Third Party 100% Optical Mice Suppliers for SGI's

Here is all the information I have on 100% optical mice. I purchased a 100% optical mouse from Mouse Systems in mid 1995 for an Indigo2. This is their PS/2 compatible mouse. Some info-iris people have used other models on SGI's higher end machines with success. For the most part my mouse works great, but then anything would be an improvement over what SGI supplied. I do have two problems with the mouse:

1. Sensor is at the top of mouse instead of middle, where it belongs.
2. Very susceptible to static shocks.

Both of these problems very annoying. When I first complained to Mouse Systems about the first one, I was told I'd get used to it. I haven't and I wont. The second one took a while to figure out what the problem was and how to recover from it.

The mouse would lock up for no apparent reason. I finally figured out that I could just unplug/plug-in the mouse with the system up and running and the mouse would start working again. It wasn't until I actually started FEELING a static discharge that I figured out that was what was causing the mouse lockup. Now I make sure I'm grounded before I touch the mouse. This only happened during the winter. During the summer the humidity is high enough that I don't have this problem.

  Mouse Systems
  OUT OF BUSINESS?
   47505 Seabridge Drive
   Fremont, CA  94538
   Phone: (510)-656-1117, FAX: (510) 770-1924
   Parent company's Web:http://www.genius-kye.com
      Optical Mouse for Indigo2 & Indy's (PS/2 Mouse)       ~$100 (Mid '95)

  QualixDirect
   1065 East Hillsdale Blvd., Suite 245
   Foster City, CA 94404
   Phone: (800) 455-9273
     FAX: (650) 638-4090
   Contact: Ron Steffen (sales), Shawn really knows about the mice.
   Web:http://www.qualixdirect.com
      Optical Mouse for older SGI's (NOT PS/2 Mouse)          ~$100 (Aug. 2000)
      (Their records say they have the PS/2 mice and the warehouse has
       boxes labelled with the PS/2 mouse part number, but they are really
       the old type of mouse.)

  Shentech.com
   140-39 Rose Ave.
   Flushing, NY 11355
   FAX: 718-504-3790
   Contact: Charlie Shen
   Web:http://www.shentech.com
      Optical Mouse for Indigo2 & Indy's (PS/2 Mouse)   $12.95 (Aug.  2000)
      (http://store.yahoo.com/shentech/moussysps2op.html)

I've been trying to get a hold of Mouse Systems for over a month now (8/2000) to get one of their PS/2 100% optical mice for our Indigo2. It seems that Mouse Systems' parent company (KYE, www.genius-key.com) has closed them down and it appears it happened some time in the middle of 1999. Mouse Systems' Web site shows a blank page, email bounces back, and all I get are fast busy signals when I try to call them.

I went to KYE's Web site and they've got an optical mouse, however, it looks like it uses the same type of technology that M$ new mouse uses. These mice apparently only work if the surface they are on have some kind of pattern to them. The area where my mouse goes is flat black, so I'd need a mouse pad to use these new optical mice anyways.

My other SGI 3rd party hardware lists:

CD-ROM's, DAT's, Hard Disks,
Floppies/Flopticals, Joysticks, Magneto Opticals,

Memory, CDR's (Writeable CD-ROM's), DLT's (Digital Linear Tape),

If you have any additions, corrects, or updates to the above information, please email me at: blbates@vigyan.com, thanks.

Last update: May 14, 2002