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

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