The purpose of this posting is to seek possible solutions to this Bluetooth intermittent disconnect mystery. I have a Dell Inspiron 1720 Laptop running Vista SP1, and using a Dell wireless Truemobile 355 Bluetooth keyboard and mouse as my primary input devices. Most of the time I am please with my BT keyboard and mouse. Currently I have no problem with my system locating my BT devices even after a system restart, or after waking-up from hibernation, sleep. I even resolved the issue with the BT manager removing the BT devices from its list.

My Bluetooth keyboard and/or mouse intermittently disconnect and become disabled for several seconds until the system re-establish connection with the device(s). On several occasion after my BT keyboard stops working, the last key pressed (i.e. alpha/numeric, spacebar, tab, delete, or backspace) will repeat itself several time as if the key is stoke. This intermittent problem will occur 2-6 times while I'm transferring data from one online service to another, during an 8 hours work day.

I have also noticed once my BT keyboard reconnects to the system, some  function keys and/or shortcut keys (i.e. Win, Esc, and Alt+Tab) will temporarily function abnormally or doesn't function at all (laptop keyboard is also effected when this happens) until after the system realizes a problem then resets itself. This particular problem does not happen each time the BT device fails, but it does happen on occasion.

After several hours troubleshooting this problem, I was able to resolve the problems with the Bluetooth Manager locating and/or retaining my BT devices, especially after the system wake-up from hibernation, sleep or after a system restart. However, I feel that there is a conflict with the BT driver and other software/hardware installed with Windows Operating System that is causing this intermittent problem. I know this problem is more command then Dell wants us to believe, and I feel that Dell have a responsibility to find a solution to this issue. 

Results from symptom (intermittent disconnect):

1.     Bluetooth keyboard and/or mouse disconnects

2.     Bluetooth keyboard and/or mouse stops working for 10-20 seconds

3.     After reconnecting, the BT keyboard and/or mouse resumes normal function most of the time

4.     On occasion after my BT resets, my shortcut keys are reassigned and all other keys stop working normally. This symptom occurs on both BT keyboard and the laptop keyboard for up to 10 minutes, after the system resets the BT device. Observation Note for this line item: It appears that key reassignment occurs after the BT reset. Since I use my shortcut keys a lot, if I press a key, or a combination of keys (shortcut), at the time the BT device fails, the result would be repeating of the that key.

Possible cause of problem:

1.     Conflict of Windows installed drivers

2.     Scheduled task running in background (i.e. indexing, event logging, etc.)

3.     Internet when accessing secured servers (security notifications pop-ups)

Application running when problem accurse:

1.     Internet Explorer

2.     MS Office Applications (Word, Excel and Outlook)

3.     Garmin GPS software (no device(s) attached at the time when problem occurs)

Suggestions recommended by Dell tech support team:

Replace BT batteries, scanned system for virus and common system/hardware problems, modified system settings, update BT drivers, update bio’s, update Windows, re-install Windows, re-install drivers downloaded from Dell website, updated bios again, replaced keyboard & mouse, replaced BT adapter, replaced hard drive with special configuration from Dell, and replaced my Motherboard.

Bluetooth related messages from the System Error Log:

·         The mutual authentication between the local Bluetooth adapter and a device with Bluetooth adapter address (00:07:61:a9:06:80) failed.

·         The local Bluetooth adapter has failed in an undetermined manner and will not be used. The driver has been unloaded.

·         Initial connection to Bluetooth HID device (00:07:61:a9:06:80) failed.  The device has been removed as a personal or paired device.  You must reinstall the device.

·         Bluetooth HID device (00:07:61:a9:06:80) either went out of range or became unresponsive.

 

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