Fix for poorly performing Magic Mouse on some Mac Pros
May 19, '10 07:30:00AM • Contributed by: watts
May 19, '10 07:30:00AM • Contributed by: watts
When the Magic Mouse came out, I was first in line at the Apple Store to try (and then buy) the heroic rodent that would spare me the aggravation of the Mighty Mouse. It worked fine at the store, but when I got home and tried it on my Mac Pro 1,1 machine, my unit was jumpy and stuttery -- essentially unusable. I read some reports on the Internet about how to make it work better using a USB Bluetooth module. I was just about to buy one when I found the suggestion below.
It turns out that the Magic Mouse is fine, it's the Mac Pro that has problems. This issue is not, as is commonly reported, that the metal case of the Mac Pro impedes the signal. In fact, the antennae are hooked up incorrectly in many of the units.
This is where I found the steps below:
A number of Mac Pros were shipped with the antennas incorrectly connected which led to many users to have Bluetooth connection problems. They were incorrectly connected as follows:
I checked my motherboard and in fact, mine were incorrectly connected as listed above.
I powered down and reconnected the cables as follows:
[crarko adds: I haven't tested this one. We previously ran this hint and Kirk McElhearn documented the issue here. Since there are a lot of folks buying the Magic Mouse now, not knowing there is a general Bluetooth issue with these Macs, it seemed worthwhile to repeat it for the specific case here, if people are searching for the Magic Mouse.]
It turns out that the Magic Mouse is fine, it's the Mac Pro that has problems. This issue is not, as is commonly reported, that the metal case of the Mac Pro impedes the signal. In fact, the antennae are hooked up incorrectly in many of the units.
This is where I found the steps below:
A number of Mac Pros were shipped with the antennas incorrectly connected which led to many users to have Bluetooth connection problems. They were incorrectly connected as follows:
- Antenna '1' connects to the top connector of the AirPort module.
- Antenna '2' remains unconnected.
- Antenna '3' connects to the bottom connector of the AirPort module.
- Antenna 'BT' connects to the Bluetooth module.
I checked my motherboard and in fact, mine were incorrectly connected as listed above.
I powered down and reconnected the cables as follows:
- Antenna '1' connects to the Bluetooth module (if present).
- Antenna '2' connects to the upper airport module (if present).
- Antenna '3' connects to the lower airport module (if present).
- Antenna 'BT' remains unconnected.
[crarko adds: I haven't tested this one. We previously ran this hint and Kirk McElhearn documented the issue here. Since there are a lot of folks buying the Magic Mouse now, not knowing there is a general Bluetooth issue with these Macs, it seemed worthwhile to repeat it for the specific case here, if people are searching for the Magic Mouse.]
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