Strange bluetoth problem

Nick Kaufman

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Aug 2, 2003
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I am stumped.

1. I am on Windows 7. For years I have had a Microsoft bluetooth mouse that I had it paired with a bluetooth dongle. It worked fine. About a week a ago, it stopped working. I tried everything to pair it again with bluetooth, no go.

2. I buy a new mouse, it arrives today. I try to pair it, doesn't work. Basically, I go through the steps of adding a new bluetooth device, the computer sees the mouse, goes through the process of connecting it, it says everything is fine, but at no point does the mouse work. Then after a couple of minutes, the mouse goes away from the bluetooth device list.

3. I try pairing my mice with my windows 10 laptop with an integrated bluetooth antenna, the process is seamless. I disable the internal antenna and use the bluetooth dongle, it works.

4. I go back to my computer, change the dongle to another USB port, still no go. Check my update history, find that on the day the dongle stopped working, there was an update on windows defender. i disable windows defender real time protection, doesn't make a difference.

5. I uninstalled and reinstalled the bluetooth software about 5 times using a couple of different versions, it hasn't made a difference.

What else can I do? Yes, I can go to windows 10 which has far better bluetooth support, but I have specific reasons for using Windows 7 and I don't want to do that.

it's just so strange that's something has been working for years and stops working just like that.

Any ideas?
 

SoxJox

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Dec 22, 2003
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Rock > SoxJox < Hard Place
Don't understand.

Windows 7 and BT mouse. Previously OK, now not OK.

New mouse pairing doesn't work on Windows 7. Suggests new mouse not optimized for older Windows version.

Windows 10 and pairing BT mouse on laptop. I assume this is a separate device (desktop or laptop)?

I would think it's not the BT software, but the OS itself. Why don't you just migrate everything to Windows 10?
 

Nick Kaufman

protector of human kind from spoilers
Lifetime Member
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Aug 2, 2003
13,410
A Lost Time
Don't understand.

Windows 7 and BT mouse. Previously OK, now not OK.

New mouse pairing doesn't work on Windows 7. Suggests new mouse not optimized for older Windows version.

Windows 10 and pairing BT mouse on laptop. I assume this is a separate device (desktop or laptop)?

I would think it's not the BT software, but the OS itself. Why don't you just migrate everything to Windows 10?
It's a windows 7 desktop and a win 10 laptop.

Old mouse worked for 4 years on win 7 desktop until a week ago. It's actually working fine on win 10 laptop as well.

My guess it's the OS as well, but nothing seems to have changed to warrant this.
 

The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa

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Sep 9, 2006
7,874
SS Botany Bay
I am stumped.

1. I am on Windows 7. For years I have had a Microsoft bluetooth mouse that I had it paired with a bluetooth dongle. It worked fine. About a week a ago, it stopped working. I tried everything to pair it again with bluetooth, no go.

2. I buy a new mouse, it arrives today. I try to pair it, doesn't work. Basically, I go through the steps of adding a new bluetooth device, the computer sees the mouse, goes through the process of connecting it, it says everything is fine, but at no point does the mouse work. Then after a couple of minutes, the mouse goes away from the bluetooth device list.

3. I try pairing my mice with my windows 10 laptop with an integrated bluetooth antenna, the process is seamless. I disable the internal antenna and use the bluetooth dongle, it works.

4. I go back to my computer, change the dongle to another USB port, still no go. Check my update history, find that on the day the dongle stopped working, there was an update on windows defender. i disable windows defender real time protection, doesn't make a difference.

5. I uninstalled and reinstalled the bluetooth software about 5 times using a couple of different versions, it hasn't made a difference.

What else can I do? Yes, I can go to windows 10 which has far better bluetooth support, but I have specific reasons for using Windows 7 and I don't want to do that.

it's just so strange that's something has been working for years and stops working just like that.

Any ideas?
Might be a simple OS or program breakdown? Prior to noticing the problem and doing mouse swaps, had anything been updated or changed recently (i.e. one of your programs autoupdated itself?)

So I was adamant about sticking with Windows 7 on my old Thinkpad T61 laptop, which I haven't used much lately but am very attached to. But it got to the point where it was becoming unusable with all the old bloatware, so I needed to start from scratch. I despise Windows 10, so I decided to try Windows 8.1 with the OpenShell addon, and it's been flawless. It avoids almost all that I hate about Windows 10, and it seems to preserve what I liked about Windows 7. And it will continue to be supported by Microsoft until January 2023.
 

Nick Kaufman

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Aug 2, 2003
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Might be a simple OS or program breakdown? Prior to noticing the problem and doing mouse swaps, had anything been updated or changed recently (i.e. one of your programs autoupdated itself?)

So I was adamant about sticking with Windows 7 on my old Thinkpad T61 laptop, which I haven't used much lately but am very attached to. But it got to the point where it was becoming unusable with all the old bloatware, so I needed to start from scratch. I despise Windows 10, so I decided to try Windows 8.1 with the OpenShell addon, and it's been flawless. It avoids almost all that I hate about Windows 10, and it seems to preserve what I liked about Windows 7. And it will continue to be supported by Microsoft until January 2023.
My main problem with Windows 10 -besides the bloatware, the spyware and the couple of new things I need to learn -is that the old version of a program I am using has a feature which is vital for me, which the Win 10 version does not have.

