Mac – Internal Bluetooth Failed in Mac Pro

bluetoothmac promouse

I have a dual quad-core Mac Pro bought in July 2008 (2.8GHz Xeon processors, 16GB RAM). Not the latest model. But the internal Bluetooth never worked very well and finally quit completely (after the one-year warranty expired, of course). I didn't care too much because I didn't like the Bluetooth mouse I had and didn't mind using the USB Mighty Mouse that came with it.

Well, the Mighty Mouse trackball died for good (no amount of cleaning has restored its ability to scroll down a page, though it scrolls up just fine) and the only new mouse I could get from Apple was the Magic Mouse. So I bought a 3rd-party USB Bluetooth dongle, which works OK, but occasionally disconnects my mouse for a while and sometimes requires me to use the USB mouse to reconnect it via the Bluetooth menu. Also I experience periods of latency that are intensely frustrating, especially when gaming.

I Googled extensively and found diagrams of the internal Bluetooth. I examined the Bluetooth chip on the motherboard and found a wire was loose. I reconnected the wire but I still can't get the internal Bluetooth to work at all. I located a solution that would require soldering, but the diagram showed didn't look exactly like my setup, so I gave it a pass (I balk at soldering my motherboard anyway).

I hear there were problems with the Bluetooth on my model, but obviously they are not going to get fixed for free by Apple. So, on to my specific questions:

  1. Is there anything I can do to get the native Bluetooth working short of paying to have Apple fix it?
  2. If I did get the native Bluetooth working, would it be any better than the 3rd-party alternatives?
  3. Is latency something you just have to live with when using a Bluetooth mouse?
  4. Does anyone sell new or reconditioned (perfectly) USB Mighty Mouses? I haven't been able to find any online except used models.

Best Answer

Your question contains a myriads of questions, but let me try to give you a hint on some.

  1. Possibly not, unless you can find a way to fix it, Apple will happily charge you fix it for you.

  2. I don't know if it will be better, but I know that the BT on that machine works ok. And that's because I have the exact same model. Mac Pro early 2008 with Dual Quad-Core Xeons in it.

  3. Yes and no. I've used the (included) Mighty mouse for a week. I hated it and simply gave it to a friend who liked it. There IS some latency in BT peripherals and there are some micro-disconnections that get fixed real fast, but if you're playing a FPS, you'll notice a small "it's not working" moment. Also, the less change the batteries have, the more this will happen. Same with the keyboard. You're typing and then ……… a couple of secs of nothing and then it works again. Sometimes you even get the "Disconnected" Bezel on screen.

  4. I can't help you with that. I absolutely hate mighty mice.

The plural of mouse is mice ;-)

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