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Level 6

10,400 points

Anyone else having Bluetooth keyboard problems with new mini?

I got the new mini, the base model and am having a problem, wondering if anyone else does too.

The mini is paired via Bluetooth to the aluminum Apple keyboard. Also connected is a Microsoft Explorer Mini mouse which also runs at 2.4 GHz (though it's not paired via Bluetooth). With my previous Mac mini, I never had a problem. With the new one, however, about half the time I do something somewhat CPU/GPU intensive such as turn on the screensaver or watch a high-def movie (either an Apple H.264 trailer or a downloaded video), the keyboard loses the connection with the Mac and an graphic appears on the screen saying connection lost. Sometimes the keyboard reconnects, and sometimes I have to press a key first for it to reconnect. It's rather annoying.

The keyboard has not given me a single problem with my old mini in the past year, so I know that's not what is broken.

So is anyone else having this problem?

MacBook Pro, Mac mini, Windows PCs, iPhone 3G, iPod classic, iPod nano

Posted on Mar 9, 2009 9:45 PM

122 replies

Tim Haigh

Level 7

24,198 points

Mar 26, 2009 3:38 AM in response to rranger

Did you try taking the batteries out of the keyboard for 20 mins. Then retry pairing.

Mar 26, 2009 10:23 AM in response to Phil Ta

Somehow my "me-too" reply to this topic got deleted.

Anyway, my situation is now fixed. Apple reps at my local store cracked open my Mini. They found that the pins where the Bluetooth antenna plugs into the adapter were not at all present on the adapter. They said that it did not appear that the pins were sheared off or otherwise broken, they were simply not soldered onto the board.

They replaced the Bluetooth adapter and all is well now. The wireless kbd and mouse have paired and work perfectly fine now.

Mar 26, 2009 2:57 PM in response to port27910

Port,
Can you please provide some more details?
pins where? what pins, the connector to the
antenna has a pin and a surrounding cup.
This is great news!
Anybody else yet pop the case to look?
Thanks! BEst news since I got mine.
Still need a solution for the graphics problem
on the 30" ACD.

Mar 27, 2009 1:13 AM in response to Phil Ta

Same thing here! Aluminium Wireless Keyboard and a microsoft Bluetooth Mouse. After a while i lose connenction from both. Tomorrow I'll upgrade the memory and i'll also check if the BT Antenna cable stays firmly in it's place. I hope my BT Card has those pins that port27910 mention.

TWH3

Level 2

476 points

Mar 27, 2009 4:01 AM in response to macswitcherGR

Not sure how helpful this will be, although it may suggest that this is a hardware issue...

Within the 2 week period my Mini completely packed up - wouldn't boot up - gave me three (non boot up chime) tones. Not a happy Mac at all. AppleCare told me it was dead.

I exchanged it at an Apple Store, and so far the new one hasn't had any Bluetooth issues. During the first keyboard pairing it took a long time for the passkey to be generated, but since then the keyboard has worked fine.

So perhaps this is a hardware issue, although if it was then why are so many people only having difficulty with the keyboard pairing rather than mouse pairing. I'm clearly no expert, but there is clearly a fault here that Apple needs to attend to.

Mar 27, 2009 12:24 PM in response to Phil Ta

Yes, me too 😟

Have new Mac Mini - 2.26 GHZ processor and 4 GB RAM. About every other day my aluminum bluetooth keyboard drops connection. If it happens while I'm looking, I see the screen display of the keyboard with "connection lost" message. Most times, it comes back in a few seconds. Once, I had to power-down the Mini and take batteries out of keyboard, un-pair keyboard and redo from bluetooth wizard - to get the keyboard working again.

Not happy. Hoping to see some sort of acknowledgment from Apple - with solution.

worf63

Level 1

0 points

Mar 27, 2009 3:22 PM in response to AndyOfLinux

Add one more to the list. My Alum kb pairs, but drops out (works flawlessly on my imac for over a year). My logitech dinovo paired and worked ok, but started to drop out, and now I can't even get it paired up. Like others, the mini finds it then asks for the pairing code, but that fails every time. Not impressed.

Phil Ta Author

Level 6

10,400 points

Mar 28, 2009 11:04 AM in response to Phil Ta

Well I'm still having dropouts. I opened my mini again and squeezed the BT antenna connection a bit and used a small needle to squeeze the contact pins in a bit to make the connection tighter and put it back together. We'll see how it turns out.

However, I still don't think it's an antenna problem. I'm able to use the BT keyboard 15 feet away through two brick walls. It's the dropout on CPU activity that's always been the problem.

Mar 28, 2009 3:44 PM in response to Phil Ta

Mine seems to be directly related to using the BT and wireless. If I have the mini connected using the wireless and am putting it under heavy load (eg Large file transfer) the keyboard becomes mostly unresponsive. If I connect using a wired connection then I seem to have no problems with the BT keyboard.

ahix

Level 1

0 points

Mar 29, 2009 12:29 AM in response to Phil Ta

I figured I didn't have something configured right and just went back to USB keyboard and mouse. Glad to know I'm not crazy.

Alan

Mar 30, 2009 12:51 AM in response to Phil Ta

I did that with my mini that was having the same problems and it worked and I have never had dropouts since!! good luck with that I hope it works for you!

Mar 30, 2009 6:42 AM in response to Phil Ta

Having the same issue. Brand new Mac Mini 2.26Ghz, 4GB RAM, using wireless network connection and wireless Apple aluminium keyboard and mighty mouse.

The same keyboard and mouse have been working perfectly with my old G5 desktop, but with the Mac Mini the conection is often lost or they just become unresposive while the Mini is (it seems) using the network or CPU heavily.

Mar 30, 2009 8:05 PM in response to Phil Ta

Everything was fine here until yesterday and then again today. After a number of hours of use, my Apple bluetooth mighty mouse was no longer able to control the pointer..... I had to use keyboard shortcuts (I'm using a wired Apple keyboard) to log out and after I logged back in the mouse worked again .... a mystery as to what's going on here. Now, for the last 15 minutes or so, things seem to be fine.

Mar 30, 2009 8:05 PM in response to Phil Ta

I had the same problems but managed to cure them (at least for now) by a reset in accordance with http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1543?viewlocale=en_US : unplug everything, leave for 15 seconds and then start up again - this resets the system management controller.I'll revert if this solution doesn't hold.

braw

Level 1

0 points

Mar 31, 2009 6:35 PM in response to Phil Ta

I am having a strange issue as well with my new Mini. I have no issues with my bluetooth mighty mouse and aluminum bluetooth keyboard, but I just purchased a Microsoft bluetooth mouse and have issues.

I had one for my older Macbook pro and loved it. When I use it with the new Mini, the cursor movement is very chunky. I noticed that when I power off the keyboard, the cursor behaves like it should.

I switched back to the Mighty Mouse and that works just fine. There seems to be some weird interference with Apples Keyboard and Microsoft's bluetooth notebook mouse 5000.

Anyone else having Bluetooth keyboard problems with new mini?