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ddf200

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 2, 2009
2
0
I have a Mac Pro 2009 that is unable to reliably work with the new magic mouse. The connection is spotty and either drops or there is significant lag on screen. The mouse is 3 ft, 7 inches from the front of the computer case so the distance should not be causing the problem.

I've noticed that previous threads have discussed wiring problems with the BT radio, but those appear to be on earlier Pro models. I opened the case and I'm unable to find the BT receiver to even verify if the wiring is correct.

If I use the Magic Mouse under my desk about 2 feet from the case, it does work reliably, but the ergonomics of that setup interferes with my productivity. :)

I'd prefer not to purchase an external BT dongle. I am using 10.6.1 and all known updates are installed. I do not have Airport.

Any suggestions welcome.

thanks.
 

lemonade-maker

macrumors 6502
Jun 20, 2009
497
4
Bluetooth is junk on this model. Card/antenna being low and to the rear hurts performance in my opinion. I'm gonna try to run an external antenna to see if it helps.
 

lemonade-maker

macrumors 6502
Jun 20, 2009
497
4
Sorry, that was a difficult pic to get with an iPhone, its dark in there. Its pretty easy to get at. Need to remove the cpu tray and its on the lower right. The attached wire is marked BT. Remove it and hook up the external one.

I have been using my BlueAnt speaker outside all day, about 30 feet away and though a wall. Pretty happy.
 

sboerup

macrumors 6502
Mar 8, 2009
416
2
My magic mouse is working beautifully on my 2008 MP. No skips, no reception issues, just perfect.
 

akdj

macrumors 65816
Mar 10, 2008
1,186
86
62.88°N/-151.28°W
I'm curious too. I haven't "set up" my MM on my Mac Pro yet...however, on both my MBP and my wife's MB...they have performed flawlessly...as far away as 4/5 feet.

I also have a Mac Pro, early '08 DualQuad 3.0. Is the radio mounted in the same location as the current, '09 Pros? What are using as an external antenna? I'm going to set mine up tonight and give it a try. My tower is under the desk and about a foot in front...maybe 3 feet total away from the base of the tower to the mouse. Is this the issue? How far from the tower/radio/receiver antenna the BT device is?

Very curious too...I've purchased two of these mice and I love their scrolling performance with FCP and Logic. This it the best mouse I've ever used as far as comfort...an A+ product, IMO...but I definitely need to try it with the Pro tonight...I've only had the mice for a few days now.

J
 

VirtualRain

macrumors 603
Aug 1, 2008
6,304
118
Vancouver, BC
I just purchased one of these... Once plugged into my keyboard USB socket, it should be completely invisible and only inches from the mouse...
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=41660&promoid=1120

41660.jpg
 

bbadalucco

macrumors 6502
Jan 4, 2009
459
0
I just purchased one of these... Once plugged into my keyboard USB socket, it should be completely invisible and only inches from the mouse...
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=41660&promoid=1120

41660.jpg

Same here...and I still have the same problems...a bit better but still bad enough that its annoying and very inefficient. Also, everytime I restart my computer it says no mouse or keyboard connected and I have to setup bluetooth all over.

Whats weird is with the internal bluetooth my bluetooth keyboard works perfectly, but the mouse doesn't.
 

VirtualRain

macrumors 603
Aug 1, 2008
6,304
118
Vancouver, BC
Same here...and I still have the same problems...a bit better but still bad enough that its annoying and very inefficient. Also, everytime I restart my computer it says no mouse or keyboard connected and I have to setup bluetooth all over.

Whats weird is with the internal bluetooth my bluetooth keyboard works perfectly, but the mouse doesn't.

Buzz kill! :(
 

bbadalucco

macrumors 6502
Jan 4, 2009
459
0
VirtualRain, let me know how it works for you. I've put in a USB extension cable in the MP, the the BT dongle in the extension cable and set it on top of my desk(towards the back out of sight). It actually seems to work flawlessly now. However, I still get the problem when I restart my computer.
 

idrjohn

macrumors newbie
Nov 9, 2009
1
0
Early Mac Pro same problem

I thought it was a problem with the pad I had the mouse on, as bad as an old ball mouse that got dirty, it would pause or not scroll then hesitate, catch up, just randomly. Hope there is a real fix to the problem. Thinking of returning the mouse. Frustrating.

Does the external usb bluetooth fix it or is booting always going to be a problem?
 

bbadalucco

macrumors 6502
Jan 4, 2009
459
0
I thought it was a problem with the pad I had the mouse on, as bad as an old ball mouse that got dirty, it would pause or not scroll then hesitate, catch up, just randomly. Hope there is a real fix to the problem. Thinking of returning the mouse. Frustrating.

Does the external usb bluetooth fix it or is booting always going to be a problem?

Since I placed the USB dongle in a USB extension cable and put the dongle on the back corner of my desk not only has the reception been perfect but when I restart everything appears to work...lets hope it stays that way. I'd recommend this route if you are having problems as it has seemed to work for me. I'm curious as to what VirtualRain has to say?
 

VirtualRain

macrumors 603
Aug 1, 2008
6,304
118
Vancouver, BC
Since I placed the USB dongle in a USB extension cable and put the dongle on the back corner of my desk not only has the reception been perfect but when I restart everything appears to work...lets hope it stays that way. I'd recommend this route if you are having problems as it has seemed to work for me. I'm curious as to what VirtualRain has to say?

Yeah, sorry, I'm out of town on business this week and won't get around to testing it until the weekend.
 

vanillablue

macrumors newbie
Sep 13, 2008
17
0
I confirm 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.

I'm waiting your experimentation in placing your Mac Pro differently.

