CompuServe Messages

I am using (trying to, anyway) Superbase, the fancy database system from England. This gem uses a dongle, a small device with two resistors and a diode inside, that attaches to mouse port number two. The computer is supposed to be able to read the number two port, do arcane things to/with/at the dongle, and determine (A)yes it's there, and proceed to run the program, or (B)no it's not there, and crap out. Well, aside from the issue that on a GOOD machine, superbase elects to inform you that the damngle isn't there and quit (like after you've just finished a file definition, every time) I now have one Amiga that will not run Superbase at all — superbase insisting that the damngle isn't there, and quitting. Mouse port two on this particular machine will operate either a mouse or a joystick with MarbleMadness, so I have a fair degree of confidence in the integrity of the digital signal lines on the port. The Hardware manual says that linear reads are done by comparing a state of charge on a capacitor thru an unknown resistance at the port during retrace. Ah-ha, said I. A comparitor, eh? inside the Amiga, I found a TLO-84, which I told myself, could indeed be used for such and at the rates indicated in the manual. I looked at every other chip in the system, and they all be digital, so… I chopped out the olden one, carefully attached a socket in it's place, and… no difference. I give up. The hardware manual is less than helpful, I don't have schematics, and I'm pretty well stalled. Can someone tell me which components are involved in the mouse port number two analog read? or suggest another potential problem that would cause the combination of symptoms seen here? To be clear, the dongle and Superbase are fully functional on my other machine, and used to work on this one. I took it up north for Xmas and tried to show my mother ( a computer buff) the database — I think at that time, many thousands of volts of static entered the AMiga via the dongle, which I attached then, entirely without my permission. The static, that is. I'm not entirely dead, as the other AMiga will run superbase (with it's attendant auto-crashes at various times), but I find it extremely upsetting that one of the machines is ill. Thanks in advance, –Ben–