bluetoothkeyboardmacbook pro
I've got a 2009 wireless keyboard connecting to a 2012 Macbook Pro running El Capitan, and it's giving me serious lags; occasionally sticking; sometimes just disconnecting.
Things I've tried thus far include
and nothing seems to solve the problem. Any thoughts on this? Am I doomed? What's the next troubleshooting step?
Thanks!
Have you tried Change Keyboard Type in System Preferences -> Keyboard?
There is a lot of pain, but you have all the tools you need to isolate the issue:
It is important to get a totally clean install of the three items above. You can then use a notebook to write down the exact times and OS when Bluetooth if flakey. If it's really the software drivers, you will have statistical evidence of that after 10 to 20 data points. The down side of this, troubleshooting like this is expensive time-wise and we don't ever get that time back.
I hate to throw hardware at an issue, but wired devices or upgrading to Apple's newer hardware have helped in areas where I had clients with noisy 2.4 Ghz environments. The new hardware is Bluetooth low energy and superior to the old devices in terms of resilience and the amount of time to link back up when they inevitably disconnect. As a bonus, they work over USB in the case of the new "magic" keyboard and trackpad devices. Other third party options also exist with transmitters that don't depend on the Bluetooth stack.
Make a "budget" for your troubleshooting effort and buy a solution that you could return if it doesn't solve our issue. Since it happens so often, you should be able to know with Apple’s 14 day return window if the new hardware will solve your pain. (And if it's cheaper once you put a $ value on your time to troubleshoot the issue further.)
Also, this answer to the above question has some critical information on using the debug menu to factory reset things. You might try each of these (writing down what you do and when - leaving a little time between each option) to see if a reset helps. The logging and diagnostic report will also help if you need to engage Apple support to troubleshoot the issue. Sometimes looking at the logs has helped me identify a failure.
Best of luck - I'm curious what you find out.
Best Answer
Without being cheeky, it could just be a sign of age. The keyboard itself is 9 years old and the MBP is 6 years old.
You did well to get so long out of the keyboard, but I wouldn't be too sure what specifically could be wrong with it or if it would be worth fixing.
I wouldn't rule out a hardware problem caused by 9 years of usage.