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Bluetooth mice are conveniently cordless, but it’s very frustrating when they lose their connection. Read on as we troubleshoot a reader’s Windows laptop and help them keep their mouse awake and in communication with their computer.
Dear How-To Geek,
I’m so annoyed with my mouse I’m about to switch back to a full size corded model. I bought a Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 about six months ago and started using it with my Windows 7 laptop. Don’t get me wrong, the mouse itself is great and I have no issue with it.
What I do have an issue with is that Windows will randomly fail to see the mouse. No amount of trouble shooting will fix it, short of outright removing the mouse from the Devices menu and then re-syncing it. This happens every other day. I can’t just turn the mouse on and off, I have to full out “re-install it,” if you will.
The mouse in question is very highly reviewed and everyone seems to love it (and I’d love it too if it weren’t for this connectivity issue). Barring that my actual mouse is defective and there’s no fixing it, what can I do to remedy the situation?
Sincerely,
Mouse Frustrated
If ever there was an email to motivate us to get around to fixing a problem with one of our infrequently used laptops, this is it. For months we’ve been meaning to take a moment to troubleshoot an identical problem: we too have a Windows 7 laptop laying around the office that frequently forgets it has a little Bluetooth friend. Now that your email has lit a fire under us, let’s boot up the ole laptop in question and document the troubleshooting steps required to remedy the situation.
Update Your Drivers
Most Bluetooth mice don’t have their own individual drivers and simply use the default drivers for a Windows Bluetooth/HID compliant device. That said, the first stop should always be to check for device drivers by searching for the devices name and your operating system. In the case of the Microsoft mouse you’re using there are no device-specific drivers as it uses the generic Windows ones.
There’s a good chance your Bluetooth radio itself, however, (whether you have an on-board one or a dongle) has drivers. There’s also a good chance that they’re out of date. Before attempting the manual fixes we’re about to outline you should ensure you have the most current drivers for your Bluetooth radio. If you’re using generic Windows drivers for the Bluetooth radio you’ll likely find several of the settings you need to toggle will be unavailable.
Enable Automatic Bluetooth Services
The first stop on the troubleshooting trail is the Services menu. Open your Windows start menu and type “Services” in the search box or hit WIN+R and type “services.msc” in the run dialog box to launch the Services menu. Sort the columns by name and look for the “Bluetooth Support Service” entry.
Right click on that entry and select “Properties.” In the Properties menu look for the “Startup type” entry under the “General” tab.
Switch the type to “Automatic” and hit apply. Close the Services menu.
Disable Bluetooth Power Management
The updated drivers and the Services tweak are moving us in the right direction. Now it’s time to finish the job. While poor drivers or poor Service management may have been the culprits, it’s also possible that your laptop is aggressively managing the power for Bluetooth devices and, in the process, dropping the Bluetooth connection.
Fire up the device manager by typing “Device Manager” in the Start Menu search box or by pressing WIN+R and typing “devmgmt.msc” in the run dialog box.
Checking the Device Manager is going to be the most tedious part of resolving this problem. You need to look down through the sections of the Device Manager for any mention of a Bluetooth device and/or mouse and check the properties of each instance. Look under “Bluetooth Radios,” “Mice and other pointing devices,” and “System devices.” What you’re looking for is “Power Management” tabs like this one.
Any instance of “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” should be unchecked. You absolutely do not want to allow the computer to turn off either the Bluetooth radio or the attached Bluetooth devices to save power as this is the primary cause of the un-syncing issue you’re seeing with your mouse. In addition to checking through everything for anything Bluetooth related don’t neglect the USB section at the bottom if you have a mouse connected via any kind of USB dongle. If you do, you’ll have to comb through the USB devices listed in the “Universal Serial Bus controllers” section to ensure that the computer isn’t set to turn off USB ports/hubs to save power (which would cause communication problems with the USB-powered dongle and the mouse).
After you’ve updated the drivers, toggled the Services, and unchecked the power management options, reboot your computer. If you’re not enjoying interruption free mouse use at this point we’d strongly recommend finding another Bluetooth mouse to test the system with to rule out a faulty mouse and/or Bluetooth dongle.
