Bluetooth: Not Available

Question

Bluetooth: Not Available

At this point I am probably just adding another incident where Bluetooth is available sporadically, if at all.

I had not used Bluetooth until two months ago when I bought the Apple BT keyboard and the Mighty Mouse. For the first three weeks BT worked fine, when things went downhill. Since about five weeks ago I only had BT available for about two hours, then going down to minutes. Currently BT does not work at all anymore, that is, in the menu bar it appears as Bluetooth: Not Available and in the System Prefs there is no mentioning of BT.

I have read through every single thread here at Apple and searched the Web for a solution. I have followed every recommendation but the one to take the MacBook apart and relocate the BT antenna.

I can hardly ask for a solution from you guys as everybody has probably posted whatever they know. I find this scary though. How can so many people have this problem with Apple not responding? I am about to toss the MacBook out and replace it with a Ubuntu powered machine. At least then I could fix the problems myself.

Cheers

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.5), 1.8 GHz CoreDuo, 2GB RAM, 250GB HD

Posted on Oct 30, 2008 10:41 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Nov 2, 2008 1:52 PM in response to hhamburgerjung

Dear Diary,

today I repeated two steps, which I had tried before to get Bluetooth working on my MacBook:

- Reset the Power Management Unit by turning of my MacBook, removing the battery, disconnecting the Power Cable and holding the Power Button for more than 10 seconds, then putting the Battery and the Power Cable back in with no USB devices attached.
- Zapping the PRAM by holding down Option-Command-P-R during startup until I heard the Mac chime three times.
- Connecting all USB devices.

My MacBook has now been up with BlueTooth for about five hours, which I consider a real accomplishment although it should be a given.

It is nice to see the gadgets working again, but I almost feel like using Windows, and that is not why I bought this Mac (and a rough dozen Macs before...)

Cheers

Reply

Answer 2

Nov 2, 2008 3:19 PM in response to hhamburgerjung

And now, just about two hours after my last post, Bluetooth came back, saying: "Bluetooth: Not Available".

I am really displeased with this shaky piece of hardware, and the lack of response from Apple in this forum adds to my frustration.

Reply

Answer 3

Nov 3, 2008 10:37 AM in response to hhamburgerjung

A few hours ago Bluetooth started talking to my external devices (Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse). Then, after about two hours of light work my MacBook showed "Bluetooth: Not Available" again.

All that I am doing here is use a web browser while working with the Apple Wireless keyboard, the Mighty Mouse and an iPhone.

I bet you, if I just keep sitting here without touching anything, Bluetooth will be available again. For a minute. Or for half an hour. Or for two hours at best.

Oh, and just for the amusement of the innocent bystanders, here's an excerpt from my System Log:

Nov 3 19:32:03 KarstenBook kernel[0]: USBF: 550.592 AppleUSBHubPort: Port 1 of Hub at 0x7d000000 reported error 0xe00002ed while doing set feature (resetting port)

I have read so many messages about this error, yet there does not seem to be a solution. Oh, and my iPhone does not register with my MacBook anyway.

Should I go for a Linux notebook (YAY) or for a new MacBook (NAY)?

Reply

Answer 4

Nov 3, 2008 11:17 AM in response to hhamburgerjung

So, this time I turned off my MacBook, removed the power cord and the battery and let it sit there for half an hour while I was grocery shopping.

When I returned I put the battery back in, connected the power cable and the two USB devices (EyeTV and iPhone) Bluetooth have been fine since then (probably for 30 minutes) but I'll keep posting as I am expecting Bluetooth to go down again.

Reply

Answer 5

Nov 3, 2008 11:42 AM in response to hhamburgerjung

How exciting! My Bluetooth functionality disappeared again! Same error message as before:

AppleUSBHubPort: Port 1 of Hub at 0x7d000000 about to terminate a busy device (IOUSBCompositeDevice) after waiting 10 seconds
Nov 3 20:33:52 MacBook kernel[0]: USBF:

Now I am betting on not getting my Bluetooth functionality back before executing another reboot.

Reply

Answer 6

Nov 3, 2008 12:07 PM in response to hhamburgerjung

Funny enough... I was not even shifting a lot during the last hour, but Bluetooth functionality went on, then off, then on... and has been unavailable for quite some time now, probably half an hour or so.

