Bluetooth issues with arc mouse + SP3

[aaronclausen]

Hi guys,

Is anyone else getting regular drop-outs still to this day with the latest arc mouse surface edition and SP3, my system does it all the time. I have all the latest patches, firmware updates and drivers installed right up to the minute through Windows Update.

The weird thing is, when it happens and the mouse is completely disconnected and unresponsive, if I go into the bluetooth settings window either by touch or using the trackpad, it seems to force the mouse to wake back up and come alive again. Almost like by going into the bluetooth settings window, the devices are forced to re-pair again or something weird like that.

So every time my mouse dies, I just open up the bluetooth window again and it starts working again.

This happens constantly throughout the say and is becoming increasingly annoying!

Cheers

Aaron.

 

[nipponham]

Have you done a forum search? Lots of threads about bluetooth mouse fixes like this one: http://www.surfaceforums.net/threads/solved-bluetooth-mouse-drops-connection-intermittently.4836/

 

[aaronclausen]

Thank you nipponham! That might be exactly it! My system still had the "allow the computer to turn this device off to save power". Which makes a LOT of sense. I've disabled that setting now as per the thread you sent me and will see if it makes a difference.. Cheers

 

[Helene]

Having the same problem. All updates in place. Turned off power shutdown as directed above. Still having problem. Have searched the Event Viewer but cannot find any reference to the situation. The MSFT Bluetooth keyboard still works. Just the Arc Mouse that drops out.

 

[nipponham]

Have you checked the power management setting for both the mouse and the bluetooth radio? It sometimes helps to have both of them disabled.

 

[Helene]

Have you checked the power management setting for both the mouse and the bluetooth radio? It sometimes helps to have both of them disabled.

Thanks for getting back so quickly. How would I turn off power management on the mouse? Can't find any setting to do that.

 

[ptrkhh]

Take note that unchecking "allow the computer to turn this device off to save power" will result in excessive battery drain during Connected Standby. I dont know the reason why either, since clearly BT is required to be on all the time for the OneNote pen button to work.
In my experience, the Bluetooth service tweak does help a little bit. At least its not dropping connection every now and then anymore. I wonder if they butchered with this so that people had no choice but to buy the overpriced Type Cover.

 

[nipponham]

Thanks for getting back so quickly. How would I turn off power management on the mouse? Can't find any setting to do that.

Open up device manager and find the entry for HID mouse and other pointing devices (should be near the bottom of entries) and right-click to see properties. I have the Surface Arc mouse and just checked mine to see that the power management is disabled and greyed out, so I can't change it even if I wanted to. I'm not sure if this is the default setting but I've never had a problem with the mouse dropping out.

 

[nipponham]

Take note that unchecking "allow the computer to turn this device off to save power" will result in excessive battery drain during Connected Standby.

In theory, yes, but depending on what the bluetooth device is, it will have negligible effect. If it's just the pen, mouse and keyboard, you won't notice any difference. If you've connected bluetooth speakers or headphones, power consumption will be higher. Whether one considers that "excessive" or not will be up to the user's expectations.

 

[ptrkhh]

In theory, yes, but depending on what the bluetooth device is, it will have negligible effect. If it's just the pen, mouse and keyboard, you won't notice any difference. If you've connected bluetooth speakers or headphones, power consumption will be higher. Whether one considers that "excessive" or not will be up to the user's expectations.

Sorry, I mean the BT adapter itself (Marvell AVASTAR). Unchecking the option on that one results in 100% active time in sleepstudy. This what makes me really confused, since the BT adapter has to be active all the time anyway for the OneNote button to work. (The SP2, which the original source of the tweak was targeted for, didn't have Connected Standby.)

I have also tried unchecking the options on the "Bluetooth HID Device", but I always get a sudden BSOD afterwards

 

[nipponham]

Well, because SP3 uses BT 4.0 LE, energy consumption during sleep (whether power management is abled or disabled) really shouldn't be an issue. If you're getting 100% activity, that means it's transmitting and/or receiving data non-stop. Unless you're using bluetooth speakers or headphones for that duration, that's not normal.

 

[Michelle]

I have the arc mouse and it would drop occasionally but always show back up and let me reassociate it with my SP3 but as of Friday it will not show up and I have tried the power management, taking batteries out, turning off and everything suggested here and in other forums. The blue light is on the mouse but the lights on front do not come on and the SP3 does not show it as an option.