IOGear GBU521...won't find keyboard or trackpad

[WonkeyDonkey]

I'm not clear about what you are saying here toledo- are you saying that you have a GMYLE w/ BCM2070A02 in Mavericks does not exhibit the same pairing problem that the GBU521 does?

This thread is very surprising to me. I have a Gigabyte UD5H (I have a Rev. 1.1 board) with i7-3770K and Mountain Lion 10.8.2 and a ioGear GBU521 just like the thread starter and have had absolutely no problems with it. I don't use a wireless keyboard with it, just a Magic Mouse. I have a wired Apple branded keyboard plugged into one of two USB2 ports above the Firewire and eSATA connectors on the motherboard rear panel and the GBU521 is plugged into a USB2 port on the keyboard. Sleep and wake from sleep using the Magic Mouse or keyboard work and I have left this build sleeping for up to a week and it awakened with one click of the Magic Mouse. There is a slight delay from the time it wakes up until the mouse cursor becomes active (2 or maybe 3 seconds)- I don't know what is 'normal' for a real Mac.

The GBU521 worked so well for the UD5H, I bought several more for several Gigabyte H67N-USB3-B3 builds I have. The GBU521's are plugged into the front panel USB2 ports. I use Apple Wireless Keyboards and Magic Mice with them and have experienced no problems pairing or in actual use. I haven't tested the range with them, but one of the later builds is in my A/V rack in living room and works from across the living room flawlessly with Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Mouse.

All of the GBU521's were purchased in January or February of 2014, and they are the English language retail packaging only, not the English/Spanish version packaging. I don't know if any of this makes a difference; I noticed all of the posts in this thread are from 2013, and don't know if IOGEAR made any changes in their production run.

BTW, I am not a fan of the Apple Magic Trackpad, so I can provide no information about how that product works with the GBU521.

I can confirm that the Gmyle mentioned with 2070A02 works flawlessly with Mavericks here.

From what I have read, it seems that different adaptors work well with different versions of OSX.

 

[jwk]

Thanks for the reply WonkeyDonkey,

out of curiosity, have you tried a GBU521 with your Mavericks build? I'm trying to sort out whether it is as you say that some BT adapters work better with different builds, or if it's something else, and the only way to zero in on this is by reports from people who've used each in the same build and observe their results. I read a lot of threads from people that had problems with the GBU521 in their builds, and sent them back and got a replacement that worked flawlessly, so it could lead one to suspect that either IOGEAR has a high rate of DOAs, that they don't have effective QC, that there are several different versions / production runs that are all labeled GBU521, or some other unknown factor; or that as you say, "that different adaptors work well with different versions of OSX".
I haven't done a Mavericks build yet, but will change once I finish a few other projects I'm currently working on. I will have to buy a couple GMYLE adapters for comparison and testing.

BTW the original poster's thread was about the GBU521 and 10.8.2 and Gigabyte UD5H, and his GBU521 failed to work; I have the identical hardware and operating system and it works properly, so I posted provide a contrasting result with the same build. This doesn't mean that I'm not interested in finding out if "different adaptors work well with different versions of OSX"; I am interested in knowing whether users failures with the GBU521 might be a device defects or failures or bad QC, or other issue(s).

 

[mendozal]

I purchased the IOGear GBU521 from the guide and I was having lag problems with keyboard and mouse, after reading this post I decided to give a try to the GMYLE adapter.

I just plugged it on the USB 2.0 port and bluetooth is working perfectly. No lags, keyboard and mouse detected immediately.

I assume that my IOGear adapter was defective since it is working for other people.

 

[jwk]

mendozal, can you please clarify what you mean by 'lag problems'? Do you mean there is a lag in when both your keyboard and mouse become active after your desktop appears, and if so, how long is the lag time?

 

[mendozal]

mendozal, can you please clarify what you mean by 'lag problems'? Do you mean there is a lag in when both your keyboard and mouse become active after your desktop appears, and if so, how long is the lag time?

Actually my problem was that the mouse pointer was moving erratically, slowly and sometimes skipping a lot. The keyboard also was taking time to respond to the keystrokes and sometimes skipped some letters.

 

[jwk]

Sounds like a bad GBU521 or possibly you're too close to some other form of RFI, such as wireless router, access point, cordless phone, LED light bulbs (some brands are known to have switching supplies that generate RFI); but if GMYLE adapter is working fine, sounds like a bad GBU521. I'm using 3 on different hacks ATM for about a month and only issue I've seen is it takes about 4-6 seconds for the mouse pointer to become active after the desktop appears. I have some GMYLE adapters I'll be using for comparison sometime soon. I've read a good number of users with GBU521's and Mavericks with no problems, as well as a number who've had DOA's, infant mortalities, or erratic behavior like yours, and I'm starting to think its really bad quality control. Also read from many that the GBU521's don't work in UEFI BIOS but the GMYLE's do, and my results with the GBU521's agree with the other users; if GMYLE's work with UEFI BIOS, that would be good enough reason for me to switch.

 

[Mari0]

Actually my problem was that the mouse pointer was moving erratically, slowly and sometimes skipping a lot. The keyboard also was taking time to respond to the keystrokes and sometimes skipped some letters.

Same problems for me, so I decided to test another dongle. This is:



Gembird Tiny Bluetooth v.2.1 Dongle work perfect with Magic Mouse and Apple wireless keyboard. And is not expensive.

 

[mendozal]

Yes. I also think I had a defective GBU521 dongle.
I chose GMYLE because I wanted bluetooth 4.0 to have functionality like an actual mac machine.

I have my GMYLE dongle in the same position I had the GBU521, next to a wireless adapter for a windows keyboard and mouse. No issues with RF interference so far.

 

[apple pic]

I just did a fresh install of 10.9 using a GA-H87N-WIFI motherboard and I couldn't get the IOGEAR GBU521 Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter to work. I tried everything and got so frustrated I removed the Intel 7260HMW Mini PCI Express Adapter from the motherboard.

Bluetooth Explorer showed it as active and I figured the system was trying to use the 7260HMW instead of the GBU521

This fixed it and now my IOGEAR GBU521 works!!!!

All you have to do is remove the one screw holding in the 7260HMW and pop off the two antennas.

 

[jwk]

mendozal,

Is there some functionality that the GMYLE NPL003340 bluetooth 4.0 dongle has that the IOGear GBU521 bluetooth 4.0 dongle doesn't have (when a working one is used, of course!)? If there is, it's something I never heard before and would like to know about...

jwk