Reply

Answer 7

Nov 3, 2008 12:37 PM in response to hhamburgerjung

Same Error Message in my Log as before:

AppleUSBHubPort: Port 1 of Hub at 0x7d000000 about to terminate a busy device (IOUSBCompositeDevice) after waiting 10 seconds
Nov 3 20:33:52 MacBook kernel[0]: USBF:

Reply

Answer 8

Nov 3, 2008 12:45 PM in response to hhamburgerjung

Darn... now Bluetooth is available again. It still does not synch with my iPhone but at least I can use my Bluetooth Apple mouse and keyb

Reply

Answer 9

Nov 3, 2008 12:49 PM in response to hhamburgerjung

Oh, great. I just went down to the basement to fetch my USB-style keyboard and mouse.

Hey, Apple, if do not know how how to use and develop a technology, please dont't try!

Reply

Answer 10

Nov 7, 2008 10:05 AM in response to hhamburgerjung

I used my USB keyboard, and of course it works on both ports. Disconnected it again and went through every single recommended fix one more time:
- repair permissions
- reset PMU (no battery, no power)
- zapped the PRAM
- unplugged all USB devices and rebooted
- rebooted from battery only
- rebooted with power cord only

to no avail. So I decided to just let the MacBook sit until the next morning. Still: Bluetooth not available, but while I was just reading a web page (no other programs open) Bluetooth suddenly came alive and stayed so for a staggering 14 hours; until Bluetooth became not available.

I find this totally irritating. MyMacBook is at times just sitting on my desk, the fans are whispering silently and I am not using any fancy applications.

I'm stumped...

Reply

Answer 11

Nov 10, 2008 2:19 PM in response to hhamburgerjung

I'll continue this, if only to describe my frustration with Bluetooth being unavailable without any apparent cause.

Over the weekend I traveled a few hundred miles away from home, my MacBook on me of course. When I arrived, Bluetooth was not available. A few hours later, Bluetooth returned and responded to all peripheral devices. Yet again, after about 20 or so hours, Bluetooth was not available.

Returning home on Sunday night, Bluetooth was functioning for two hours, was unavailable for three hours and returned to full functionality thereafter. Now Bluetooth has been available for 36 hours.

Before, during and after the Bluetooth failures my MacBook was not moved with the one exception of this last weekend.

Umh... thanks for giving me the space for this rant. I have never been even remotely disappointed with an Apple product, but this one is frustrating.

Reply

Answer 12

Nov 11, 2008 3:01 PM in response to hhamburgerjung

Who would have thought? My MacBook is still communicating with my Apple Bluetooth Keyboard and the Mighty Mouse!

Not to sound silly, but could taking your MacBook on a ride bring it back to functioning normally?

I am sitting here like a Teenage School Girl, waiting for my MacBook's deviant behaviour to re-appear...

Reply

Answer 13

Nov 14, 2008 8:10 AM in response to hhamburgerjung

Guess what? Bluetooth fazed out again a few minutes ago. So at least I could use my BT keyboard and mouse for three days in a row! Yowza!

BTW: I'll keep posting my musings about Bluetooth until my MacBook dies.

Reply

Answer 14

Nov 14, 2008 12:23 PM in response to hhamburgerjung

You are not alone. My MacBook gets the Bluetooth jitters too. Inexplicably, it fails to send after a number of syncs - then just as readily remains functioning for hours.
I, too, am disappointed with the supposed advanced and more robust Mac. I am also surprised at the difficulty I encounter in getting Mac help or support. Unlike Windows, Apple have chosen to let third party developers come up with the most useful apps. And rather than provide comprehensive help manuals or systems, Apple relies on third party manual writers as well as Apple forum-writers to provide the information that Apple should have provided in the first place.

Reply

Answer 15

Nov 14, 2008 3:05 PM in response to mind2mind

Hey, mind2mind, thank you for you response. Good to know that I am not the only one with this problem. Have you found any solutions, at least part-time, to get around this bug?

Whenever BlueTooth fails on my MacBook I can read up in the System Log on USB failing. Looks like a hardware problem, yet friends with this problem report that exchanging the MotherBoard did not help.

I am at a loss.

And I'll keep abusing this forum as my personal message board until this problem has been resolved.

Reply