The Sinclair QL Forum

Definitely stuck because of an incompatible mouse. Try without mouse to see it boot.

Both my Q68 and QIMSI-Gold sometimes get stuck at the start-up message for no obvious reason when first switched on (i.e. with their regular mouse which is known to work).

When it happens, I just restart it after a little while and it usually starts properly at the second attempt.

HI:

It is likely, the Mouse on the Q68 is connected via a switch box, which is slowing down the detection of the Mouse.on the Q68 power up.

I have same problem, and she the mouse is connected via PS/2 splitter at works fine.

Now a solution, just a guess at the probable cause.

It was the mouse. I can get it to boot now with a PS2 mouse with a converter but the mouse doesn't work. It boots though and I get the display from the QIMSI board.

I'm going to have to make the 3D printed case more stable though, before the QIMSI PCB pulls out on its own.

dilwyn wrote: Thu Jan 02, 2025 10:43 pm Both my Q68 and QIMSI-Gold sometimes get stuck at the start-up message for no obvious reason when first switched on (i.e. with their regular mouse which is known to work).

You could check that with QIMSI Gold standalone, powered by a simple microUSB supply. I bet the problem does not occur then. It is likely that your system does not power up nicely, which confuses the mouse.

Pepperm wrote: Fri Jan 03, 2025 4:26 pm It was the mouse. I can get it to boot now with a PS2 mouse with a converter but the mouse doesn't work.

If you can not find a suitable PS/2 or combo mouse, we could still try an update with the USB mouse version of the FPGA - which I do not normally distribute to reduce confusion and future update issues.

Thanks for the offer and I am interested. However, what is involved in the update. Would it require any special interface or would it just be a file on the SD card?
I do have all sorts of programmers but am not too confident with some of them, to be honest. I do also have PS/2 mice around, and adaptors for USB and do plan to try them out when I have a minute.

What is involved in updating the FPGA then Peter?

Peter kindly let me have the update to try out as I just couldn't get a PS/2 mouse to work. I've been using a USB mouse since, and sent an example of a cheap USB mouse which didn't work to Peter a while back so he could take a look. The procedure to update the hardware logic is actually in the QIMSI-Gold manual on page 15 under "Updating the hardware logic" - you get a file from Peter and EW a program called Proglogic to implement the update. Even for someone as hamfisted as me, it worked first time and fixed my mouse woes (apart from the occasional failure to fully start up, but Peter has explained that with my earlier post). You need to be very aware though that the USB mouse support may be removed again at some point by future updates or if Peter just decides not to carry on with it.

Sounds great, I'll give it a go. I am new to the QIMSI so don't know... how often are updates published and where would I get them from?

Peter wrote: Sun Jan 05, 2025 10:42 am

dilwyn wrote: Thu Jan 02, 2025 10:43 pm Both my Q68 and QIMSI-Gold sometimes get stuck at the start-up message for no obvious reason when first switched on (i.e. with their regular mouse which is known to work).

You could check that with QIMSI Gold standalone, powered by a simple microUSB supply. I bet the problem does not occur then. It is likely that your system does not power up nicely, which confuses the mouse.

Thank you, looks like that is indeed the issue. I've started it several times stand alone with a microUSB power supply, not seen a screen like Pepperm was getting while doing that. Also started it several times plugged into the QL without the QIMSI mouse to try, and also not seen that screen. OK, granted that 10 tests each is probably not the most thorough of tests, it seemed to happen about 5 to 10% of the time when plugged into QL with the USB mouse, which I sort of accepted in the knowledge that if I left it a few seconds and restarted it, sure enough it would power up OK. Possibly the QL's 40 year old power supply needs a short while (like me at my age) to power up to speed in the morning!
When I tried a few times plugged into QL with no mouse it subjectively (cannot prove it) seems slightly slower to start up, slightly slower as in less than a second. Could that be because searching for a mouse which doesn't exists takes a little longer than successfully finding and initialising a mouse? Or am I over-imagining things?
Either way, thank you Peter. Just understanding what is going on is often a large step in itself towards fixing a problem.