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castelletta Author

Level 1

11 points

Poor Bluetooth reception and jerky mouse

I want to share my findings upon the poor reception of the internal Bluetooth module on my 2009 Mac Pro. The mouse in particular seems to suffer the most from the low BT signal.

It has to be said that if you succeed to place your Mac Pro in a particular position you can obtain optimal mouse reception. It seems that the field covered by BT signal is very irregular (due to the aluminum case?) and I think also altered by other metal objects that can exist on your desk (or inside/under you desk and his structure).

This can explain why some users tell of fantastic BT reception with their Mac Pro and others (majority) complain about awful Magic Mouse tracking.

In my situation I've been forced to plug-in a D-LINK DBT-120 dongle. It performs very well and maintain always connection with mouse and keyboard upon restart......unfortunately the same peripherals can't awake my Mac Pro during the sleep mode. A little uncomfortable (because you have to press the power button) and I thing very strange since this dongle is considered the only BT dongle fully supported from Apple.

I tried other dongles but all seem to lose connection. Some after restart, others after sleep mode.

For sure it's a shame that the most powerful and most expensive machine that Apple is selling right now is so badly performing in the BT compartment and it's more unforgivable since Apple seems to push very much their wireless peripherals.

Ok Apple, it's not easy to grant a powerful BT antenna in the metal case of the Mac Pro? Well please provide or support an external module that fully support all Mac OS functions (key selection on startup, wake on sleep ... etc) and consistently. I don't think it's a science fiction task.

I'm waiting your experimentation in placing your Mac Pro differently.

Please share your experiences....thank you

MacPro 2009 - 8 core, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Nov 12, 2009 8:05 AM

357 replies

Jan 20, 2011 5:16 PM in response to X423424X

This is a hardware issue pure and simple. I bought a usb bluetooth dongle about five months ago and I haven't experienced any bluetooth reception issues since. I own a Motorola bluetooth headset and it didn't work properly with the internal bluetooth antenna. The graph I put up in the thread earlier shows that. This tells me that it is a hardware issue not a software issue. The problem lies with either the case or the antenna itself. The problem needs to be addressed so it doesn't end up like the ATI X1900 XT graphic cards that took 5 years to issue a replacement for fault cards.

Jan 31, 2011 8:37 AM in response to John Birchfield

I've come to this really late and I didn't want to read 20 pages so apologies if this has been mentioned. I had the same problem today and it was driving me crazy because mine had always been ok. Turned out it was my cordless phone (not mobile). moved that 6 feet away and it's been perfect since.

Of course you may not have a cordless phone anywhere near you in which case my suggestion is useless.

Feb 3, 2011 2:42 PM in response to Infotech 24 7

I don't think that cordless phones are the cause. If phones were the cause then the Bluetooth in my iPod touch and the dongle that I bought would have the same problem as the antenna in the MacPro. As a matter of fact they work great compared to the antenna in the MacPro.

Feb 20, 2011 10:25 AM in response to castelletta

Just throwing my name in the pot as well in case Apple wants to contact us. My "mighty" mouses response time was never the best ... but I was able to tolerate it as I spend most of my time on my Wacom. However the other day I bought a LaCie USB 3.0 drive (which comes with a PCI USB card & drivers)... and the end result was a completely useless mouse... but only when I plugged the drive into the PCI card. Plugging the drive into the USB 2.0 ports resulted in usual sluggishness.

BTW... if you think the Apple support is bad.. you should try LaCie. They were so useless it was comical.

Currently running a Mac Pro Quad.

jo-mac

Level 1

4 points

Feb 21, 2011 9:39 PM in response to Anonymoustache

I received a magic mouse for XMAS and was ready to return to apple due to poor skipping & stuttering performance with my Mac Pro. Until I saw your post - I switched the bluetooth module antenna wire with the Airport antenna wire. Put my Mac Pro back together, started it up and now I have Super smooth performance and response. THANKS for posting this info. if you have a 2006 mac Pro and have weak bluetooth range here are the notes I followed to correct the problem:
http://www.thelocale.org/files/howtos/mac-pro-bluetooth-howto.pdf

Feb 24, 2011 4:16 PM in response to jo-mac

Most of the people here in this thread have either a 2009 or 2010 Mac Pro. With that said you can't switch the wires around because Airport is in the front and Bluetooth is at the back of the case in those models. I believe the engineers/designers at Apple designed these models this way to keep the wires from being switched like previous models.

Feb 27, 2011 3:51 PM in response to castelletta

Add another Mac Pro Nehalem user to the list of affected consumers. I was wondering why the Magic Mouse that works with three other computers will not work with my Mac Pro. The Magic Mouse skips and jumps all over the place, and it doesn't scroll properly on my Mac Pro, either. My stereo bluetooth headphones have trouble staying connected, too.

