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rondocap

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 18, 2011
527
307
So I've searched and found out that the bluetooth problem, with my Magic Mouse and Mac Pro 1.1 tracking issues, is common and a result of mismatched wires.

So, before my airport card was working fine and my wireless connection was good, but my mouse was skipping.

I had the #1 wire in the top airport slot, the #3 below it, and the BT label to the bluetooth card. The #2 wire was loose.

As per what the forum said, the #1 should go to the bluetooth module, the #2 to the top of the airport card, and the BT labeled wire should be hanging free.

I did this, and while it did solve my bluetooth problem, my airport wireless starting to act up. It would connect to the internet, but then pages would not loading and the connection would die and lag out.

What gives? I returned it to what it was before, and my airport is working fine now but my mouse has the bluetooth problems.

I even tried putting the #2 wire to the bluetooth, and the #1 and #2 on the airport, and while it worked, for bluetooth, the airport was still bad. #3 does not reach the bluetooth card.

What can I do?
 

rondocap

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 18, 2011
527
307
Ok, so I've tried pretty much every combination of wires - and either I get wifi working great, and bluetooth bad - or bluetooth working great and wifi bad.

It seems like wire #1 is needed for wifi to function well, but it is also needed for the bluetooth to work! No one of the other wires seem to have the same affect.

Any ideas?
 

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,612
6,907
I am not 100% sure about this, but I think the antennas are all the same type because both bluetooth and wi-fi use the same frequency. What little I remember of my HAM radio days is that same frequency = same antenna. Well, you can have different antenna designs too, but these all seem to be simple wire with identical connectors.

So really you don't have two wi-fi antennas and one bluetooth antenna, you have three 2.4GHz antennas, each going to a different location in the case, maybe top, front, and back (not necessarily in that order).

If this is all true, then the real solution here is to move an antenna from a location in the case that isn't working to a location that is.

Alternatively, you can wire it to get wi-fi working, then get a bluetooth USB dongle. This is what many people do.

Ideally of course you'd run wired Ethernet to your computer because it's much faster, more reliable, and more secure than wi-fi.
 

cal6n

macrumors 68020
Jul 25, 2004
2,096
273
Gloucester, UK
What worked (and is still working) for me is:

  • Wire 1 connected to bluetooth card.
  • Wires 2 & 3 connected to airport card. I don't think the polarity matters but try both ways.
  • BT wire disconnected.
 

MacinJosh

macrumors 6502a
Jan 29, 2006
676
55
Finland
I just received my AP and BT modules today and installed them. I immediately put 2 & 3 to the AP and 1 to BT.

AP works fantastic.

BT works but how do I check the strength? I only have an iPhone to test it on.
 

rondocap

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 18, 2011
527
307
For some reason 2 and 3 on the Airport would not work well for me, I needed #1 to the Airport. That's the key # for me, it is what makes either the bluetooth or airport work well, so I can only choose one.
 
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