Bluetooth Mighty Mouse Problems

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Level 1

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Bluetooth Mighty Mouse Problems

My wireless Mighty Mouse that I ordered with my Mac Pro has very inconsistent performance no more that 4 feet from the tower. It seems to stick and stutter regardless of the surface. The problem disappears and then reappears. Have ensured that all old drivers have been removed and have gone as far as doing and archive and reinstall of OS X. I have tried third party mouse software to no avail. The strange thing is that it appears to work well with my 14" iBook G4. Any ideas/help?

Mac Pro 2.66 2GB, 500 GB HD, Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Aug 24, 2006 8:56 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 24, 2006 9:16 PM in response to Gregga

FWIW, I just tried mine as far as the limits of my room would allow - about 6ft and it seemed to work OK (not that I tried it for very long.) Straight line of sight - my Mac Pro is on top of my desk.

A couple suggestions:

- Are you also using a wireless keyboard? Does it work at the same distance?

- Is there anything between your computer and mouse that might degrade the signal? (I.e. a desktop or the like?) If your G4 is on top of the desk and the Mac Pro below, this might be a clue.

- I think I saw that the antennas on the Mac Pro are located on the bottom of the unit (I'm sure someone will quickly correct me if this is not true.) Might be a factor in where you have it positioned.

Take care,
P.M.

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Answer 2

Gregga Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 24, 2006 9:52 PM in response to PunkusMaximus

FWIW, I just tried mine as far as the limits of my
room would allow - about 6ft and it seemed to work OK
(not that I tried it for very long.) Straight line
of sight - my Mac Pro is on top of my desk.

A couple suggestions:

- Are you also using a wireless keyboard? Does it
work at the same distance?

- Is there anything between your computer and mouse
that might degrade the signal? (I.e. a desktop or
the like?) If your G4 is on top of the desk and the
Mac Pro below, this might be a clue.

- I think I saw that the antennas on the Mac Pro are
located on the bottom of the unit (I'm sure someone
will quickly correct me if this is not true.) Might
be a factor in where you have it positioned.

Take care,
P.M.

Thank you for you message. I am using a wireless keyboard with no problems. The Mac Pro just a few feet from the mouse and about the same distance from the keyboard. There is no barrier of note between the mouse and the tower.

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Answer 3

Miltano

Level 1

0 points

Aug 27, 2006 4:41 PM in response to Gregga

I have the same problems. Apple Care shipped me a new mouse and it did not solve the problem.

My specific issue is that the mouse is not consistently responsive to movement. Very difficult to use. I end up using the mouse with my Wacom instead.

Milt

Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

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Answer 4

Aug 27, 2006 6:58 PM in response to Miltano

I have the same problems. Apple Care shipped me a
new mouse and it did not solve the problem.

My specific issue is that the mouse is not
consistently responsive to movement. Very difficult
to use. I end up using the mouse with my Wacom
instead.

My wireless Mighty Mouse is fine. When I turn it on, it takes a few seconds to be recognized again, but after that WOW.

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Answer 5

jrminc

Level 1

0 points

Sep 14, 2006 6:11 AM in response to Gregga

I'm having this exact same problem. The Mac Pro tower is on the floor, the mighty mouse is on a desk above. I received a replacement from apple and am having the same intermittent problems....anyone know of anything to fix this?

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Answer 6

bosmacs

Level 1

8 points

Sep 14, 2006 7:07 PM in response to jrminc

I'm having the same problem as well, and there are several other threads in the discussion forums here concerning the same issue -- just search for 'mac pro bluetooth'. It seems to be a range issue; mine is irritatingly sketchy (lags, stutters) just 2-3 feet from the box on my desk. Beyond that, it's pretty much unusable. I opened the side of the box just for kicks, and that seemed to extend the functional range by a foot or two. AppleCare had me reset my pram and smc to no avail. I am of course interested in any possible solutions...

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Answer 7

Dr Dave.

Level 1

10 points

Oct 3, 2006 5:48 AM in response to bosmacs

"just for kicks...." WOW, that did it for me!

This mouse has been driving me crazy (actually, more crazy in my case!). My cpu is sitting on a shelf above my monitor -- the shelf is 20" above my desk.

As soon as I took the side off my cpu, the mouse started to work perfectly.

Go figure....

David

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Answer 8

Oct 3, 2006 9:02 AM in response to Gregga

I have the same issue. It has to do w/the software. Reason why...
1. Works fine under Windows.
2. Had the same problem on my Mac Pro and my friend got one and had the same issue.
Most likely it's something that will be accomplished in a software update.

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Answer 9

Dr Dave.

Level 1

10 points

Oct 3, 2006 9:51 AM in response to warheart777

Hi arheart777:

I'm going to argue with that....just for fun. 🙂

I had the horrible feeling that it's a design issue. If my MM is performing badly AND the only thing I change is to remove the side cover, AND it works perfectly, this tells me that there is some internal (to the box) interference.

If you use the mouse on a windows box and it works fine...then move to the MAC and it does not...yes, it could be software, but in my view, likely hardware...or both! 🙂

David

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Answer 10

Schatten

Level 1

45 points

Nov 3, 2006 11:08 AM in response to Gregga

Wireless signals have a hard time penetrating the heavy-duty aluminum cases that the Mac Pros & PowerMac G5s use.

If I recall correctly, to compensate for this the G5 towers used to ship with a small antenna adapter for the wireless functions; one for Bluetooth & one for Airport. Is this not the case anymore? They would look like small T-Shaped white plastic thingies. They'd plug into the back of the tower. If you have them, plug them in. If you don't, call AppleCare & ask if they're supposed to ship with the machines.

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Answer 11

Nov 3, 2006 2:39 PM in response to Gregga

There are reports of some Mac Pros with mislabelled antenna wires attached to the wrong cards (AirPort vs Bluetooth), causing reduced range. See
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3202197>

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Answer 12

Nov 3, 2006 3:08 PM in response to Gregga

After about a week of flawless MM movement, I started to experience the same thing. Mouse and Mac Pro sit on my desk so range is not an issue. I went back to my Logitech MX 1000 which works great with my Mac Pro.

I am now using the MM with a D-Link BT adapter on my G4. No more problems with the MM.

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Answer 13

HaraldS

Level 2

348 points

Apr 30, 2007 9:11 AM in response to Gregga

Same issue here still today. Mac Pro sits under the desk. I do believe it is software, when I boot into BootCamp, Windows with the Apple drivers has no trouble!

-- Harald

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Answer 14

May 1, 2007 9:31 AM in response to HaraldS

FWIW I had a BTMM which was horrible to use. I installed the Steer Mouse drivers and afterwards thought "Why does apple not simply include this driver with the MM???". It is vastly superior to Apple's driver. It's 25 bucks but well worth it for either the BT or wired version of the MM.

PS I ended up reverting to the wired mouse because even with the better driver, my BT mouse kept dropping the signal and at least 60% of the time, refused to operate when the computer came out of sleep.

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Answer 15

May 2, 2007 4:50 AM in response to Gregga

i had this issue due to the surface of the desk I was using it on. Got a piece of cardboard (blue backing to a USB cable package) and it works fine on that. Tells me the optical movement interface is a little to sensitive on some surfaces and not enough on others...

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