Bluetooth Mouse Losing Connection No More!

Technology - Tips & Fixes, ,
Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000
Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000

I have a Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 that I bought when I bought my new Thinkpad with built-in Bluetooth. At the time I was running 64-bit Vista and all was well. Then I upgraded to 64-bit Windows 7, and suddenly the mouse started constantly losing connection.

There was no detectable pattern. It would work fine for a while, and then start disconnecting all the time for no apparently reason. Sometimes it would not wake up after sleeping, but sometimes it would quit while I was using it. At first I got it going again by removing the mouse from the list of Bluetooth devices and then adding it back in. That took too much time. Then, by accident, I discovered that I could wake it up by opening my Bluetooth settings and toggling the checkbox “Allow Bluetooth devices to find this computer”. If it was off I’d turn it on, if it was on I’d turn it off. That was faster, but still a pain.

I searched the internet and found many similar complaints, but no solutions. Several sites suggested upgrading your Bluetooth drivers. There’s no new driver for the Microsoft mouse, but I updated the Thinkpad Bluetooth drivers. No joy. Then the other day the mouse started quitting on me every few minutes and in desperation I searched again. This time I found the answer. There are two separate settings that need to be changed.

Bluetooth Support Service Setting

Part 1 of the solution is buried in this Microsoft Knowledgebase article:

Connect a Bluetooth device that does not have or require a transceiver

And I quote:

How to make sure that the Bluetooth service is started

  1. Open the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in for Services. To do this, follow these steps.

     

    Windows Vista or Windows 7

    1. Click StartVista Start Button, copy and then paste (or type) the following command in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER: services.msc
    2. In the Programs list, click Services.

      Security Shield
      If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.

    Windows XP

    1. Click Start, and then click Run.
    2. Copy and then paste (or type) the following command in the Open box, and then press ENTER: services.msc
  2. Double-click the Bluetooth Support service.
  3. If the Bluetooth Support service is stopped, click Start.
  4. On the Startup type list, click Automatic.
  5. Click the Log On tab.
  6. Click Local System account.
  7. Click OK.
  8. If you prompted to restart the computer, click Yes.

My log on settings were okay, but my Startup Type was set to “Manual” rather than “Automatic”. I changed it, like so:

Bluetooth Support Services Properties

Bluetooth Power Management Setting

But sadly, my problem wasn’t solved. So then I tried something else. I opened up Device Manager, expanded “Bluetooth Radios”, and double-clicked on the device to open its Properties page – not the enumerator, the device.

Double click the device (highlighted), not the enumerator
Double click the device (highlighted), not the enumerator

Go to the Power Management page and clear the checkbox “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”. And finally, relief! No more disconnects. Apparently there is a bug in the power management of the Bluetooth driver under Windows 7.

Uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power'
Uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power'

I can’t say for sure that the first step of making the Bluetooth Support Service automatic is necessary, or just turning off power management would fix it. It doesn’t hurt to change it to automatic so I didn’t test this. If you test it, post your results. Are both changes needed, or do you just need to turn off power management to stop losing connection?

302 thoughts on “Bluetooth Mouse Losing Connection No More!”

  1. It worked perfectly for a year now with your solution.
    So glad i googled and found your solution as I was about to throw in the town with BT mouse but they are so handy with needing to connect separaate dongo etc.

    Thanx.

  3. Go to Devices and Printers –> Right click bluetooth mouse in question -> Select Mouse Settings > Select ‘Bluetooth’ tab > Select connect > Press bluetooth button on device in question (make recognizable) > Pair the device > Tap bluetooth button to shut off flashing blue light. Mouse paired.

  4. I was about to chuck my new mouse into the trash when I came upon this article which has definitely made me a happy camper. I have an Asus laptop running Windows 8 and when I connected the new Microsoft Sculpt Mouse which is made for Win8 machines I kept losing the connection after a min or so. In fact my whole keyboard would lock up at times. After changing the startup type from manual to automatic the mouse and keyboard now work perfectly. Didn’t even have to go into the device manager for the second step. Thanks.