Have a pressing tech question? Shoot us an email at [email protected] and we’ll do our best to answer it.
This mouse is a 'low-power bluetooth' device. Supposedly this uses HOGP instead of HID.
I have found responses that say you need bluez 5.x. Well Ubuntu 15.10 has bluez 5.35 but it doesn't work. When you try to make a connection, it identifies the mouse as 'any device' and won't connect. I have a Surface Pro3 running either the distributed kernel for Ubuntu 15.10 or a more useful kernel that I have built myself based on a patched linux 4.3--the mouse behavior is the same for either. THe hardware is by Marvell. The mouse works perfectly when used in the Windows 8.1 partition.
Keith McClelland
Keith McClellandKeith McClelland
8 Answers
The solution was described here in comment #9: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bluez/+bug/1510570
In few words:
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Andrey SapozhnikovAndrey Sapozhnikov
Just wanted to add to the Andrey's Answer. If you disable the rule, the bluetooth is not active on the login screen. Even though in launchapd they say 5.35 removes the problem, I still experienced it. Anyway if you are like me using BT keyboard to log in, you might want to do as Andrey say and then reboot and remove the comment in the
/lib/udev/rules.d/50-bluetooth-hci-auto-poweron.rules then reboot and the mouse is still connected.
NickNick
On Ubuntu 15.10 (on Lenovo yoga 13) I was able to get Microsoft Design mouse working directly around the first couple weeks since the 15.10 release.. I think I was issuing some commands directly into the bluetoothctl utility to discover/pair the mouse instead of usual desktop GUI (I was having issue with my bluetooth driver that had a bug). The steps were these as I recall:
I've used Design mouse for many weeks now - it works fine, but have a different issue - if I don't use the mouse for like 10 minutes then it become 'turned off'. I can turn it back on from the desktop bluetooth menu and it'd work fine as long as I keep it active. Alternatively, you can turn it on from bluetoothctl command utility once it goes to sleep, e.g.
You can write a bash script and run it from a keyboard shortcut, but still I wish it'd get fixed soon.
p.s. This works without hacking the udev rules and bluez conf file.
BillBill
I've tried everything written before without success; but I was able to get the Microsoft Designer mouse working using blueman. After installed I needed to play with it a little bit, but it works!. Remember after restarting you have to initiate blueman and just click on the Desiner Mouse option to connect it properly.BTW, using blueman the mouse doesn't stop every 10 minutes; but now I have some problems on WIFI speed :(
PanoramixPanoramix
I similar thread on a MacOS forum solved this for me:
Basically the designer mouse will only work if it's the first BT device.
Paul StevensPaul Stevens
Just want to add another success story. NOTHING worked until I removed all Bluetooth devices, rebooted, used Setup new device utility in Blueman. Works perfect now. No issues.
Works on 16.04LTS using same meathod as well
Kevin SchmidtKevin Schmidt
As others have said, workarounds can be found here:https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bluez/+bug/1510570
There seems to be several ways and several combinations to work around the problem in the page described.
Adding to Andrey's answer, comment #27 on the page describes the following:
Many thanks to all involved. Helped me a bunch !
meetloaf_newbmeetloaf_newb
Okay. I have searched every where and finally did the same thing as what was described in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bluez/+bug/1510570after you follow those steps, be sure to open the bluetooth manager, select the mouse and the keyboard, and delete those connections. take the batteries out of both and put them back in to hard reset the devices, then turn them both on in pairing mode (intermittent flashing, 1 sec on, 1 sec off), and search for new devices on the bluetooth manager. While the device is still in pairing mode with the flashing light, select it and press the setup button. If you wait too long the devices won't be in pairing mode anymore and you might have to start over to get it to work.
baldguy99baldguy99
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The operation of the mouse and pointing system in graphic operating systems is one of the more important aspects to having a smooth experience when using your computer. Even though Apple and other computer manufacturers are incorporating more multitouch options for interacting with computers, the mouse and pointer is still one of the primary options for managing the system. If something is wrong with the mouse pointer and you get jumpy or erratic behavior, then this can really impede on your ability to use your system. Generally if this happens you can quickly fix it by running through some basic troubleshooting steps.
