I can not get com port1 to open. No conflicts are shown.
There was a serial port mouse used but now using a PS/2.
Diagnostics show no problems.OS is Win98 on a Compaq 1234
laptop. How do I get it to work with peripherals?

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dids

The first thing that comes to my mind is that you didnt "Remove" the serial mouse from the "Device Manager" in Control Panel.

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Will XP save Me ?

If Randy_tx's solution doesn't work, go into windows in safe mode, re-
move all Com1 listings in device manager. Reboot, go into the bios and
check Com1 settings, reboot and go into windows normally. If windows
immediately "detects new hardware" and Com1 is automatically restored
there should be no problem.