I hope Apple provides a solution for all of us, whether we are still under warranty or not. This type of issue is unacceptable for a premium product at such a premium price.

I am arriving to this discussion rather late, since my Mac Pro Nehalem was purchased in June '09. I did not purchase AppleCare, which costs an additional 10% on top of a machine I could barely afford to begin with. If I'm fortunate, this is the only time a $249 extended warranty will be needed. For that price, I'll perform my own fix.

I just ordered one of these neat little bluetooth USB dongles for $15 to get me through the meantime with my Magic Mouse: http://www.iogear.com/product/GBU421/
It should fit inconspicuously into my wired Apple Keyboard right next to my Magic Mouse. Hopefully that will do the trick.

When I have more time, I may perform Nobblynoel's fix with the external antenna. Thanks to everyone for posting your findings here.

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Feb 27, 2011 7:20 PM in response to Cary Noel1

Cary Noel1 wrote:
I just ordered one of these neat little bluetooth USB dongles for $15 to get me through the meantime with my Magic Mouse: http://www.iogear.com/product/GBU421/
It should fit inconspicuously into my wired Apple Keyboard right next to my Magic Mouse. Hopefully that will do the trick.

It will. That's the one I use. I have mine plugged into the back of my 27" ACD. It will "take over" (have precedence?) over the built in blue tooth antenna so there is no conflicts either.

The only thing you need to be aware of is that since this is a USB dongle, when you sleep your machine, power is dropped on the USB buss. That of course means the dongle is off. Thus you need to click a key on your keyboard (which should be wired directly to your machine) to wake the machine. Mouse and trackpad cannot be used.

Also, under these conditions sometimes your mouse/trackpad may be slow to auto-re-pair with the bluetooth. And if it doesn't you may need to flip the mouse switch off/on.

I haven't been keeping records so this is just a gut estimate of the number of times I have wake-from-sleep bluetooth problems with the mouse and dongle, but I'd say maybe 25% of the time this re-acquiring the bluetooth problem can happen. I also keep a wired-mouse connected if I'm in a hurry to do something and don't want to screw with the bluetooth at that moment.

Feb 27, 2011 9:00 PM in response to X423424X

Thanks for your reply and confirmation the IOGEAR Micro Adapter will work. I'll be glad to FINALLY use my Magic Mouse without frustration! It's also nice to hear there is no conflict with the internal antenna, as I was planning to have to remove the processor card and unplug the BT.

I'm aware of the sleep issues, but that is not a concern to me. I almost never sleep my machine. Even so, the wired keyboard will do the job.

Thank you!

mkdehaan

Level 1

0 points

Feb 28, 2011 12:14 AM in response to castelletta

Hello fellow apple victims,

First of, apple makes realy nice hardware, but I havn't had one apple product that I havent had problems with.

First macbook pro: trackpad and keyboard stopped working (defect topcase), display went black (defect mainboard/graphicscard), defect battery before 50 cycles. Display not waking up after sleep, and lots of soft/firmware issues.

Second macbook: This bluetooth issue

Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter: Lots of noise on my external display, signal blinking on and off or just not getting signal at all.

Mighty Mouse: Rightclick issues

I'm realy frustrated right now!
I've already had to ship my first macbook pro back 3 times and it took minimal 3 weeks before I got it back every time.
So apple just messed my school and job up for more then 2 months and I'v never had any compensation.

BACK TO THE POINT PROBLEM/FIX:
The problem is often caused by interference between wireless and bluetooth.
Maybe the drivers make this problem occur since bootcamp works fine..

My Mighty Mouse worked fine for 3 years now (exept for the rightclick issues) and suddenly started stuttering. So I tracked back what changes I made to my hardware/software. And It turns out that I resently played with the settings on my wireless router. I found out that changing the channel did the trick, my mouse works fine now 🙂

I switched mine to channel 7
The problems occurd on channel 12

I hope this helps some people!

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Feb 28, 2011 1:22 AM in response to Cary Noel1

Cary Noel1 wrote:
Thanks for your reply and confirmation the IOGEAR Micro Adapter will work. I'll be glad to FINALLY use my Magic Mouse without frustration! It's also nice to hear there is no conflict with the internal antenna, as I was planning to have to remove the processor card and unplug the BT.

I'm aware of the sleep issues, but that is not a concern to me. I almost never sleep my machine. Even so, the wired keyboard will do the job.

Heh 🙂 I never said it was "without frustration"! The slow-to-reacquire bluetooth has been frustrating for me at times. If you don't sleep your machine that much it may be "less" frustrating of course 🙂

mkdehaan wrote:
BACK TO THE POINT PROBLEM/FIX:
The problem is often caused by interference between wireless and bluetooth.
Maybe the drivers make this problem occur since bootcamp works fine..

