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. I have the same problem as Terrol Williams after changing the “Startup Type” to “Local System Logon” – my system cannot detect the mouse anymore.

    I am also now wondering HOW I can reset the setting to its original value??

    Thanks!

  2. Thanks for posting this. I’ve been looking for the solution and kind of embarresed I didn’t find it myself.

  4. Hi Sheryl,

    Can’t thank you enough for taking the time to post this solution. Like you, I have been removing my microsoft mobile keyboard 6000 from the bluetooth device list only to add it back in and it was becoming really annoying. So far, using your suggestions for a permanent fix, I haven’t had to do this. Awesome 🙂

    Thanks again!

  5. I have a Dell Latitude 430 (running XP) that I just got a Dell Travel bluetooth mouse for. The mouse took forever to get established. When I try to “check for devices” the laptop doesn’t find it. I spent a half-hour on the phone with a tech to get it to work. Well, now everytime I close the notebook, it seems to lose the connection with the mouse. I have to click on the blutooth icon in the systray, thankfully the mouse still shows up there. Then it prompts me for the passcode (four zeros) and it reestablishes the connection. Its gettinf real irritating having to plug in a usb mouse to get my BT mouse to work everytime. All the above posts talk about Vista and 7. I cannot find any power management for this mouse in XP. its not in the device manager, its not in the properties for the mouse itself either. I was able to do the whole bluetooth support services and mine was already on automatic, but the second step, Log-On, I had to switch to my local system account. Anybody with XP have any answer to this?

  6. Oh, I forgot, the mouse did come with a cdrom, but my notebook doesn’t have anyplace to put it!!! What good does it do me if I can’t run it on the notebook?

  7. Well, I’m not sure how I did it, but I activated something called a Bluetooth Information Exchanger. It is the very last thing to load on start-up / waking from sleep mode, but once the icon pops onto the desktop, the mouse works.

  8. Sheryl, as they say here in Australia, you’re a bloody legend – I had just thrown my mouse across the desk in frustration (desperately working on a massive spreadsheet for a customer bid) and decided I had to fix this once and for all. Google popped up your blog and I realised you had exactly the same set up as me (with the exception that my bluetooth mouse is a Lenovo brand). So far it’s been 20 mins with no drop outs – A MILLION THANK YOUs for taking the time to publish this! It’s people like you that make the internet such a fantastic resource. Thanks.

  9. Sherly:
    thanks for your help. Your instructions seem to have helped. Im up and running with my lenovo mouse and lenovo computer and they are not disconnecting like before. The imput from your other posters also helped as I had to make a few adjustments to get things to work.

    Fred

  10. I followed the steps and now I can’t get the mouse to work at all!

    I have dell latitude e5520 and a microsoft 5000 mouse. The discovery works, and windows says it installs the device, but the light on the mouse never stops flashing from red to green. grrr!

  11. You rock, this is great. I was so annoyed with the bluetooth disconnection. I’ve posted this on a couple of the Lenovo forums as well so others over there can find it easily too (a lot of the posters had just given up and gotten a wired mouse haha)

    Great find, thanks!

  12. If you turn your mouse or trackpad off or turn off the Bluetooth option in your computer, the connection between the computer and the mouse or trackpad will be lost. When you turn on the mouse or trackpad and Bluetooth, you can re-establish this connection by simply clicking the mouse button or trackpad surface.

  13. Hi,
    I have similar issue with HP Vostro 3400 but this looks working for my bluetooth problem.
    My mouse MS5000 either and now it work fine till now.
    Thanks for your information.

  14. Great tip. I’ve been having problems with the mouse for over a year, many times just restarting Windows to fix the issue.
    Today, after yet another disconnect, I searched for a solution (as I’d done before to no avail) and found this.
    As soon as I disabled the power management, my mouse sprung back to life!
    A thousand thanks!

  15. Great ! Thank you very much. I’ve searched a lot for the solution. Mine is a new Sony viao with windows 7 and a Vaio Bluetooth mouse. It worked great with my old vaio laptop, but not with this one. I was really disappointed with it until you pointed me in the right direction.

  17. Hi, I have the problem with Acer IconiaTab W500 and Microsoft Mouse 5000.
    I change the BT service from manual to automatic but nothing changed.
    I don’t have the power management tab in the device manager item properties.
    I searched for a new driver on Acer support site but is the same that was installed, without the power monagement tab!!

    Someone can suggest a solution??

