Howto: Fix for Bluetooth Problems in Mac Pro

phototristan · Oct 22, 2013

Just a heads up, Mavericks broke my USB BlueTooth dongle functionality.

It was a good solution for my stuttering Apple Magic Trackpad until I upgraded to Mavericks OS 10.9...

Now I have to use the built in BlueTooth of my 2008 Mac Pro which is weak and lame, and the erratic cursor has manifested again...

sailmac · Oct 23, 2013

phototristan said:
Just a heads up, Mavericks broke my USB BlueTooth dongle functionality.

It was a good solution for my stuttering Apple Magic Trackpad until I upgraded to Mavericks OS 10.9...

Now I have to use the built in BlueTooth of my 2008 Mac Pro which is weak and lame, and the erratic cursor has manifested again...

I highly recommend doing the external antenna mod described here. Scroll down to posts by "toxless" for specific parts.

I did the mod to my early 2008 and it's been great -- not hard to do and totally worth it. Native bluetooth functionality and performance smooth as silk.

phototristan · Oct 23, 2013

sailmac said:
I highly recommend doing the external antenna mod described here. Scroll down to posts by "toxless" for specific parts.

I did the mod to my early 2008 and it's been great -- not hard to do and totally worth it. Native bluetooth functionality and performance smooth as silk.

I don't have confidence to do this myself. If someone is in the SF Bay Area and want to help me out, let me know. I'd prefer to pay someone to do this mod.

phototristan · Oct 23, 2013

I'm hoping Apple will release an update to Mavericks that brings back support of USB Bluetooth adapters.

phototristan · Oct 23, 2013

Update - I got my external USB Bluetooth receiver working by first turning off Bluetooth and then back on. Hopefully, Mavericks remembers it on the next start up.

matfinish · Jan 22, 2016

My Mac Pro 2009 works great. It sits on the floor under my desk. I added a track pad and wireless mouse a few years later. All of a sudden, the track pad was so jumpy I could not use it. The wireless mouse was opening folders all by itself. I read every forum on the subject, even changing out my very cool metal table top for a wood one. I finally climbed inside the Mac Pro and followed directions to swap out the mislabeled antenna wires. That seemed to help a lot, but there was still some erratic activity with the mouse and pad. After reading about 2.4 ghz interference being an issue with bluetooth, I looked inside the wireless router.
The Mac Pro is hardwired in at 5 ghz, but what I did not know is that the guest network ( automatically created ) is at 2.4ghz. I disabled the 2.4ghz network ( until someone needs it ) and problem solved. I should mention the router is in another room with a wall in the way.

ShawnF · Jan 23, 2016

sailmac said:
More photos

(Been meaning to post this. I know there are still quite a few 2008 Mac Pro users out there and some are bound to find this thread. Hope it helps.)

Last year I got tired of lousy Magic Mouse behavior when paired with the Mac Pro's internal bluetooth.

I tried the antenna cable switch described here. It made a significant improvement but still too disruptive when using graphics tools. The ultimate solution for me was to buy a RocketFish RF-MRBTAD bluetooth dongle for $5 on eBay. It's plugged into a USB port on the back of my monitor and works great!

The dongle automatically disables the internal bluetooth. Some people use Apple's developer tools to confirm this, but I simply looked at System Profiler's bluetooth info for Incoming/Outgoing serial ports --- the RFCOMM channels become different.

Anyhow, while doing the antenna cable swap I took pictures and decided to post them here as reference. My system does not have a wifi card so the internals and original wiring location looked slightly different than in the OP's photo.

Photo #1 the top arrow points to the bundle of unused antenna cables. You can see one of them has a '2' tag attached. The cables are almost hidden underneath the motherboard so might be easy to overlook. The bottom red arrow points to the factory-connected BT antenna cable.

Photo #2 the top arrow points to the antenna bundle after I fished it out from behind the board. The bottom arrow again points to the BT cable --- the tag got twisted while fishing.

Photo #3 the arrow points to a piece of black tape that needs to be undone in order to separate the bundle of unused antenna wires. If you're careful you can re-use it to bundle up again when the swap is finished.

Tip: be patient when removing and attaching cables to the BT card, and be sure to use an appropriate tool (spudger or similar).

Photo #4 the top arrow shows where I tucked the rebundled unused antenna cables. The bottom arrow shows the '1' antenna now attached to the BT card.

