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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

Reply
357 replies

Feb 25, 2010 2:31 PM in response to stocky2605

Hello stocky2605,

many greetings from Germany 🙂

I am sorry, the Bluetooth dongle is not a fine working solution. I bought a Belkin USB Mini Bluetooth stick (you can find this in Apple Store, product is shown with a sign compatible with Mac). By using the stick my Magic Mouse is better to use, connection is lost not so often, handling is not real better and in competition with my Macbook white it is real worse. And - Stick: there is no chance than to wake up (function is disabled).

So I spend now enough money and time to this bug. I am now using my normal non bluetooth wireless mouse and keyboard.

Apple & Bluetooth in Mac Pro - it is miracle? I do not have seen a bug like this with my Win-PC's. It is real a big next thing...

Best regards

Holger_S

Feb 26, 2010 1:29 AM in response to stocky2605

TO ALL THE COMPLAINING PEOPLE:

As recent history suggest it seems that Apple fixes problems that are boldly reported by newspapers worldwide......and our Mac Pro Bluetooth problem never reached media attention (as Mac Pro Audio problem has done).

If someone can put that flaw to the global attention I think that we will likely see some clear steps toward problem resolution.

Feb 26, 2010 8:13 AM in response to castelletta

Just back to report that MM worked today without any problems with my Mac Pro. I used the mouse for about 8 hrs with some short breaks (Launch etc.).

I removed the battery cover, the Mac Pro is located on my right hand side under the desk. The mouse is on the desk, of course, and is positioned exactly above the Mac Pro (distance betwenn MM and Mac Pro 30 cm (12 ")).

As I mentioned before there is no Airport Card installed inside the Mac Pro. Therefore no addt'l (misslabeled) cables. Does this mean everything is right labeled and the right cable is used? Maybe?

Have a nice weekend

Feb 26, 2010 8:27 AM in response to stocky2605

Stocky, I also had a perfectly-working MM yesterday, and I also removed the battery cover. This is after over 2 weeks of not ONE day it working properly.

I can't help but wonder if there is an interference issue with the MM? I have another bluetooth mouse and it works fine (but I really want to use the MM because I like the non-button scrolling feature, and 'tap' clicking). I wonder if neighbouring office equipment (phones, wireless devices?) could possibly interfere with it? My MM problems exist even if I turn off all other computers and Airport.

Feb 26, 2010 2:55 PM in response to castelletta

How are you people getting USB bluetooth adapters to work? I've tried two different ones in my 3,1 MP 8x2.8, and as soon as I plug one in the Mac says there's no bluetooth hardware.

Yes I deleted the bluetooth prefs and restarted, yes I mean a USB bluetooth dongle or whatever you want to call it, and yes I checked whether the Airport/bluetooth thing is wired properly but there's no Airport card.

My machine is about 5' away, but it's on the other side of a wall. The old BT mouse works with an unusable lag, but the new one doesn't work at all. Therefore I figured having the USB adapter closer by might work. Alas.

TIA

Mar 11, 2010 11:19 AM in response to castelletta

It is if your tower is on a cart under your desk.
I think it's still unacceptable. Plus they need to redesign the Magic Mouse. After hours of use, your hand can start to cramp. It's not ergonomically correct like the Mighty Mouse. It's profile is so low your hand almost lies flat. Plus there are are only two buttons and the Mighty Mouse has 5.

Mar 12, 2010 1:33 AM in response to Mark Delgrosso

I agree with you, it's not a great solution at all but it seems that Apple is sleeping on this issue....

Regarding the Magic Mouse...one have to choose the mouse that fits better his hand, not only his eye 😉
If you complain about the buttons lack I presume that you don't know MagicPrefs at all... true?
This control panel allows you to config all type of shortcuts just like those possible with the Mighty Mouse and additional ones.

Mar 17, 2010 1:31 AM in response to castelletta

Hi guys,

I had the same problem with my Mac Pro and a Magic Mouse so I got a DLink DBT-120 and plugged it into my Cinema Display. At first it worked fine... unfortunately after 3 or 4 reboots my Mac lost track of the DBT-120 and re-activated its own internal Bluetooth card instead. Then I had to reinstall everything all over again. This was getting really annoying so now here's what I did:

I unplugged the little cable from my internal Bluetooth Card. This is located directly behind the cpu/memory-tray and really easy to pull/reinstall if I want to. So now the Mac Pro sees the DBT-120 as the only Bluetooth device and it works as it should!

Mar 18, 2010 12:22 PM in response to TSchanzer

Just wanted to say that this is an issue for me as well with a 2009 Mac Pro. I've tried all of the possible software fixes to no avail. I've also tried removing the lid at the bottom of my Magic Mouse and that doesn't help. Moving it closer to the machine does work but it's not an option and it's only six feet away at the moment (it works much better when just two feet closer).

Anyone have any updates on this issue? I haven't been able to find instructions for how to make necessary hardware adjustments for 2009 Mac Pros...

Mar 25, 2010 4:47 PM in response to castelletta

Hiya guys and girls! Forgive me my intrusion.
I'm using x86 pc, Windows7 + usb mini bluetooth adapter with Small wireless bluetooth keyboard and Magic mouse, ofcourse 🙂
I have installed extracted bootcamp driver to use my MM with Win7, it's not 100% functional, but... anyway

Anyway all this does change nothing, i think, becouse...
1) my mouse lags all the time with my desktop computer, just like yours (MM)
Checked with MouseRateChecker software. Normal rate 80-90hz, then lag occurs it's 0-10hz and 1000hz for a sec. after lag! Crazy?

2) experiment, using the same bluetooth dongle and MM with ANOTHER pc (laptop). Running Windows XP.
= NO LAGS at ALL, totally, really!
3) same adapter, same MM. Laptop under Windows Vista control.
= same shocking result - No LAGS!

All operating systems are x32 (x86).

So... the only thing i can be sure in right now is - my Magic mouse is alive, in normal condition and normally working without lags.
Just guessing - your MM should be working too! And no reason to change it in AplStore to another same MM again and again.

"Our" problem - sofware, driver. Corrupted. Unsupported. Conflicting. Not perfect for all hardware.

That's becouse it works with one computer and does not work normally with another.
Can't say that all MAC's are the same (different configs, different date of manufacture, even if same brand and tech specs) so... i may assume that my argument can be used even for MAC users.

+ different software and drivers installed on MacOS, that could affect and cause problems with MM too.

Apple, hello!!! That's not your style, to release for sale unfinished untested product... PLEASE FIX !!!

ps - sorry for my broken english, my Russian pet bear just prevents me from typing normally :\ eh vodka vodka...

Just kidding 😉

ps - my Wireless keyboard works ok, no sticky keys or lags at all
pps - and i'm sure that reason in MM lag is not in interference with bluetooth signal from WiFi or home radio phone or anything else.
I even tested MM + laptop at 1cm distance from working microwave oven!!! Do you know that oven has same ~2.4hz frequency as WiFi, bluetooth, radio keyboards\mice and radio phones? Hehe.
Nothing could affect signal from adapted to MM.

Mar 26, 2010 10:00 PM in response to castelletta

Add me to the problem. I just bought a shiny new Mac Pro 8-core. I already had the Magic Mouse and it worked fine with my last computer - a G5 quad-core - which uses the same case. The mouse works fine with no tracking or stuttering issues, but only as a mouse. If I go to the Mouse control panel and choose to setup a bluetooth mouse, the computer never finds the it - even if I hold it directly in front of the computer. Having to buy an additional adapter is not what I had in mind when I dropped over three grand on this computer. Apple, any ideas?!

Poor Bluetooth reception and jerky mouse

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