  5. i have a vaio laptop model no. sve14115faq and i have problem using my wireless bluetooth vaio mouse VGP-BMS21
    it gets connect for few minutes only, via bluetooth and then my mouse stops working. why is this happening ? i have paired again several times but all the time same thing happens. i am using fresh batteries so there isnt any problem with batteries. i am using this mouse with my other laptop and its working fine on that.
    i need help please reply me soon!

  6. I’m sitting here with my Mac Air and my Microsoft Comfort Keyboard 5000 (works fine) and my 5000 Mouse, which lost the Bluetooth connection and can’t be “found” by the computer. I don’t have the settings you have in Windows. Any ida what I do? Thanks!

  7. THANK YOU THANK YOU!

    I was having the problem of dropping my mouse connection every 5 minutes. Using a Sony Vaio Pro and Microsoft bluetooth mouse. I am pretty sure it was the power saving option that you mentioned above that was causing my problems. I turned that off and no problems ever since!

    Thanks again for sharing!

  8. Same problem on Thinkpad X1 Carbon with Windows 8 – SOLVED by the second fix (turn off power save) – Thanks Cheryl. Not necessary to change the service to automatic to solve this.

  9. Hi, Sherly

    Thanks a lot for this tip.
    I was also thinking that my Bluetooth device is going to sleep when i don’t use it for sometime. and that is it seems to get disconnected.
    I as searching for the same feature in Bluetooth device wizard which was making my device sleep, but could not found anything. After finding your suggestion I came to know, where that setting as.

    But yeah after that also some latency is there when i use my Bluetooth mouse after some time. but no problem with that. I have corrected for the second solution only (which is related to Bluetooth driver setting).

    Thanks a lot again…… 🙂

  10. Hi,

    Thank you ever so much. This fixed my problem which was identical to yours, intermittent ‘death’ of the bluetooth mouse for no apparent reason. Followed your advice and changed the two settings as you recommended and it works fine, at least for the past 2 days, which gives me hope that it will continue to work :). What irks me most is that if this issue were not known, unfair blame would have been put onto the manufacturer of the mouse or the laptop as being in some way ‘defective’, and I am beginning to wonder how many things I’ve thrown away or decided not to use because of something silly like this.

    Thanks again anyway,
    Cheers

  14. Hi Sheryl,
    Very many thanks for the tip. You have saved what little hair I have left been pulled out by the roots in frustration.

  15. I did everything per above comments and still windows 7 would not recognize the bluetooth mouse then I ran across this thread and it was the final piece that made everything work!!

    Quote:
    Go to START icon and type in services.msc and select services.

    The dialog box that opens has a long list of stuff but look for BLUETOOTH SUPPORT SERVICE. Double click to open. Make sure it is AUTOMATIC. Go to the LOG tab. Choose THIS ACCOUNT and type in LOCAL SERVICE. A list of password (a 15-dot string) would appear. Delete all the password in the PASSWORD and under CONFIRM. Choose Okay.

    It will ask you to restart the service. Once restarted, turn on your bluetooth adaptor again. Put your mouse in pairing mode and add the mouse. It works perfectly!!!

  18. I have Samsung laptop and Logitech v470 mouse. Mouse worked perfectly until this problem popped out. With these instructions my laptop doesn’t even find mouse anymore.

  19. I’ve put up with this problem for years and it’s driven me more than a little mad! Thanks for restoring my sanity.

  21. Hi,

    I have a toshiba bluetooth keyboard that seems to go asleep after 1 minute or less. It requires pressing a key to wake up (nothing displayed), then another key to start actual typing. I have changed the bluetooth power settings in device manager and changed the service from manual to automatic and restarted Windows. I’ve also done a complete Windows 8 reinstallation, aquired a second keyboard (same one), changed batteries, and tried just about anything else I can think of. Any ideas?