Hi! My Mac Pro is a 2009 model. So basically what I need to do is simply swap the antenna labelled BT with antenna labelled #1? is that correct?

sailmac · Jan 23, 2016

Yikes, my memory is fuzzy regarding the simple antenna cable swap. But yes, at the time I swapped BT and #1.

It's been 3 years since I made the post you quoted. Since then I've done an external antenna mod and also upgraded the WiFi/BT.

You might get lucky just by swapping the cables, but for many users (me included) it wasn't enough. Running an external antenna to the card completely resolved the problem. It wasn't too difficult nor too expensive. Trouble-free ever since.

ShawnF · Jan 24, 2016

sailmac said:
Yikes, my memory is fuzzy regarding the simple antenna cable swap. But yes, at the time I swapped BT and #1.

It's been 3 years since I made the post you quoted. Since then I've done an external antenna mod and also upgraded the WiFi/BT.

You might get lucky just by swapping the cables, but for many users (me included) it wasn't enough. Running an external antenna to the card completely resolved the problem. It wasn't too difficult nor too expensive. Trouble-free ever since.

OK I'll give it a shot. For info, I have also bought the new Wifi AC and Bluetooth 4.0 combo card. It's working except that my keyboard gets disconnected from time to time. I'm not sure if that is the lousy BT coverage or interference from my Asus USB 3.1 card. So going to eliminate one at a time.

zoomfinder · Jan 25, 2016

Fantastic!!! The famous cable swapping trick worked for me with my Mac Pro 3,1 and a little Magic Mouse is back and alive! Thanks for the person who thought up this ingenious workaround.

ShawnF · Jan 30, 2016

Much better Bluetooth experience after the cable swap on my Mac Pro 4.1 -> 5.1 flashed. I think I will stick to this configuration.

Thanks all for the assist!

macmesser · Feb 11, 2016

I have an '09 MP flashed to 5,1 and am getting choppy BT performance with Apple magic trackpad. Machine does not have wifi but it does have a separate usb BT transmitter for Wacom tablet. Could there be interference or could the USB BT adapter be connecting to the trackpad? I'm wondering what happens if usb BT adapter is added: does it work in addition to native BT? Should Apple BT be turned off? Will two active BT transceivers cause problems?

ShawnF · Feb 11, 2016

macmesser said:
I have an '09 MP flashed to 5,1 and am getting choppy BT performance with Apple magic trackpad. Machine does not have wifi but it does have a separate usb BT transmitter for Wacom tablet. Could there be interference or could the USB BT adapter be connecting to the trackpad? I'm wondering what happens if usb BT adapter is added: does it work in addition to native BT? Should Apple BT be turned off? Will two active BT transceivers cause problems?

By choppy do you mean laggy performance or constant disconnections?

My setup has a single BT 4.0 and both my Varmillo BT keyboard and Magic Trackpad (version 1) are now performing near perfection without any disconnections after the cable swap trick.

Have you tried using the Wacom BT to connect to your Trackpad. The most complete way of disabling the Apple BT module is to simply unplug the power cable inside the chassis. Then reboot and see if you get any improvements using just the Wacom BT module.

macmesser · Feb 12, 2016

ShawnF said:
By choppy do you mean laggy performance or constant disconnections?

My setup has a single BT 4.0 and both my Varmillo BT keyboard and Magic Trackpad (version 1) are now performing near perfection without any disconnections after the cable swap trick.

Have you tried using the Wacom BT to connect to your Trackpad. The most complete way of disabling the Apple BT module is to simply unplug the power cable inside the chassis. Then reboot and see if you get any improvements using just the Wacom BT module.

Thanks for reply. Laggy performance and constant disconnections. No, haven't tried using the Wacom adapter. I didn't know whether or not usb and Apple BT operated together. For instance, the Wacom tablet does not show up at all in BT setup. I assume tablet drivers grab it and block it from showing up and also keep other devices from using it.If I disable internal BT will Mac OS BT prefs be no longer available or will they simply apply to the USB BT? Will turning off BT in prefs apply only to internal Apple BT?

macmesser · Feb 13, 2016

ShawnF said:
By choppy do you mean laggy performance or constant disconnections?

My setup has a single BT 4.0 and both my Varmillo BT keyboard and Magic Trackpad (version 1) are now performing near perfection without any disconnections after the cable swap trick.

Have you tried using the Wacom BT to connect to your Trackpad. The most complete way of disabling the Apple BT module is to simply unplug the power cable inside the chassis. Then reboot and see if you get any improvements using just the Wacom BT module.

