Enhance bluetooth on a macbook pro 17?

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I've recently bought a bluetooth dongle, which I thought could enhance the reach of bluetooth connectivity from my Macbook Pro - only it couldn't.
The MBP is placed in a henge dock below my desk, and since that was done, the mouse is stalling and being non-responsive at times.
Can anything else be done to solve the problem?
 

bobtomay

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Move the dock out from under the desk.

Perhaps get a USB hub that can sit on your desk and plug the bluetooth dongle into that.
I've done this for years due to having my mouse and keyboard sitting on top of a digitizer (metal table).
My computer also sits under a desk.
 
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In my experience, Bluetooth can be finicky if there's any sort of block between devices. I've even seen my BT mouse jitter when my monitor is between the mouse and my MBP. Try to ensure that you have a clear sight line between the two.
 
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I've tried placing the usb bluetooth in a cable from out of the mac and placing it close to the mouse - nothing blocking the way - which didn't help at all, so my guess is that the macbook doesn't recognize the usb connector.
Tried placing it in a hub which is also connected to the mac. that didn't help either.
Is there any way to check whether the hardware is accepted by osx or not?
 
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Move the dock out from under the desk.

I am not going to move the dock from under the desk. I want a solution that can keep it there and have the bluetooth connection working flawlessly - which is why i bought the dongle in the first place :)
 

bobtomay

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In that case, I would guess it is not connecting to the dongle, but still connecting to the built in bluetooth.

Not tried with a dongle on my Macs - use Windows at the office - would start checking: a) in the bluetooth preference pane or b) need drivers for whatver dongle you're using?
 

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I am not going to move the dock from under the desk. I want a solution that can keep it there and have the bluetooth connection working flawlessly - which is why i bought the dongle in the first place :)

i know - We all always want stuff - but, the realist in me says, just because you bought a dongle - which you haven't named (bound to be hundreds of these things out there), doesn't mean it's going to work with your Mac &/or the peripheral you want to connect to it - although it very well could.
 

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