castelletta
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: 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 8:24 AM

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castelletta

Q: Poor Bluetooth reception and jerky mouse

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  • by Eric ESAD,

    Eric ESAD Eric ESAD Dec 8, 2009 10:43 AM in response to castelletta
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 8, 2009 10:43 AM in response to castelletta
    Just to add another voice here: I have the same problem with my 2.26 gig 8-core Mac Pro. I have positioned my computer in a somewhat awkward place on my desk, but I sometimes have to operate my mouse within 8-10 inches of the machine to avoid jerky responses. Too bad - I love the Mac Pro and I really like the Magic Mouse with its finger swipe scrolling. This is my 3rd mouse - I had to trade in 2 wireless Might Mice because they got stuck all the time - that little scroll ball constantly (and I mean constantly) had to be cleaned to function at all. The Mighty Mouse is great, but unbelievably low range with the Mac Pro.

    Apple's new slogan: The New Mac Pro - Powerful and Awkward.

  • by castelletta,

    castelletta castelletta Dec 9, 2009 1:29 AM in response to Luba Cox
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 9, 2009 1:29 AM in response to Luba Cox
    I just discovered these days that although D-LINK dongle is good for the tracking of the Magic Mouse (not for the waking after sleep) it drains batteries like a fool.

    I have Apple Wireless Keyboard in use for half a year and changed the batteries only once.
    From the day that I've started to use D-LINK dongle the batteries last ONLY ONE WEEK!!! It's incredible and unacceptable.

    For another reason I ask:
    Apple please give us a solution!! Hardware or software. We need to use our equipment as other iMac and MacBook users and it's a shame that we are here to complain about a machine that costs 2x, 3x, 4x the other Macs.

  • by Bornheimer77,

    Bornheimer77 Bornheimer77 Dec 9, 2009 10:45 AM in response to Mark Delgrosso
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 9, 2009 10:45 AM in response to Mark Delgrosso
    Mac Pro 8-core. Same issue. Keyboard & Mighty Mouse were already included in my order and they are just still left in the desk. Can't use either of them since tracking of MM is horrible & KB looses connection several times a day. Bought Logitech mouse & keyboard with separate receivers that I put on the back of my Mac and happy.

    Shame on Apple not fixing this.

  • by Mark Delgrosso,

    Mark Delgrosso Mark Delgrosso Dec 9, 2009 11:34 AM in response to Bornheimer77
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 9, 2009 11:34 AM in response to Bornheimer77
    So, if you order the wireless mouse as an upgrade with your Mac Pro tower, what do they do if does not work?

  • by MDH825,

    MDH825 MDH825 Dec 11, 2009 3:57 AM in response to Eric ESAD
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 11, 2009 3:57 AM in response to Eric ESAD
    I too am having the same problem with the Magic Mouse. I am now using an old wired "Pro Mouse" that I kept from a long ago retired G4 Power Mac.

  • by Nowvin,

    Nowvin Nowvin Dec 12, 2009 10:27 PM in response to castelletta
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 12, 2009 10:27 PM in response to castelletta
    Would keeping a wired mighty mouse plugged in and hidden out of sight, keep the magic mouse driver ping happy and maybe stop jerkiness?

  • by gumsie,

    gumsie gumsie Dec 13, 2009 2:14 AM in response to castelletta
    Level 4 (2,174 points)
    Dec 13, 2009 2:14 AM in response to castelletta
    Hi there, not sure what's going on with your BT but I rarely lose signal, (at least if the +Connection lost+ dialog is anything to go by). What I have noticed is that the MM is VERY sensitive to the surface it is used on. I seem to get perfect tracking on a completely flat medium matt brown surface.
    On others if you examine the surface at exactly where the mouse jerks is it not slightly shiny or uneven there?
    That said I option clicked the Bluetooth menu bar icon to see if signal strength was listed, it wasn't. But I did see a couple of things that I had never noticed before;
    The +Bluetooth Diagnostics Utility+, +Bluetooth Explorer+ and the +Packet logger+ maybe one of these can help?

  • by Anonymoustache,

    Anonymoustache Anonymoustache Dec 13, 2009 2:18 AM in response to gumsie
    Level 1 (100 points)
    Dec 13, 2009 2:18 AM in response to gumsie
    Since everybody's posting all sorts of trivial information (not a bad thing at all) in the pursuit of working this thing out, just thought I'd post that I was using my Magic Mouse yesterday and wanted to changed the batteries so I turned on my Mighty Mouse and connected it at the same time. Before doing anything else, I tested them at the same time (yeah, both hands) and found that the Magic Mouse was back to its slow speed (like it was before I fiddled with the bluetooth/airport wires) but the Mighty Mouse was normal.

  • by gumsie,

    gumsie gumsie Dec 13, 2009 2:21 AM in response to Anonymoustache
    Level 4 (2,174 points)
    Dec 13, 2009 2:21 AM in response to Anonymoustache
    Possible interference issue then?

  • by Anonymoustache,

    Anonymoustache Anonymoustache Dec 13, 2009 3:00 AM in response to gumsie
    Level 1 (100 points)
    Dec 13, 2009 3:00 AM in response to gumsie
    Yeah, could be. Maybe limited power, even after fiddling with the wires? Also, I moved the mice at the same time and separately and they did the same thing.

  • by Mosaica,

    Mosaica Mosaica Dec 13, 2009 4:39 AM in response to Anonymoustache
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Dec 13, 2009 4:39 AM in response to Anonymoustache
    Ok my experience with a early 2009 Mac Pro 8 core. I certainly have the same jerky problems as others. I have tried 7 different surfaces and they all are very different in workability. None works well though. And as the poster above said, a brown mat desktop pad is working best (still bad) for me. I also get the connectin lost popup at times. I also have tried the mouse in different locations to no use.

    VERY INTERERESTING. I had my wife work the mouse under the same circumstances and IN FACT THE MAGIC MOUSE DID WORK. With her smaller hand and only her fingers touching the mouse! If she palmed the mouse, it would work very bad. I tried the same thing (we did this a dozen times btw) and could not get it to work at all. My hands cover the mouse no matter what.

    I have contacted Apple and I am getting a new mouse to try...
    Does anybody know where the BT antenna wire goes from the mobo? Anyone have any photos, I have not been able to find any...

    Thanks.

  • by gumsie,

    gumsie gumsie Dec 13, 2009 4:43 AM in response to Mosaica
    Level 4 (2,174 points)
    Dec 13, 2009 4:43 AM in response to Mosaica
    What's a mobo ?

  • by Mosaica,

    Mosaica Mosaica Dec 13, 2009 6:25 AM in response to gumsie
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Dec 13, 2009 6:25 AM in response to gumsie
    Motherboard, system board. I see that in my Mac Pro the BT wire is connected and heads out to the back of the case under the lower rear fan. Cannot see where it goes from there..

  • by gumsie,

    gumsie gumsie Dec 13, 2009 7:54 AM in response to Mosaica
    Level 4 (2,174 points)
    Dec 13, 2009 7:54 AM in response to Mosaica
    Mine sounds considerably different, as you can see in my second post [here|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2249623]. Above where the processors are you can see two mini circuit boards. I believe one is Airport and the other is Bluetooth. The area shown is just behind the front fan.

  • by Mosaica,

    Mosaica Mosaica Dec 13, 2009 9:29 AM in response to gumsie
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Dec 13, 2009 9:29 AM in response to gumsie
    Hmmm, my motherboard is black in color. The airport location is towards the front of the case at the bottom and the bluetooth is located lower right, ie, at the bottom and towards the back of the case just in font of the back fan...
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