The first thing to do whenever you experience tracking problems, either with the cursor jumping or pausing, is to clean the mouse. While cleaning used to be a primary concern for mechanical ball mice, optical mice can still be affected by dirt. Recently a significant amount of skipping behavior in one of my optical mice was fixed by removing a large wad of lint that had been lodged in the optical sensor's hole. Using a clean and lint-free cloth or Q-Tip, wipe the sensor lens.
The second thing to do when troubleshooting a mouse skipping is to check the tracking surface. While optical mice have advanced to be able to track on most surfaces, some still have troubles, especially with soft, transparent, or uneven surfaces. Try using the mouse on a flat, opaque, and slightly textured surface (a plastic cutting board usually works great) to see if the tracking improves, and if so then try using a new tracking surface.
Microsoft Designer Mouse Pairing
You may also want to check how the mouse is connected to the computer. If the mouse is wired, check the cable by moving it around to different positions to see if the skipping behaviors stop (this may be especially true if the mouse only skips when in certain positions).
If your mouse is wireless, if your Bluetooth or Wi-Fi interfaces for the mouse are not working properly, then the mouse could start skipping. Usually this happens if reception is lost either because of interference, faults in the mouse's transmitter, or faults in the computer's receiver.
To test for reception, try physically moving the mouse closer to the computer to see if you can pick up better reception. In addition, try checking for any nearby electronics and move them or move the computer away from them to see if that helps. Bluetooth and other Wi-Fi devices use the 2.4GHz radio frequency, which is popular among numerous devices and therefore may contain a lot of noise and interference.
Another aspect to consider for wireless devices is batteries. If the battery on your mouse is running out then you can not only have shorter reception range but the device may regularly go into sleep mode or even shut off altogether. If this happens, the mouse may pause on the screen, so try replacing the batteries or charging your mouse if you have one with a recharging dock.
For any mouse system, use only one input device. The pointer in OS X will sum the input it gets from any pointing device, so if you are using one device and inadvertently touch another device, then the cursor may migrate around the screen in unexpected ways. One area where this has happened is when people have several Bluetooth travel mice that they have left on. In some cases if a mouse is in a drawer and the sensor is barely picking up a surface underneath it, if your computer is in range of the mouse it will pick up the mouse's attempts to track and move the cursor accordingly. Another more common dual-pointer setup is for systems that have both Apple's magic trackpad and a mouse (laptops as well as desktops that have the Bluetooth version of the trackpad).
To overcome problems with dual inputs, you will have to locate and remove them from the system. Check your Bluetooth settings to see if you have any actively paired pointing devices, and also check to see if any are physically plugged into the system. You can do this with the System Preferences, or you can check both the USB and Bluetooth sections in Apple's 'System Profiler' utility to see what devices are attached to your system.
The last way to test for mouse problems is to get a new one. If you have tried everything to stop odd behavior with your current devices and you cannot get it to stop, try using another mouse. Borrow one from a friend to see if the problems persist, and if not then just replacing your old mouse may be an easier and hassle-free option.
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I've just bought a Microsoft designer mouse which uses bluetooth to connect rather than a dongle, but for some reason my laptop simply won't recognise the device.
Pairing the devices didn't work via GUI so I opened a terminal, ran
bluetoothctl and then scan on but still can't see the MAC address of the mouse.
I've done some research into this and have seen suggestions to edit /etc/bluetooth/main.conf and have also tried this but still no joy. I've also tried to completely remove bluez and blueman and re-install, but it's still not working.
Have I made a boo boo in choosing this mouse?
Daemon4
Daemon4Daemon4
1 Answer
Microsoft Designer Mouse needs to have Bluetooth 4 to work, I bought this mouse a month ago and had to return it, because I had version < 4.
You can find your bluetooth version with command
hciconfig -a | grep HCI
See the (0xY) where Y is:
So you need at least HCI Version: ... (0x6) ... to make it work.
MikeMike
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