I checked which programs were installed or updated last week and the only likely culprit was a program called taskbar tweaker. I uninstalled and downgraded to an older version, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.
 

Couperin47

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SoSH Member
The problem is in part that Bluetooth sucks, the bandwidth is lousy (but not really important for a mouse), the range is even worse. Which is why BT went through versions 3.0 to current 5.0. 5 is better, but that's not what you have in that laptop I wager and, just to make things worse, almost all current BT mice are still just 3.0 'for compatibility'. The solution is get a cheap RF mouse, MUCH more stable. The one I use that is flawless is the MS Sculpt 1569. It is compact, which only matters if you have huge hands, 3 button (scroll wheel is center button), on/off switch, uses 1 AA that lasts a very long time, and self stores it's tiny USB receiver, but since it only protrudes 1/4" I never remove it from my laptop.

For whatever reason the Dark Blue model runs around $16 at Walmart, Staples, etc while the all Black version runs $24-26. Plug it in to any USB 2.0, no bullshit 'pairing' it just works with better range. Period.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sculpt-Mobile-Mouse/
Edit: forgot to add there's a 4th "Windows button" below the wheel and the wheel does both vertical and when tilted horizontal scroll. What more could you want for 16 bucks ?
 
Last edited:

Nick Kaufman

protector of human kind from spoilers
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Aug 2, 2003
13,410
A Lost Time
The problem is in part that Bluetooth sucks, the bandwidth is lousy (but not really important for a mouse), the range is even worse. Which is why BT went through versions 3.0 to current 5.0. 5 is better, but that's not what you have in that laptop I wager and, just to make things worse, almost all current BT mice are still just 3.0 'for compatibility'. The solution is get a cheap RF mouse, MUCH more stable. The one I use that is flawless is the MS Sculpt 1569. It is compact, which only matters if you have huge hands, 3 button (scroll wheel is center button), on/off switch, uses 1 AA that lasts a very long time, and self stores it's tiny USB receiver, but since it only protrudes 1/4" I never remove it from my laptop.

For whatever reason the Dark Blue model runs around $16 at Walmart, Staples, etc while the all Black version runs $24-26. Plug it in to any USB 2.0, no bullshit 'pairing' it just works with better range. Period.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sculpt-Mobile-Mouse/
Edit: forgot to add there's a 4th "Windows button" below the wheel and the wheel does both vertical and when tilted horizontal scroll. What more could you want for 16 bucks ?
Bluetooth does suck and my preference is for RF mice. That's what my primary mouse is. The bluetooth mouse is for when I am sitting at the couch since I have my desktop connected to my TV. The issue there is less the frequency or the range - though range obviously is big, but whether the mouse plays with the sofa's surface. My bluetooth dongle is 4.0 FWIW, I don't know what the microsoft mice are, but they are relatively new so.
 

Nick Kaufman

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Anywho, still haven't found a solution. Per usual, it's going to be the simplest thing or the most out of the blue problem ever.
 

Couperin47

Member
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Bluetooth does suck and my preference is for RF mice. That's what my primary mouse is. The bluetooth mouse is for when I am sitting at the couch since I have my desktop connected to my TV. The issue there is less the frequency or the range - though range obviously is big, but whether the mouse plays with the sofa's surface. My bluetooth dongle is 4.0 FWIW, I don't know what the microsoft mice are, but they are relatively new so.
The mouse I suggested is NOT BT, it's straight RF and uses Blue LED for tracking which has worked on every surface I've tried, but I admit I have not tested it on fully transparent glass...
 

Nick Kaufman

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I am posting an update just for the wtfness of the problem and not to get advice.

So just to keep track.

I have the old bluetooth mouse and the new bluetooth mouse.

I have a desktop with a windows 7 installation, but I also have an extra disk in which I have Win 10.I use a bliuetooth dongle on the desktop.

Then I have a laptop with Win 10. the laptop has an integrated bluetooth antenna.

Today I managed to connect the disk with Win 10 on the desktop in order to check if the issue is hardware or software related.

So, I get on Windows 10. First I realized that no device could get connected when the bluetooth dongle was plugged in a usb hub. It had to be moved to a USB port. When I did that, I could connect the jew mouse, but the old mouse simply refused to connect.

But then I tried both mice on the laptop and they were both able to connect just fine.

I cannot connect any mouse on the Win 7 installation.

Basically I can connect one of the two mice on a specific USB port on Windows 10.

My assumption now is that the problem is the dongle, but I am not sure. How can a dongle go bad???
 

Nick Kaufman

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Aug 2, 2003
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Motherfucker, motherfucker, MOTHERFUCKER!

It only took me 4 hours today in addition to all the hours I spent in the past couple of weeks, but I fixed the damn thing.

Microsoft must have done something to screw bluetooth devices on Win 7, because apparently when you connect the bluetooth mouce and before the device disappears, you need to go to the mouse properties/ services tab and uncheck the unknown service option. That was the problem. When the mouse is connected, windows bestows the device with drivers for both a mouse and this "unknown service" and as a result the mouse bugs out.

Can you believe this? I am so proud of myself. :) That was a legit puzzle.