What brand of BT 4.0 are you using? I'm going to disconnect my internal BT and just go with the USB adapter but I have seen posts which indicate not all brands work correctly or have Mac drivers. The Wacom BT might be dedicated; I'll have to check with them. If Wacom will work with generic adapter I'll simply use that one.

ShawnF · Feb 13, 2016

macmesser said:
What brand of BT 4.0 are you using? I'm going to disconnect my internal BT and just go with the USB adapter but I have seen posts which indicate not all brands work correctly or have Mac drivers. The Wacom BT might be dedicated; I'll have to check with them. If Wacom will work with generic adapter I'll simply use that one.

I am using the original Apple Airport AC and BT 4.0 combo card. Got it from ebay - the seller pulled it from an iMac. The card is similar to the ones sold by OSX Wifi and MacVidCards so works natively on OSX. Works fine in Windows 7 too, just in case you plan to use on Bootcamp.

macmesser · Feb 18, 2016

ShawnF said:
I am using the original Apple Airport AC and BT 4.0 combo card. Got it from ebay - the seller pulled it from an iMac. The card is similar to the ones sold by OSX Wifi and MacVidCards so works natively on OSX. Works fine in Windows 7 too, just in case you plan to use on Bootcamp.

Thanks Shawn. Will see if I can find one.

fastlanephil · Feb 18, 2016

ShawnF said:
I am using the original Apple Airport AC and BT 4.0 combo card. Got it from ebay - the seller pulled it from an iMac. The card is similar to the ones sold by OSX Wifi and MacVidCards so works natively on OSX. Works fine in Windows 7 too, just in case you plan to use on Bootcamp.

I tried one of those that came from China. It did seem to funtion and showed up in the About info but my Mac Pro couldn't find my Magic Mouse or Apple wireless keyboard. So I went the external antenna route which works but I was still losing the connection once in a while mainly with my keyboard because it sits on the keys of my piano controller I guess. On hind sight I'm not sure if I tried disconnecting and rediscovering the mouse and keyboard with the pulled Apple wifi/BT 4.0 card. I might give it another shot as I still have the card. It's a little stressful working with such small connectors but a pretty straight forward procedure.

I also have an inexpensive BT 4.0 USB dongle which sits on one of my display stands so it's a clear shot to my keyboard and my mouse. You need to download Apples Bluetooth Explorer software so you can select the BT dongle and you also have to register as an Apple developer which was easy enough and no legal fine print. I use this most of the time but I have to switch back to the Apple BT 2.0/external antenna if I boot into Windows 7 because it dosen't work with Windows and you also have to reset the SMC on the Mac to get the mouse and keyboard back after booting back to OSX.

I've never had any issues the the Apple mouse or keyboard using Apple's BT 2.0 card/external antenna while in Windows 7.

macmesser · Feb 26, 2016

fastlanephil said:
I tried one of those that came from China. It did seem to funtion and showed up in the About info but my Mac Pro couldn't find my Magic Mouse or Apple wireless keyboard. So I went the external antenna route which works but I was still losing the connection once in a while mainly with my keyboard because it sits on the keys of my piano controller I guess. On hind sight I'm not sure if I tried disconnecting and rediscovering the mouse and keyboard with the pulled Apple wifi/BT 4.0 card. I might give it another shot as I still have the card. It's a little stressful working with such small connectors but a pretty straight forward procedure.

I also have an inexpensive BT 4.0 USB dongle which sits on one of my display stands so it's a clear shot to my keyboard and my mouse. You need to download Apples Bluetooth Explorer software so you can select the BT dongle and you also have to register as an Apple developer which was easy enough and no legal fine print. I use this most of the time but I have to switch back to the Apple BT 2.0/external antenna if I boot into Windows 7 because it dosen't work with Windows and you also have to reset the SMC on the Mac to get the mouse and keyboard back after booting back to OSX.

I've never had any issues the the Apple mouse or keyboard using Apple's BT 2.0 card/external antenna while in Windows 7.

Thanks for reply. I'll get BT Explorer. I just switched a dongle and need to delete bt devices and add again. I think if the dongle has broadcom chip it will just work with apple.

CapnDavey · Mar 1, 2016

This works my friend Guy did it on his 3,1 now he can use his keyboard and mouse in the next room

Howto: Fix for Bluetooth Problems in Mac Pro

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