Q: Poor Bluetooth reception and jerky mouse

Unfortunately, I had no success with the Bluetooth dongle.  Wasn't drawing enough power from the keyboard USB outlet.  Tried the USB outlet on the front, where at least it powered up (after I plugged in a corded mouse, since plugging in the Bluetooth dongle incapacitated the Magic Mouse).  I then adjusted system preferences as instructed by Iogear.  But the mouse is still behaving badly - if anything, worse than before.  So, for now: I've plugged my old Logitech two-button wired mouse from Windows-land into the USB port on the Apple keyboard.  Works fine.  Just no ability to use any of the Lion OS X gestures!

I have en route a Magic Trackpad, which I sure hope I'll have better luck with.  Otherwise, I've spent an awful lot on a computer which seems incapable of interfacing with basic wireless peripherals.  I suppose I'll then send a note to Apple support, though it sounds unlikely to net anything useful.  And then perhaps reconsider the external antenna fix proposed herein.  I suppose as long as I'm not voiding my warranty, it should be OK . . . .

Another thought: Is there any good substitute for the Magic Trackpad which isn't Bluetooth (i.e., corded)?

No Trackpad is BT only

You probably have two BT receivers competing, you may need to disable the internal BT.

If I were you - I would call Apple care and tell them "it's not working" and you are physically unable to take your MacPro in - have them come out and fix it.

C'Mon APPLE you won someone over - pleeze fix this problem!

Same problem here.

I work on a 2009 Mac Pro and use a Magic Mouse.

It doesn't disconnect but the tracking gets very slow and sluggish.

UPDATE:

I wanted to share this process i had today with Lexy Pacific Corporation regarding a RMA for the Cirago BTA-6210 (Class1). The tech "David" was wonderful with his intention of solving the problem. He thinks the "chipset" in the 6210 (Toshiba) is the problem with the second try of the BTA-6210 that they sent me from my RMA. One week is all it lasted till it went dead... again! He felt it might be able to fix the problem if i used the Motorola chipset in the BTA-6310... he thinks it(6210) might have some conflict with OSX so i should try the 6310 model... he asked the RMA department if they could replace the 6210 with the 6310... they said they can only RMA the original order... i sent e-mail to ALL Lexy Pacific Corp. executives i could find to share my story and now await a reply from anyone who cares. Let's see if anyone at Lexy Pacific Corp. cares... I will update again in a week or less...

PS: i know about Class 1 vs Class 2 but i needed the Class 1 for other reasons. If the Class 1 is the issue, then i will get a cheaper Class 2. but we will see...

sub note: i noticed today that most of us whining are Level 1... hahaha!

Just wanted to put in my .02.

I was having the same issues with both the Bluetooth Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad as described by the OP on my Early 2008 Mac Pro Quad Core 2.8GHZ Model 3,1 running OS Lion 10.7.4 with factory installed Bluetooth and Airport modules, and "re-wiring" the bluetooth and airport radios fixed my issue.  These instructions worked for me.

Good Luck.

I had this issue too, and then tried with a USB mouse instead, and then with the trackpad, and it still does it. Haven't figured out what caused it, because it just started randomly.

I've been searching for a while now and may have stumbled upon a surprisingly low-tech solution to jerky mouse movement and disconnections: kitchen foil. Yes, you read it correctly: kitchen foil.

I knew the positioning of the bluetooth antenna and, hence, poor signal strength was the likely source of the problems so I tried some of the less involved workarounds such as repositioning my Mac Pro and moving metal objects out of the path between the antenna and mouse. Then I thought: if metal objects can block the signal then maybe it could be reflected back towards the mouse. Worth a try, I thought, so out came the kitchen foil and...voilà! Problem solved!

It was a Futurama moment, I know, but I was able to confirm the improvement very easily: in System Preferences/Bluetooth (has to be Lion, I'm afraid), selecting the Magic Mouse and holding down the option key displays the signal strength (http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2011091514050082). It took a while but by monitoring the signal strength I was able to find the optimal positioning for the foil which, for my setup, was draped over the back handle and down behind the back of the Mac Pro. If I'm right in thinking that the foil reflects the signal then it makes sense as the back of my Mac points near enough directly away from my mouse. If I'm wrong, then perhaps the foil is blocking some source of interference.

Whatever the explanation, I've gone from having a bluetooth signal strength between -60 and -77 (which I assume caused the stuttering movement and disconnections) to a very strong signal between -53 and -57.

Now all I need is for someone to tell me it's not just some bizarre coincidence.

ANOTHER UPDATE: the BTA-6310 did not fix anything... lasted for about two weeks and then just one day it just stopped working... it took me a month to discover because i have been away from my Mac off and on for about a month... sooo... the Lexy Pacific Corporation did not find the cure for "my" bluetooth issue... does anyone else have a Bluetooth dongle(any make or manufacturer) go dead on them with a Mac Pro 1,1 running Lion??? it can not be the manufacturer since Lexy Pacific BTA's use different manufacuters for the 6210 and the 6310 chipset... BTW Lexy Pacific has been wonderful trying to solve this issue... "Dave" is the man, he tries where others might just say "call Apple"...

My plan now is to try another inexpensive manufacturer and see if the "cheep" ones will solve the issue(class 2)... i hope to find out "why" my Mac is burning out 3X BTA's and also to solve my Trackpad issues... i have a Logitech cordless click to do my fine wurk in Photoshop and Final Cut... how silly, huh?

Fix It Now Apple... LMAO!

namaste

I removed the back plate of the mouse that covers the batteries and haven't had a problem since.  Nothing more than that. 

Yes, there's clearly a problem with  reception, but aside from  re-wiring or using a separate device for bluetooth, this works fine for me.  Only concern might be dirt inside, but even that hasn't been an issue. 

Try it.

I am experiencing the same problem with my Macpro 12 core, purchased in July 2012!

I have the same problem with jerky performance with my Magic Trackpad.  I first tried a USB BT adapter (IOGear GBU421), which worked great for about a month, then suddenly quit.  IOGear blamed it on Mountain Lion being unsupported.  So then I tried nobblynoel's solution, adding an external antenna.  That does not work any better than the original.  Perhaps I will try to find a larger external antenna, but Apple, you really need to address this.  There are a lot of people complaining here.

Update to my aluminium foil workaround, above: it does indeed increase the strength of the signal reaching the mouse and does reduce disconnections and jerkiness considerably - but not enough. I've been keeping an eye of the signal strength in the Bluetooth System Preferences pane and found that the minute you put your fingers around the mouse the signal deteriorates very considerably. I'm still searching for an effective solution. Taking off the mouse's battery compartment cover is next, then a bluetooth USB adaptor but after reading other posts, I'm not hopefull.

Give this a try.  I was having the same issues with my Mac Pro and this fix resolved it. 

Thanks, but that only applies to the older Mac Pros.