough to know what a BallPoint mouse is, go looking on the internet.  They are only technology from 15-20 years ago!  Surely there still has to someone has been working for Microsoft since the late 80's early 90's that know what they are, and what needs to be done to resolve this, even if it happens to be another bandaid like the editing of the boot.ini file from Windows NT 4 and XP.

Hi Gellenb. I am working on this problem with a GPS device from Holux (m215) right now. My coworker solved it on XP by running the command "DEVCON.exe DISABLE *PNP0F09"

It seems to work on W7 as well. You may try this solution by getting hold of DEVCON.EXE: It is included in the Windows DDK (Driver Development Kit 7.1). Or you may download it from here, I believe: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272

EDIT: Seems like it works, but it has to be done for each separate USB port you will be using. I am working on trying to find a solution to this...

I've made the registry change from above, and it works for awhile, but for some reason the reg setting keeps reverting back to a 3.

 

I'm also sometimes getting a bluscreen that I believe is also caused by the GPS being connected at boot. After the BSOD is when the reg setting reverts back to 3.

Hi TNator, I followed your advice: installed WDDK7.1, built the environment as directed in the manual and ran devcon, disabling *PNP0F09. And yes, this solved the problem of the adapter installing itself as a serial ballpoint mouse; but only "one way". It only works when I switch off my GPS and then start the computer. But if I perform the sequence the other way round, which I normally do when sailing: the GPS runs and incidentally I start the laptop, just for a check-up on my paper-chart navigation, the mouse starts jumping again. However, it doesn't install itself as a serial ballpoint mouse anymore, but under Devices it then lists itself still as a mouse, albeit as a com-port.
Obviously it is already a giant step for mankind that the connection now works if I remember to do some switching on and off for certain instruments, but the system is still not completely okay. If you have an other suggestion, I would be most grateful.
Witte Raaf