    Thanks

  18. AH JEEZ!

    Thank you Thank you Thank you :)!

    I’ve got a Razer Orochi Laptop Gaming mouse that I use for work and of course for fun and I love the size and weight and precision of it but I was totally all set to throw it out a window until I found this, so you saved me the cost of my window, and my mouse 🙂

  19. Sheryl,

    After replacing my Hard Drive (they don’t last forever) I am finding that my Sony VAIO recovery disk (Windows XP Professional) does not include a BlueTooth file when I run and open the services.msc list. I believe I have downloaded every available update in this regard but clearly I am missing some aspect of files since my Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 is not being “discovered” – nor do I know how to find the appropriate software program to aid me in this regard. Any ideas?

    Thanks,
    Mario

  21. I also lost mouse connectivity and cannot discover anymore after applying the changes. Sonny’s tips fixed my problem – I changed logon account to “Local Service” and password to “Local Service” (note it’s case sensitive). then restarted all Bluetooth services and it works.

  22. Sonny, a huge thank you. How did u come up with the solution? Spent hours installing and hunting new drivers to connect my Nokia phone with bluetooth. Maybe now i can dig my bluetooth laser mouse up again, i abandoned it a while ago since lost patience with this bluetooth problem in Windows 7.

  24. It helps and it doesn’t help!

    Helps: Some time ago I had this “Bluetooth Mouse Loosing Connection” problem with a Logitech BT mouse and my new Win 7 HP notebook. I removed the tick for “Allow the computer to turn of this device to save power” and presto: Problem gone. Good job Sheryl!

    Doesn’t help: I recently built a new Win 7 rig bases on an Asus P8P67 motherboard, which has build in Bluetooth. Exactly the same problem with a Microsoft BT Laser Mouse 8000 as well as with the Microsoft BT Entertainment Keyboard 7000. So, piece of cake: just remove mentioned power saving tickbox. But… no such option in this BT Driver!! Others mentioned also not having such option on their PC. Would anyone have a suggestions? Is their a registry entry to control this power save option?

    I would be very happy if I could solve this annoying problem!

    Best alternative so far: using my ‘spare’ wired mouse, click the BT icon in the system tray and click the “turn adaptor off” option. This does not actually turn it off, but in some way restores the connection.

    Thanks in advance!

  25. Finally!!!! Up till now, I have not heard of a single explanation or solution that makes any sense for resolving this issue. Thank you for posting

  26. Update: Asus support concludes that the board is defective and even though it is brand new, I should expect ~6 weeks repair time. Not a realistic advice, sorry to say, disappointing support.

    I have updated the driver to version 7.4.0.110 (no improvement).

    IMHO the problem is related to power management of the BT hardware/driver. I’m using the Win 7 standard ‘high performance’ power plan. I noticed some improvement by disabling the “USB selective suspend setting” (Control Panel/Power Options/High Performance/change plan settings/Change advance power settings/USB Settings/USB selective suspend/Disable/Apply)

    Perhaps I should try another BT dongle with a driver offering the ‘power saving’ tickbox on driver level.

    Please comment!

  29. Once again, my MS 5000 BT mouse went away -in mid motion- and wouldn’t return. I started searching and discovered this most helpful blog.
    After about 30 minutes of reading, something caused me to realize that my bluetooth phone was laying next to my laptop and was probably searching for my car speakerphone. Shortly after I turned off the phone, the MS5000 starts working again. Could be co-incidence, it’s started working spontaneously after such a length of time.

    A curious side note, I noticed that when I moved the MS5000, the cursor (which did not move) would occasionally change shape briefly as if an otherwise invisible cursor was intersecting with its position on the screen. Could it be that Win7 is still connected to the mouse, receiving signals, but simply not moving the cursor? This is consistent Win7 diagnostics which say the connection is OK – just no cursor movement. I wonder if there is a way such interference could disconnect received signals from video movement? Next time I’ll poke at it more.

    I will implement your powersaver tweak (which I was delighted to discover – and THANK YOU), but first I want to see if there is a Bluetooth interference issue.
    Any thoughts?

  30. I did this tweek and the odd thing is it seems to disconnect more frequently now. My phone is right next to the laptop so I will try turning off the BT on it.

  32. I switched from Automatic to Manual and don’t seem to have any issues yet. I am turning my phones BT back on.

  33. Last question: Should the Allow service to interact with desktop be checked?

    [U]”Log On” Tab[U][/U]
    Log On As
    (*) Local System account
    [ ] Allow service to interact with desktop.

