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Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / February 2006Poor BT mouse performance on pBook?
Hi all, Anyone else have issues using a Bluetooth mouse on their PowerBook? I've tried three different Bluetooth mice with my 1GHz 12" pBook, all with the same very inaccurate results. Fast movements (eg, trying to get from the corner of one screen to another) are the worst, being almost random in nature. I've tried two of the Targus Bluetooth mini-mice and now an Omiz Bluetooth mini-mouse (which is a really nice little unit), all three with the same results. All three mice work fine with the two other machines I've got and I used to use a Bluetake BT-500 bluetooth mini-mouse on my old G3 iBook 900 with-out any problems. Tried blowing away all my Bluetooth settings (by manually deleting the .plist flie), different types of batteries, trying in different locations and turning off _everything_ within a 30 metre radius that might cause interference in an effort to rule it out. I'm running the latest OS (10.4.5) and latest Bluetooth software and firmware. Anyone have any suggestions or is this common in the 12" pBook? :-/ Cheers, Paul  SignaturePaul Day Web: http://www.bur.st/~paul/ > Anyone else have issues using a Bluetooth mouse on their PowerBook? I've used an Apple bluetooth mouse on my 17" PowerBook for a year. It has worked flawlessly in terms of accuracy. Occasionally it is a bit finicky when it comes to establishing a connection, and this is solved by holding up the mouse and opening and closing the trap door -- don't ask! I do use one of those fiber finished mouse pads. One thing I recall reading, and I'm sorry but I couldn't find a reference just now, is to make sure that the AA batteries used are the 1.5 volt kind and not the 1.3 volt kind. SignatureJames Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesinsoft@mac.com I've been real pleased with the Logitech BT mouse on my PB. I did have to manually tweak the preference file to get the speed I want. -- Gnarlie >> Anyone else have issues using a Bluetooth mouse on their PowerBook? > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > but I couldn't find a reference just now, is to make sure that the AA > batteries used are the 1.5 volt kind and not the 1.3 volt kind. Alkalines are only 1.5v at the beginning, they drop off quickly. Signatureclear skies, Joe http://mysite.verizon.net/jringer3/astro1.htm > >> Anyone else have issues using a Bluetooth mouse on their PowerBook? > > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > but I couldn't find a reference just now, is to make sure that the AA > > batteries used are the 1.5 volt kind and not the 1.3 volt kind. I suspect that "the 1.5 volt kind" refers to alkaline (or perhaps Lithium) batteries and "the 1.3 volt kind" refers to NiCd or NimH rechargeable batteries (which are nominally 1.25V per cell) > Alkalines are only 1.5v at the beginning, they drop off quickly. The discharge curve is not necessarily the most important thing here. I know people who use NiCd batteries in their BT mice, and those who use alkalines. The important thing is to use batteries that give enough voltage to ensure proper function. Typically the mouse's manual will have something to say about it, though sometimes the mouse can be more sensitive than the documentation suggests. This sensitivity (and power consumption in general) seems to vary between brands of mouse. Changing battery chemistry (e.g. to Lithium batteries, which have the highest initial voltage, and are better for high-drain devices) might help the OP, and it's not that expensive of a test (though it can add up over time...one reason to prefer a USB mouse) at this stage. It's also possible that the problem lies in the PB somewhere and not in the mouse. Attempting to use the same BT mouse with a different computer is helpful there. SignatureLater, John johajohn@indianahoosiers.edu 'indiana' is a 'nolnn' and 'hoosier' is a 'solkk'. Indiana doesn't solkk. > Hi all, > > Anyone else have issues using a Bluetooth mouse on their PowerBook? Same machine as yours. Apple BT mouse. It works fine. It is a bit picky about surface. Plain matt white card works best. SignatureTo de-mung my e-mail address:- fsnospam$elliott$$ PGP Fingerprint: 1A96 3CF7 637F 896B C810 E199 7E5C A9E4 8E59 E248 > Apple BT mouse. It works fine. > It is a bit picky about surface. Plain matt white card works best. I'm currently using a Fellowes Microban mouse pad. To me it provides a smoothness to mouse movements that is missing if the mouse is on a hard surface. On the other hand my significant other hates the thing. Different strokes! SignatureJames Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesinsoft@mac.com > > Apple BT mouse. It works fine. > > It is a bit picky about surface. Plain matt white card works best. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > surface. On the other hand my significant other hates the thing. Different > strokes! What I meant to say was that some fancy mousemats, meant for mechanical meeces, make some optical mice behave erratically as you described. SignatureTo de-mung my e-mail address:- fsnospam$elliott$$ PGP Fingerprint: 1A96 3CF7 637F 896B C810 E199 7E5C A9E4 8E59 E248 > What I meant to say was that some fancy mousemats, meant for mechanical > meeces, make some optical mice behave erratically as you described. Erratic behaviour is one thing, erotic is another! SignatureJames Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesinsoft@mac.com > Anyone have any suggestions or is this common in the 12" pBook? :-/ Bluetake 500 works fine with my 12" PB. The issues you're reporting sound more like general optical tracking problems, not specific to bluetooth. I see this kind of thing occasionally with an optical usb mouse on the nifty holographic trackpad I bought at the Guggenheim. By contrast, I only use the Bluetake on conference room tables and the like. > Hi all, > > Anyone else have issues using a Bluetooth mouse on their PowerBook? I have Macally BTMicro I'm using with my iBook and it worked well, but after updateing to 10.4.5 it starting acting as you describe. I played around with the iMousefix and that seemed to clear it up? PS. Once straighten out I was able to ditch iMousefix. Signatureclear skies, Joe http://mysite.verizon.net/jringer3/astro1.htm |
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