I have been having an intermittent problem with my Bluetooth mouse disconnecting at random times. Whenever it occurred all I had to do was switch off the mouse then switch it back on again and everything work properly for a while (there didn’t seem to be any pattern to the disconnects) but it would never be gone for long.
Its an issue I have been putting up with for a while to the stage where I even switched back to a wired keyboard and mouse because it was just so annoying. At first I thought it was due to battery charge in the mouse, but it still happened even with new batteries. Then I thought it was a driver issue, but even after making very sure I had the latest version of the relevant drivers it would still happen.
Then this morning I found what I think is an actual solution to the problem, and since it was something that had been causing me so much angst I thought I’d share my discovery with the world. It turns out to be so simple that I can’t believe I didn’t try this sooner… so here it is.
Go to the device manager, locate your Bluetooth module (I have a Dell so it is called that, but if you have a different model PC it will be called something else) and then bring up the property dialog (it should look something like the screen shot below). Then go to the power management tab and make sure the “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” option is not ticked.
I know I only did this today but it’s been several hours and my mouse hasn’t missed a beat which is far longer than had previously been the case… if I find the problem still exists I will update this post but initial results are promising.
So there you go… as simple as that. As to why that setting shouldn’t work ticked on well I guess there is something not quite right with the power management for this type of device. I hope that this simple tip will save someone many hours of frustration.
Happy bluetoothing.
Goran Zidar 