Mouse lag during file transfers

Hi, desoca —

Please accept a warm welcome to Apple Discussions.

"Has anyone experienced sluggishness and general unresponsiveness with their
Bluetooth mouse while transferring large files using AFP?

I suspect that this must be a known issue."

Fair question.

Am I correct in thinking that we're talking about Apple's implementation of the Bluetooth File Transfer Profile? I'm not sure that "known issue" is apropos — I'd think of it more as the consequence of a limitation of the technology. Actually, transferring large files is "beyond" Bluetooth's primary objectives — high bandwidth tasks being much better suited for AirPort (WiFi).

My guess is that if you were to track packets traffic during the file transfer, the reason for what you've observed would be obvious.

The newer 2.0+EDR chips permit data transfer rates 3 x faster than devices designed to Bluetooth Specification v.1.1 or 1.2 — and, thus, a corresponding 2/3 decrease in power consumption under most conditions. If you purchased your PowerBook G4 new after January 2005, this improved technology is built-in to your PowerBook. But either way, I doubt this would suffice for the task you're attempting. While Bluetooth does support file transfer, doing so with large files will probably never be its strong point.

The mouse and the data transfer must share communication protocols with your internal Bluetooth module. The resulting affect on mouse tracking is a natural result.

But I've read recently that Bluetooth.org has established a strategic partnership with Freescale in developing Ultra-Wide-Band technology — so who knows?

HTH!

Regards,
Dean
[2,184 ⊥ 3,580]

I find something similar. When I use iSync to link with my Sony Ericsson k600i to sync contacts or use Bluetooth File Transfer to transfer a photo from the phone to my Mac (or vice versa) then during and after the process my BT mouse is sluggish and very unresponsive about 95% of the time. The only way I have found of solving the problem is putting my iMac to sleep briefly which, I doubt, is very good for it.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

iMac G5 1.8 GHz 20" & iBook G4 12" Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Hi again, desoca —

Sorry I misunderstood your original query.

I'd hoped someone would post back before this — that they have had this experience and know how to help (or at least explain). I've never noticed the behavior, and haven't tried to replicate it to provide confirmation or to test possible "fixes." Although I might be able to create a similar situation between my eMac and my Power Mac 6500, I'd expect the differences in processor speeds, etc. would cause all sorts of significant delays.

I took a look at your PowerBook's Block diagram and the clock speeds of buses supported by the Intrepid 2 Controller. From my ("layperson's") perspective, it seems plausible that any intensive CPU activity could easily affect the performance of a lower-priority function like Bluetooth traffic. But a meaningful understanding of this is well over my head.

Have you checked whether the problematic behavior also occurs with all USB devices disconnected?

Out of curiosity, during the coincident AFP transfers::wireless mouse lags, does Activity Monitor show unusually high CPU usage by any particular process(es)? Is anything useful written to your system.log or console.log that correlates closely (via "time-stamps") to the Bluetooth behavior?

I wish I could be more help...

Sincerely,
Dean

Hi, Charles —

The "and after" part of "during and after the process my BT mouse is sluggish and very unresponsive about 95% of the time" seems particularly puzzling. (Not that this is acceptable in any case.) [ a ]
(1) Has this behavior always been present as you've described? I'm not sure I fully understand the distinction between "sluggish and very unresponsive," if you're intending one. Would you please elaborate a bit?
(2) Sometimes simply deleting your mouse's "pairing" and then reconfiguring it using the Bluetooth Setup Assistant (BSA) will address such misbehavior.
(3) Does anything in these ~tangentially related articles seem like it might apply?
• KnowledgeBase Article 93369: Apple Wireless Mouse is slow or not tracking smoothly. In addition to what's suggested there, you may want to try a "3rd-party" driver like SteerMouse on a trial basis, to see if it improves the reliability of you mouse's performance.
• Article 86496 — Apple Wireless Keyboard and Mouse: Troubleshooting Connection Issues.
• Article 107861: Using Apple Wireless Mouse With a Bluetooth Headset.
(4) I realize you haven't mentioned a headset; I'm really wondering whether you ran the Bluetooth Firmware Updater 1.2 with your iMac G5 1.8 GHz. What versions of software and firmware are reported in System Profiler »» Hardware »» Bluetooth?
(5) You may also want to consider applying the Mac OS X 10.4.6 Combo for PPC (assuming you're still running 10.4.5, as indicated in your post's signature). This particular update includes several improvements to Apple's implementation of Bluetooth technology; a number of folks have reported improved performance.
(6) Re: [ a ] I can't think of a reason why putting your iMac G5 to sleep would cause it problems — but I don't quite understand how/why that should help with this problem, etiher. There are a number of other troubleshooting steps you could try that may help to isolate reasons/"fixes" for intermittent losses of Bluetooth connection, but may unrelated to its coincidence with mobile phone activity.&nsbp;Scanning through a few (of many) other threads on that topic may be helpful.
Please post back to discuss your progress. There are other things to try — and I believe this behavior should be amenable to improvement, if not a "fix." Thanks.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Dean
[2,312 ⊥ 3,700]

Hi Dean and thanks for your informative post.

Going through your various questions and suggestions:

There is no difference between sluggish and unresponsive. To try and describe it more fully - it's as if the pointer is moving through a thick liquid. It doesn't glide smoothly but judders slightly and is sluggish in that normally when you move the mouse say 2 cm then the pointer will move the same distance. But when it is being sluggish you need to move the mouse 10 cm to get the pointer to even move 2.

This reaction doesn't happen every time I connect my phone and G5. Sometimes everything is normal. I haven't yet worked out whether there is any pattern to the adverse reaction. For example no problems iSync-ing contacts between the two but bad reaction when transferring files like a small picture. Don't think there is such a pattern but will experiment when have more time.

Have deleted and reconfigured as you suggest and looked through all the articles you helpfully provided links to.

My BT software version is 1.7.3f4 and my firmware version is 2.1586 which I believe are both the latest as I always run automatic updates. I don't run a headset with my G5.

Also, I should have updated my profile to show that I have 10.4.6.

If I have success (or failure) I will let you know but again, thanks for all your advice and the time you clearly put into your reply.

Best wishes

Charlie

iMac G5 1.8 GHz 20" & iBook G4 12" Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I have the same behavior on my G5 Quad with either a Logitech MX1000 or MX900 mouse (both mice are the BT versions). It doesn't matter whether the network traffic is AFP or not.

I tend to see this behavior when there's heavy AirPort traffic. Both protocols operate on the 2.4GHz band, but are supposed to have technologies to minimize interference.

I'll have to connect via Ethernet to my router and see if the problem persists.