  22. Just wanted to say thanks for posting this tip. It appears to have fixed my bluetooth mouse disconnect problem. I wish I had found this tip 6 months ago!

  23. Oh Leo et al, thanks so much. After hours trying to work out what was wrong. With a windows system and a microsoft mouse why could they not provide this guidance from the start? We should charge them for our time and for providing a solution to their problem. However this demonstrates the positive power of the online community.

  24. Thank you Sheryl. It really worked. And i called to Dell Customer Care 100 of times before this. You should think to work for Dell. 🙂

  25. I tried this with my Thinkpad Tablet and mouse and now the laptop will not even recognize the mouse at all. Also, I had my Nexus 5 smartphone connected and the laptop will no longer recognize any bluetooth devices. Very frustrating.

  26. It sounds like you set something incorrectly. I have a Thinkpad T420, and it works fine. The fact that your Thinkpad no longer recognizes any bluetooth devices is a clue. Apparently you disabled bluetooth somehow.

  27. I’m having this same difficulty with a new ASUS Transformer convertible tablet running full Windows 8.1, and a HP x4000b Bluetooth mouse. After the tablet wakes up from sleep, the mouse still shows as paired, but the computer is not responding to it. I check Bluetooth devices, and the mouse is still shown as paired. I have to manually remove the device then re-pair for it to be recognized. This has been getting really old.

    Anyway, I tried the steps above, to no avail. Anyone have any other ideas or experience with Win 8.1?

  28. Thank you for the info. Have looked many times for a solution; this looks like it. Had the exact situation you described. Have made changes; will now restart computer and see if problems are resolved.

  30. Thank you very much for the tip. I have BT keyboard and mouse, both from Microsoft. The KB installed and worked well but soon after installing the mouse, all BT devices stopped responding and I had to use System Restore. After following the instructions on this page all is working fine.

  32. You saved me from the verge of the asylum. I and my estate thank you for the fix. This was happening at completely random intervals, and the only way I had found to fix it was turning the BT receiver off and on again. It was maddening. Now, perfect smoothety typing/mousing goodness!

  36. I have a Dell Blootooth Travel Mouse. Expensive stuff, at least not a cheapo thing. I used to have the same problem as your original problem. The mouse would disconnect. I would remove the mouse from devices (start menu, devices and printers – or something like that, I have Hungarian version of windows 7), add it again, and would work again for some time. I did all the steps that you suggested in the blogpost. The mouse was added as a device, when I started. Maybe that was a mistake, I don’t know. Now (after restart) the mouse still doesn’t work (brand new, brand 1.5V alkaline battery), but i can’t remove it from devices any more. I don’t have such an option any more (the printers I can still remove). It’s just permanently there, I can only change properties. So I set back everything to the way it was earlier, restarted the computer again, but still no use, mouse still can’t be removed, is added, and does not work. Has anybody got any ideas what I should do? Thank you!

  37. Happy to come across this post to solve this ongoing headache with Dell Latitudes. The funny thing is I had a looong conversation with a Dell tech about this issue and we tried several different updates, but your solution never came up. Many thanks.

  38. I love your solution, I almost scrapped Win 8.1 until Google drove me to your gorgeous advice.

  39. Thanks for the tip, Sheryl, I followed your instructions, now my Logitech K810 keyboard is not timing out anymore! =)

  40. After reading all of the above comments, I’m so happy this solution worked for so many people but so frustrated because I’m getting nowhere.

    I have no Bluetooth Power Management setting anywhere. I would so love to see those magic words “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” so I can uncheck that #@*^ing box.
    I also have no Bluetooth radio. My Bluetooth options are Bluetooth RFBNEP, RFBUS, RFCOMM, RFHID, USB Comntroller-10 from Toshiba, and I have no idea what any of those are. None has a power option, and I can’t find it anywhere else.

