How Can I Keep My Bluetooth Mouse Connected?

How Can I Keep My Bluetooth Mouse Connected?

Bluetooth mice are conveniently cordless but it’s very frustrating when they lose their connection; read on as we troubleshoot a reader’s Windows laptop and help them keep their mouse awake and in communication with their computer.

Dear How-To Geek,

I’m so annoyed with my mouse I’m about to switch back to a full size corded model. I bought a Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 about six months ago and started using it with my Windows 7 laptop. Don’t get me wrong, the mouse itself is great and I have no issue with it.

What I do have an issue with is that Windows will randomly fail to see the mouse. No amount of trouble shooting will fix it, short of outright removing the mouse from the Devices menu and then re-syncing it. This happens every other day. I can’t just turn the mouse on and off, I have to full out “re-install it,” if you will.

The mouse in question is very highly reviewed and everyone seems to love it (and I’d love it too if it weren’t for this connectivity issue). Barring that my actual mouse is defective and there’s no fixing it, what can I do to remedy the situation?

Sincerely,

Mouse Frustrated

If ever there was an email to motivate us to get around to fixing a problem with one of our infrequently used laptops, this is it. For months we’ve been meaning to take a moment to troubleshoot an identical problem: we too have a Windows 7 laptop laying around the office that frequently forgets it has a little Bluetooth friend. Now that your email has lit a fire under us, let’s boot up the ole laptop in question and document the troubleshooting steps required to remedy the situation.

Update Your Drivers

Most Bluetooth mice don’t have their own individual drivers and simply use the default drivers for a Windows Bluetooth/HID compliant device. That said, the first stop should always be to check for device drivers by searching for the devices name and your operating system. In the case of the Microsoft mouse you’re using there are no device-specific drivers as it uses the generic Windows ones.

There’s a good chance your Bluetooth radio itself, however, (whether you have an on-board one or a dongle) has drivers. There’s also a good chance that they’re out of date. Before attempting the manual fixes we’re about to outline you should ensure you have the most current drivers for your Bluetooth radio. If you’re using generic Windows drivers for the Bluetooth radio you’ll likely find several of the settings you need to toggle will be unavailable.

Enabling Automatic Bluetooth Services

The first stop on the troubleshooting trail is the Services menu. Open your Windows start menu and type “Services” in the search box or hit WIN+R and type “services.msc” in the run dialog box to launch the Services menu. Sort the columns by name and look for the “Bluetooth Support Service” entry.

Right click on that entry and select “Properties.” In the Properties menu look for the “Startup type” entry under the “General” tab.

Switch the type to “Automatic” and hit apply. Close the Services menu.

Disabling Bluetooth Power Management

The updated drivers and the Services tweak are moving us in the right direction. Now it’s time to finish the job. While poor drivers or poor Service management may have been the culprits, it’s also possible that your laptop is aggressively managing the power for Bluetooth devices and, in the process, dropping the Bluetooth connection.

Fire up the device manager by typing “Device Manager” in the Start Menu search box or by pressing WIN+R and typing “devmgmt.msc” in the run dialog box.

Checking the Device Manager is going to be the most tedious part of resolving this problem. You need to look down through the sections of the Device Manager for any mention of a Bluetooth device and/or mouse and check the properties of each instance.  Look under “Bluetooth Radios,” “Mice and other pointing devices,” and “System devices.” What you’re looking for is “Power Management” tabs like this one.

Any instance of “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” should be unchecked. You absolutely do not want to allow the computer to turn off either the Bluetooth radio or the attached Bluetooth devices to save power as this is the primary cause of the un-syncing issue you’re seeing with your mouse. In addition to checking through everything for anything Bluetooth related don’t neglect the USB section at the bottom if you have a mouse connected via any kind of USB dongle. If you do, you’ll have to comb through the USB devices listed in the “Universal Serial Bus controllers” section to ensure that the computer isn’t set to turn off USB ports/hubs to save power (which would cause communication problems with the USB-powered dongle and the mouse).

After you’ve updated the drivers, toggled the Services, and unchecked the power management options, reboot your computer. If you’re not enjoying interruption free mouse use at this point we’d strongly recommend finding another Bluetooth mouse to test the system with to rule out a faulty mouse and/or Bluetooth dongle.

Building a PC: Are Integrated Graphics, Sound, and Network Hardware Good Enough?

Building a PC: Are Integrated Graphics, Sound, and Network Hardware Good Enough?

Motherboards include integrated graphics, sound, and network hardware — but is it good enough, or do you need to buy discrete components when building your own PC?

This hardware was originally designed to be “good enough.” The basics were integrated into the motherboard to save on power and cost, but they’ve improved and are now better than ever.

Graphics

The GPU (graphics processing unit) was once soldered onto the motherboard, but “integrated graphics” is now integrated into the CPU itself. Intel CPUs come with integrated “Intel HD Graphics” or “Iris Graphics” hardware, while AMD CPUs come with their own brand of integrated graphics. AMD calls these APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) because they contain CPU and GPU hardware on a single chip.

Modern integrated graphics should be fine as long as you don’t plan on playing PC games. If you want good performance in the latest 3D games — or even games a few years old — you should definitely skip the integrated graphics and buy a dedicated graphics hard from the likes of NVIDIA or AMD.

If you’re building a PC for standard desktop software — or even if you’re building a media center PC for video streaming and other media-intensive tasks — integrated graphics should be fine. You won’t notice the difference, but you’ll save money and your computer will use less power.

Not every CPU has integrated graphics, so be sure to double-check if you want to buy a CPU with integrated graphics.

Sound

Most PCs use integrated sound hardware. The audio jacks built into typical desktops and laptops connect directly to the sound hardware built into the motherboard, which is responsible for processing audio, outputting it to headphones and speakers, and capturing audio input from microphones.

Sound quality is always a controversial issue. Once you start talking about sound quality, you’re into the realm of the audiophiles. Sound quality is notoriously subjective and you’ll find many audiophiles who think expensive digital cables give you better sound quality. (They don’t.) There is a difference between integrated sound hardware and discrete sound hardware. Integrated sound could be poorly shielded and lead to hissing, or the DAC (digital-to-analog convertor) in the integrated sound could be lower quality.

But, like integrated graphics, integrated sound hardware has improved dramatically over the years.

In our experience, you probably won’t notice the difference between onboard and discrete sound on a modern PC. If you have very discerning ears and higher-end headphones or speakers, you may notice some difference. You’re probably better off investing in better speakers or headphones instead of a discrete sound card if you want to build a PC. (We’re sure audiophiles will think dedicated sound hardware is crucial, of course.)

Network

When it comes to network hardware, there’s an easy answer. The network hardware integrated into your motherboard is almost certainly good enough.

The only discrete network cards really targeted to people building their own PCs are “gamer network cards” that promise to reduce latency and improve Internet gaming performance. They may include some traffic prioritization features — often integrated into the driver software they install on your PC — but you won’t find much of a performance improvement here. Most of the latency you experience when playing a game is caused by routers, switches, miles of cables, and servers outside your PC. Even if it could deliver on its promises, a network card could only do so much.

Traffic prioritization features may help, but only if you’re running a BitTorrent client in the background while gaming — just pause your BitTorrent client before jumping into an online game if this is an issue for you.

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In summary: Integrated graphics is fine unless you play PC games, integrated sound is fine for most people, and integrated network hardware is definitely fine.

You can always pick up discrete hardware later. IF you’re not sure what you need, build your PC now and try using the integrated components. If something isn’t performing up to par, you can order a discrete component later and install it.

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