Let me/us know, thank you.
 

mcvaughan

macrumors 65816
Aug 9, 2007
1,301
923
Houston, TX
I started noticing bluetooth issues on my Early 2008 MP after updating to 10.6.2. I have a wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse. I don't know if the issues are related or not between a 2009 MP and Early 2008, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
 

vanillablue

macrumors newbie
Sep 13, 2008
17
0
It definitely seems not related to the system version. I experienced the identical problems in 10.5.x and 10.6.x.

In some system releases there were others problems with BT suddenly disconnecting peripherals but the poor reception was a constant in my experience.
 

Jarman74

Contributor
Mar 22, 2009
227
653
It has to be said that if you succeed to locate your Mac Pro in a particular position you can obtain optimal mouse reception.

After a few hours of experimenting, I found out that I get the best results leaving the case open and rotated about one-eighth turn (roughly 45 degrees) on my desk. Next time Apple will ask me to double-click icons within a certain timing window and pixel-perfect accuracy, or what else?!
 

vanillablue

macrumors newbie
Sep 13, 2008
17
0
Next time Apple will ask me to double-click icons within a certain timing window and pixel-perfect accuracy, or what else?!

eheheh who said?

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.
 

VirtualRain

macrumors 603
Aug 1, 2008
6,304
118
Vancouver, BC
So I finally had some time to play around with the Belkin bluetooth dongle pictured above.

The good: It's reception is clearly much better than the Mac Pro's stock bluetooth radio. Besides being able to detect the mighty mouse I'm using to test, it could pickup a BT signal from my Mac Mini in the other room, and even my neighbour's iMac... all without any antenna! :eek: Mouse lag was gone and tracking accuracy was much improved.

The bad: It would not work after resuming from sleep. It would work fine with a power cycle or restart... but not when resuming from sleep. I would have to unplug and plug in the dongle and wait a few seconds for it to work after resuming from sleep. Frustrating! Of course, it also cannot be used to wake the Mac from sleep, but this is expected.

In fact, I'm starting to think that my 2009 Mac Pro has a general problem with USB devices when resuming from sleep as my USB audio interface also requires unplugging or a power cycle to work after the Mac resumes from sleep... the same symptom as I'm seeing with this BT dongle!

I tried using the BT dongle with the internal BT module untouched and also with the internal BT module disconnected. No change to the BT dongle behaviour but of course resuming from sleep caused the internal BT module to take over since the dongle was dead.

I'm not sure what to do next. I may contact support about my USB problems after resuming from sleep. I may also look into getting a different external BT antenna to use with the internal module. I may also try the magic mouse with the stock internal BT module to see how it performs... but I can't seem to get my hands on a magic mouse yet... the local Apple store is perpetually out of stock and I'm loath to buy one online given these issues. ARGH! :(
 

vanillablue

macrumors newbie
Sep 13, 2008
17
0
VirtualRain, I don't have USB awake problems on my Mac Pro but still my Blootooth dongle (D-LINK DBT-120) don't allow my BT devices to awake the Mac during sleep.

It seems that in some way the internal BT prevails over external dongles or has precedence over them.

I think the same as you: frustrating....

Do you have tried to talk to the Apple guys?
 

VirtualRain

macrumors 603
Aug 1, 2008
6,304
118
Vancouver, BC
VirtualRain, I don't have USB awake problems on my Mac Pro but still my Blootooth dongle (D-LINK DBT-120) don't allow my BT devices to awake the Mac during sleep.

It seems that in some way the internal BT prevails over external dongles or has precedence over them.

I think the same as you: frustrating....

Do you have tried to talk to the Apple guys?

So, your BT dongle works fine after resuming from sleep?
 

vanillablue

macrumors newbie
Sep 13, 2008
17
0
Yes, exactly.
It's impossible to awake the mac using magic mouse or wireless keyboard but once you have pressed the power button on the front all bt devices are ready to operate and functioning. And it's expected because this is the only dongle fully supported by Apple.

Unfortunately, despite this strong support it don't allow the awakening process. So it doesn't seems to be a definitive solution.

But I also have a Belkin dongle and I've done some tryouts.
Returning from sleep only the mouse reconnects itself, the keyboard never do it until manual re-pairing.
 

VirtualRain

macrumors 603
Aug 1, 2008
6,304
118
Vancouver, BC
Yes, exactly.
It's impossible to awake the mac using magic mouse or wireless keyboard but once you have pressed the power button on the front all bt devices are ready to operate and functioning. And it's expected because this is the only dongle fully supported by Apple.

Unfortunately, despite this strong support it don't allow the awakening process. So it doesn't seems to be a definitive solution.

But I also have a Belkin dongle and I've done some tryouts.
Returning from sleep only the mouse reconnects itself, the keyboard never do it until manual re-pairing.

Ok... good to know... I'm going to track down the DLink dongle you are using then. In my case, I use the wired keyboard and can resume from sleep by just tapping the space bar... no need for that functionality in my case. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any solution to your problem. :(
 

Ctrl2k

macrumors member
Oct 18, 2007
93
0
I purchased an ioGear Micro USB Bluetooth 2.1 adapter from Amazon for $20. It claimed Mac compatibility.

I have had no issues with it, and the Magic Mouse runs as fluid now as a wired mouse. I never quite got that on the internal BT at its best with this mouse, and it was far worse usually. I unhooked the internal card from the motherboard as well.

Bluetooth connection monitor from the Xcode dev tools also shows much better BT reception with the external dongle than the internal card.

I have no issues coming out of sleep except my wired keyboard has to wake the unit (or a tap of the power button), not the mouse. After that however, it works great. It also works fine at the login prompt on bootup or logout.
 
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