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Looking for a bit of advice here. My new home pc setup consists of an old 2017 hp desktop that I got given for free, works fine with a fresh ssd installed.
The tv is being used as the monitor with the pc concealed behind it. As the pc is now about 4m away, I've had to revert to a wireless keyboard and mouse, both using usb dongles.
Keyboard works perfectly but mouse is very laggy and doesn't register clicks. My wifi is on 2.4GHz frequency, as is the keyboard and mouse so I'm thinking this may have something to do with it, but doesn't explain the keyboard working perfectly?
The mouse is a few years old and I'm wondering if a newer mouse with Bluetooth instead of a dongle would help here. And yes, I've tried changing the batteries in the mouse.
Any advice before I spend money on a new mouse which might not solve the issue?
Do you have a usb extension cable? If yes try putting the mouse dongle into in and then positioning that under the TV so the mouse has line of sight.
I could give that a try, I'm not sure if I would have space as I have a speaker bar system under the tv
The mouse is a few years old and I’m wondering if a newer mouse with Bluetooth instead of a dongle would help here. And yes, I’ve tried changing the batteries in the mouse.
IME Bluetooth is better, especially some of the newer stuff, seems much more robust than the old dongle stuff. Not used in your exact scenario though...
I coukd give that a try, I’m not sure if I would have space as I have a speaker bar system under the tv
Just needs to be a cable - I used a similar set up for my ANT sensors on the turbo trainer.
Generally speaking one dongle connects both keyb and mouse so I suggest you buy a combo kit with one dongle.
Do you have a usb extension cable? If yes try putting the mouse dongle into in and then positioning that under the TV so the mouse has line of sight.
I have a similar setup to the OP, had the same problem, putting the dongle on an extension cable in line of sight made a massive difference.
I've had some similar problems recently.
1) My wireless microsoft mouse works nowhere near as smoothly on my new laptop as it used to on my old W10 (upgraded from 7) laptop.
2) The one on my work desktop (dell) needs a line of sight, plug it in the back of the PC and it's unusable. And that's only in a tiny little SFF PC, smaller and thinner than a laptop!
So based on that I'm guessing either there's an issue in the windows mouse driver (seems unlikely given how widespread that would be). Or they're prone to interference. If the dongle is in a PC hidden behind the TV then that could well be the issue.
Bluetooth won't solve it, the polling rate is significantly slower so you get noticeable lag when using the mouse or pressing keys quickly. That's why most wireless keyboards/mice come with a dongle. Why they couldn't just agree a 2.4ghz standard and bake it into motherboards I've no idea.
How old is "old"? Really old wireless mice with dongles almost as big as the mouse itself were terrible.
How old is “old”? Really old wireless mice with dongles almost as big as the mouse itself were terrible.
Probably 3-4 years old, which isn't really that old but knowing how fast PC stuff progresses it could be considered old.
Ah, not relevant then. I'd go with others' suggestions of a USB extension cable in the first instance. Can't hurt even if you do wind up having to replace it.