Bluetooth Signal Terrible on Hackintosh

[mrobraven]

Hi,

Sorry in advance if this post is in the wrong thread. I have recently built a Hackintosh in the Mini-ITX Streacom FICWS Evo which has an i3 9100 and 8GB of RAM. I have used the BCM94360NG card because of it's native support with MacOS and the WiFi works great! The card has been arranged inside with a pair of internal antennas which are stuck to either side of the case. I would have thought that with WiFi working well, that bluetooth would have too but this is not the case. At the minute I am having to use the bluetooth keyboard and mouse by placing them on top of the case otherwise the signal is not strong enough and they will not work. Does anyone have any idea about how I would go about fixing this?

I have already tried:
- connecting to the devices from my phone (to which their range is normal)
- trying to connect to a bluetooth speaker to which the problem remains

Many Thanks In Advance,

Matthew

 

[Feartech]

Hi,

Sorry in advance if this post is in the wrong thread. I have recently built a Hackintosh in the Mini-ITX Streacom FICWS Evo which has an i3 9100 and 8GB of RAM. I have used the BCM94360NG card because of it's native support with MacOS and the WiFi works great! The card has been arranged inside with a pair of internal antennas which are stuck to either side of the case. I would have thought that with WiFi working well, that bluetooth would have too but this is not the case. At the minute I am having to use the bluetooth keyboard and mouse by placing them on top of the case otherwise the signal is not strong enough and they will not work. Does anyone have any idea about how I would go about fixing this?

I have already tried:
- connecting to the devices from my phone (to which their range is normal)
- trying to connect to a bluetooth speaker to which the problem remains

Many Thanks In Advance,

Matthew

try to disable your wifi and test or use a 5ghz wifi connection

 

[mrobraven]

Hi @Feartech ,

Thanks for the fast reply. I've just given that a go and the problem still persists?

Matthew

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Hi @Feartech ,

Thanks for the fast reply. I've just given that a go and the problem still persists?

Matthew

Hi there.

I think, in that case, you might need an external antenna. Bluetooth in Hackintoshes is notorious for doing this, even with a genuine Apple card.

As your build has a metal case too, I would suggest a longer antenna lead and a more substantial antenna, in clear sight of the mouse/keyboard.

I am not aware of any software "fix" to this problem. But others may disagree ...

 

[jaymonkey]

The card has been arranged inside with a pair of internal antennas which are stuck to either side of the case. I would have thought that with WiFi working well, that bluetooth would have too but this is not the case.

@mrobraven,

If you have mounted the antennas inside the case then it is no wonder your are having issues. The case is acting like a faraday cage and is stopping the BT signal.

WiFi is a much stronger signal so has a better chance of penetrating the case through vents and and gaps, but with BT being a low power signal it is especially susceptible to the faraday effect and also interference from the motherboard/CPU, the faraday effect will be effecting the WiFi signal its just not as noticeable as its a stronger signal.

Unless your case is made of plastic or has a specific antenna mounting point that has plastic covers like iMacs or Mini-Macs then you need to mount your antennas externally in order for BT to work.

This is a well known issue and even effects tower systems with the antennas attached to the rear of the case which i wrote about in this article :-

[PRO TIP] Get better WiFi/BT Signal when using PCIe BT/WiFi Card in a Tower Case

A few months back I added a PCIe WiFi & BT card to my desktop Hackintosh system. The card I bought was based on the BCM943602CS chipset which is a 3x3 MIMO device and is natively supported by MacOS, these cards can be found cheap on eBay for around £30.00 (approx $37): The card included three...

www.tonymacx86.com

Cheers
Jay

 

[mrobraven]

Thank you @UtterDisbelief !

I'll definitey give that a go if nothing else works out

Thanks,

Matthew

 

[mrobraven]

Hi Guys,

I have used what you have said and worked out a solution that has worked for me.

I removed the antennas from inside the case and mounted the ends of each on the bottom of the case and this has extended the distance by about half a metre which is enough for my keyboard and mouse.

Thank you again!

Matthew.