disable built in bluetooth in favor of usb adapter bluetooth?

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disable built in bluetooth in favor of usb adapter bluetooth?

Is it possible to disable the weak internal bluetooth in the 2012 Mac Pro? I'm in the process of getting my new machine up and running and am having issues with the mouse being erratic/jerky and slow from time time to time. My mousing area is only about 3 feet from the cpu but the signal must be too weak. When I move the mouse closer to the cpu I have no issues.

Anyway I bought a medialink bluetooth usb adapter (model MUA-BA3) in hopes that I could use it for my bluetooth connections instead of what is built into my mac pro. Can I do that? or is there some better way to boost the weak signal coming from the mac pro?

P.S. I have tried multiple magic mice and all are pretty much the same...

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4), 2.4GHz 12 core with 48GB RAM

Posted on Jun 21, 2012 8:23 AM

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Answer 1

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Jun 22, 2012 1:15 AM in response to Erik Peterson

If nothing has changed in the mac pro since 2010 (which is what I have) then using a dongle will disable the internal BT. So try it and see.

If it doesn't disable it your choices are to remove the BT card inside or to install xcode and run Bluetooth Explorer which I believe can disable the specific BT connections.

Of course if you go so far as wanting to get in and remove the card you could also just as easily attach an external antenna in place of the internal antenna and you wouldn't need a dongle at all.

This stuff is discussed (and links illustrating external antennas) in the ever growing thread:

Poor Bluetooth reception and jerky mouse

By the way I use a dongle (IOGear GBU421) on my 2010 mac pro which is why I know it disables the internal BT (that and I can see it is disabled in Bluetooth Explorer).

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For external antenna example, see this link.

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