I've heard that, but in my case I have the wireless turned off. So it can't be that. There are also some reports that poor shielding on the mini displayports can cause some interference and a partial "fix" is to wrap the mDP connector with aluminum foil (imagine, a $4500 machine and you need to wrap a connector with Al foil). And for the sake of completeness there's complaints that the mouse's batteries aren't always making contact with their terminals.

But when all is said and done, for Mac Pro's at least, I think generally the main problem is the poor placement of the antennas in a box which is basically a [Faraday cage|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage] combined with a rather poor antenna in the Magic Mouse. I base that latter qualification on my readings of the mouse signal strength with XCode's Bluetooth Explorer.

Jun 3, 2011 10:46 AM in response to castelletta

I have the same problem, with both the wireless mouse AND keyboard. My keyboard is 2 feet from my Desktop Pro and it has dropped the connection at least 5 times in the last 3 minutes. I am at wits end!

Jun 14, 2011 10:47 AM in response to castelletta

I'm not so sure it's soley the case... The Magic Mouse is my third bluetooth mouse, and it has worked fine for the past year. However, since about last week, it has started to be jerky and slow. I have also tried my old bluetooth mouse, and another magic mouse and it works fine...so in some instances it could be the mouse.

Also I have found, for some dumb reason that the mouse that I'm having issues with is less jerky and slow, not using a mouse pad...

Jul 6, 2011 2:52 AM in response to castelletta

Unfortunately I didn't have the time to read through 21 pages of comments, so the issue may already have been resolved, but here's what WORKED for me.

I bought a used Mac Pro 8-core (MacPro 2,1) that came with Airport but no bluetooth (BT). So, I went ahead and bought the little BT card off eBay and installed as per instructions. I connected the antenna cable labeled "BT" to the card, put everything back together, powered up the Mac and yes, the card worked but I immediately started having the poor reception problems you described above (jerky Magic Mouse, slow tracking... you name it).

I temporarily was able to use the mouse using a Kensington micro dongle, but hey... that's not the way it's supposed to be. So, on a long weekend, after taking EVERYTHING apart to analyze the antenna routings, I thought to myself, what if somebody mislabeled the cables?

I went ahead and connected the antenna cable labeled "1" from the airport card to the BT card. Then I connected the "BT" antenna to the position 0 of the Airport card.

No problem since then! My magic mouse now works like a charm, even with the Mac Pro under the desk and a few feet away from the mouse. 🙂

ALWAYS DISCONNECT POWER AND DISCHARGE ANY STATIC FROM YOUR BODY BEFORE MESSING WITH THE INTERNALS OF YOUR PRECIOUS MAC PRO!!!

After the fact I googled it and found this same fix for a 2006 MacPro 1,1 here: http://www.thelocale.org/files/howtos/mac-pro-bluetooth-howto.pdf

Peace!

castelletta wrote:

I want to share my findings upon the poor reception of the internal Bluetooth module on my 2009 Mac Pro. The mouse in particular seems to suffer the most from the low BT signal.

It has to be said that if you succeed to place your Mac Pro in a particular position you can obtain optimal mouse reception. It seems that the field covered by BT signal is very irregular (due to the aluminum case?) and I think also altered by other metal objects that can exist on your desk (or inside/under you desk and his structure).

This can explain why some users tell of fantastic BT reception with their Mac Pro and others (majority) complain about awful Magic Mouse tracking.

In my situation I've been forced to plug-in a D-LINK DBT-120 dongle. It performs very well and maintain always connection with mouse and keyboard upon restart......unfortunately the same peripherals can't awake my Mac Pro during the sleep mode. A little uncomfortable (because you have to press the power button) and I thing very strange since this dongle is considered the only BT dongle fully supported from Apple.

I tried other dongles but all seem to lose connection. Some after restart, others after sleep mode.

For sure it's a shame that the most powerful and most expensive machine that Apple is selling right now is so badly performing in the BT compartment and it's more unforgivable since Apple seems to push very much their wireless peripherals.

Ok Apple, it's not easy to grant a powerful BT antenna in the metal case of the Mac Pro? Well please provide or support an external module that fully support all Mac OS functions (key selection on startup, wake on sleep ... etc) and consistently. I don't think it's a science fiction task.

I'm waiting your experimentation in placing your Mac Pro differently.

Please share your experiences....thank you

Jul 6, 2011 4:51 PM in response to mbraun1973

mbraun1973

No, disrespect intended but most of the people who have posted here are using 2009-2010 MP's. These MP's (MacPro 4,1) have the bluetooth antenna in the back of the case near the PCI slots. There is no way to get the wires mixed up in these MP's because the wires aren't long enough.

Poor Bluetooth reception and jerky mouse