I mentioned earlier that I’ve been having some problems with mouse freezes (and now, subsequently, occasional loss of keyboard connectivity) on my new Mac Mini. I’m using the Apple wireless keyboard and mouse, both of which are based on Bluetooth. A rep at my local Apple store suggested that this might be a hardware problem with the Bluetooth chip; I really, really doubt this as hardware is seldom the problem these days. I think there’s a driver issue, but that’s not the root of the matter. I am beginning to suspect that interference from the multitude of WLANs I run in the office is the real source of the trouble here, coupled with Bluetooth drivers that don’t deal well with loss of connectivity under conditions of significant interference from higher-power sources, like 802.11n.
I’ve never been a fan of using Bluetooth for keyboard and mouse applications anyway, precisely because of the potential for this problem, which I verified experimentally years ago. Sure, I can move the Mac to 5 GHz., but I’m still going to be running a number of 2.4 GHz. networks for the foreseeable future. What’s needed is to put the keyboard and mouse on another set of frequencies (meaning the use of something other than Bluetooth regardless), or for Apple to enhance their drivers. But I suspect few people will see this problem very often, at least if I’m right about the cause. After all, how many people have five APs within a few meters of their primary PC?
I replaced my .11n connection the Mac with wire recently and – you guessed it – whereas before I was suffering from mouse freezes three times a day, the incidence is now down to once a week, with no problems at all in the past five days or so. The issue with the mouse is easily fixed – just use the power button on the Mini to put it to sleep and then immediately wake it back up by pressing the shift key or moving the mosue. Voilá – the mouse works just fine. Should the keyboard lose its connection, however, the process is much more time-consuming, as one needs to wait while the setup dialog is restarted from scratch.
Anybody know of a good (and small) wireless keyboard/mouse for the Mac that doesn’t use 2.4 GHz.?