  34. [U] Oops [/U] still no interruptions of service when set to Manual and the phone BT is on.

  37. I have one in travel bag, and two at desktop locations with the Lenovo X61 and UltraBase. I’ve had four of the Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 and three quit working over time, so it’s the mouse not the driver. Too bad because the mouse is perfect otherwise.

  38. Thank you. This is brilliant because I was becoming incredibly frustrated with the mouse not waking up or disappearing completely. The key seems to be switching off the option to allow the computer to turn off the device to save power. I don’t think it is normally necessary to change the Bluetooth Service options as well.

    If you have a Dell BT Travel Mouse (actually a Logitech mouse) then the Setpoint Utility available from Logitech is really helpful to set up the mouse how you wish. It can be downloaded at http://www.logitech.com/en-au/584/3131?softwareid=671&osid=14&section=downloads&bit=64

  40. Hi all,

    I have a bluetooth (no transceiver) mouse problem on Windows XP SP3. For a long time all worked great, but one day all of a sudden my PC gave a double “device disconnetting” sound and my bluetooth mouse stopped working. Bluetooth sign on the bluetooth systray icon turned white from green. Bluetooth support service also disappeared from the services.msc. When I choose the “add a bluetooth device” from the systray bluetooth icon, the computer detects my mouse and says that device connected to my computer. But nothing happens. Fortunately, I have dual-boot system, so I started Windows 7. There my mouse was also not functional. Then, having opened “devices and priinters” section in Control Panel, I removed my mouse ftom the device list and added it again. Voila – it started working! I restarted to XP (which is much faster on my tiny Sony Vaio P) and everything perfect – mouse works, service in place. But this began happening time by time and I am tired of conducting this nearly half-an-hour-consuming operation. Right now I applied the suggestion I found here to disable the power-saving turnoff of the device on Windows 7 and will see if that solves my problem. But what if I had no Windows 7 on my PC? Even clean XP reinstall would probably not solve my problem?? ‘Cause when the mouse and service is lost on XP, it also stops functioning on W7. Fortunately, there is a way, however long, on W7 to start the bluetooth mouse again. Could somebody suggest a way to revive my mouse within Windows XP?? Thanks a lot for patience, and sorry for being unable to talk briefly :).

  41. Here, just a couple hours after mouse revival this happened again, and disabling power-saving turnoff in windows 7 didn’t help… 🙁

  43. So far, so good. I love this little mouse (though not the deteriorated rubbery grip, which I’ve since fixed by scraping clean and gluing on leather instead), so having it stop being so flaky is AWESOME.

    Thank you!

  44. Hey,

    I did the above, but now my bluetooth does not detect my mouse anymore/
    This thing is driving me crazy.
    Could it be the following?

    “Click the Log On tab.
    Click Local System account.”

    I can’t put it back to what it was.

    Appreciate your help..
    Maarten

  45. That’s the correct setting. I just bought a new computer (Thinkpad, Win7) and another Microsoft Notebook Bluetooth Mouse 5000 (I really like these mice) and I set up the new computer the same way – works perfectly. Also, that’s the default – I didn’t have to change anything. Only the automatic starting had to be changed.

    It sounds like your mouse just isn’t paired. Go into Control Panel, click the Mouse applet, and pair the Mouse. Make sure it has batteries, it’s on, etc.

  46. @Sonny, Thanks a bunch! My Bluetooth stopped recognizing *any* device. Your fix worked on my Fujitsu Lifebook T5010. @Sheryl, thanks for the original advice. The keyboard automatically rediscovers now!

  47. Hi
    Thanks for the bluetooth disappearing mouse fix.
    I tried unchecking the power save option and my mouse immediately was resuscitated so I don’t think you need to have services set to automatic at least for my problem but I changed it anyway to automatic.

    Thanks again

    -Shep

  48. Thanks for this post, you saved me a lot of time trying to troubleshoot this problem.

  49. Brilliant! Thanks for the tip. I’ve just bought myself my first Bluetooth mouse for Windows 7 and it was disconnecting after only a few seconds of inactivity – very annoying. Unchecking the ‘Allow this computer to turn device off…’ option immediately fixed my problem.

    Many thanks for posting this tip… I was about to chuck my barnd new mouse in the bin!

  50. Thanks a ton, found your blog after a lot of search, but thank goodness i did….hopefully everything will work fine…thanks again

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