    I’m running Windows 7 on a Toshiba Satellite. My computer tells me all drivers are up to date. I
    I can connect my Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 and it worked fine until a Windows update a while ago. It connects and the moment I type in the ID key the lights go off. They occasionally come back on, but I can’t type a thing. Nada.

    If anyone can help I’d be eternally grateful.

    Thanks, guys, in grateful antici…pation.

  41. Changing Power Mgmt Setting worked for me under Windows 8.1, Dell Latitude E7440 and Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000. Thanks for the posting.

  42. U R GREAT!!!!!!!AT LAST MY BT DELL MOUSE WORKS PERFECTLY EVERY BOOT SYSTEM,EVERY HOUR.
    I READ A LOST FORUMS AND STILL NOT WORK.UR IDEA WITH BT SERVICE WAS BRILLIANT.THANK U VERY MUCH!!!LOVE MATEUSZ

  43. Trying to get up to speed with Windows 8 on my new Lenovo Ultrabook was enough of a challenge, then the wireless Dell travel mouse would spontaneously stop, then I’d delete it and pair it again, sometimes it would work and others it would not. Like others I was getting more and more frustrated. So big thanks for helping eliminate the stress of a mouse behaving badly:-)

  44. It would be great if the author could update the original post. I followed these instructions as my mouse would just randomly drop out but in doing so I lost the ability to pair with any bluetooth device. Eventually I saw the post from Sonny on April 5th 2011 which resolved the issue. Cheers Sonny!

  45. So far, so good! Thank you for this. Like you, awhile back I researched this issue to no avail and just gave up on it until this morning when it really frustrated me again. My search terms were “dell latitude bluetooth drops connection” and this blog was the 1st result. Great job!

  46. Like everyone here, I too had the same issue. Tried all means here. Works good for sometime, and then fails back. Besides, does anyone knows how to power off the Wedge Mouse? Sometime it works, and sometimes when I keep pressing the power button under the mouse, it doesn’t off, and I have to remove the battery to power off the mouse. A good 2500 mah battery hardly comes for couple of weeks and it drains. Is it a product fault, which needs replacement or is there any way to fix the power off wedge mouse.

    I use Lenovo X1 Carbon 2013 model.

  47. Here’s an adjustment that seems to be working on my HP Splity hybrid 2014 windows 8.1:
    Run services.msc
    Bluetooth device monitor ( general tab ) = set to “automatic”
    AND on the recovery tab = set to “restart the service” on first failure, second failure, subsequent failures
    reset failure count after “0” days

  48. It Worked!!!! I purchased a Bluetooth mouse from china and it worked for a few minutes at a time before it no longer responded. I tried reinstalling it a number of times before searching the web for a solution. Using your solution, I tried Disabling the power save option in device manager first and it had no effect. I then went to services and changed startup option to auto with no effect. I then turned-off then turned-on the service you mentioned and now its been running for 1-hour without failing…a new record. Thanks for your help.

  49. Thank you so much. I’ve been after this issue for about 2 years and at last I found this article. Cured.

  50. None of the above worked. I have two Dell Latitudes, E6320, and on one of them the Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook 5000 mouse just suddenly stopped working. On removing then re-installing, it detected and loaded but would not connect with the green/red light just flashing… the other Laptop would be fine using the mouse (once re-installed). I then realised I had been updating with Dell updates when the blue tooth mouse stopped functioning (it didn’t happen straight away). I then noticed that the bios of the laptop not connecting was A06 where as the laptop that worked with the mouse was A07……. I updated incrementally the bios from A06–>A07–>A08 by using down loads from the Dell site and then when I was on A08 on both laptops the automatic Dell update for the bios kicked in and went to A19…….. on rebooting and trying to connect the mouse, it finally behaved and connected.
    I think this is all to do with the Dell system updates knocking the blue tooth out of shape just slightly, only to be corrected at a later date…..

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