G4 iMac Bluetooth dongle broken. Recommended replacement?

[Eug]

I have a D-Link DBT-120 bluetooth dongle but it's not working properly anymore with my OS X 10.5.8 iMac G4 1.25 GHz. The DBT-120 was the recommended model at the time, and Apple even had a custom firmware for it.

What cheap Bluetooth dongles are still available that work with this machine?

 

[vailr]

The Iogear Bluetooth 4.0 USB micro-sized dongle is what works fine on an OSX Intel Mac (+ in Windows also). It's under $15 at Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833139027
Give that a try, or if it doesn't work, keep it in the spare parts drawer, I guess.

 

[Rakehellion]

I got this for my hackintosh: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$1.68 + free shipping for two of them. Can't beat that price!

 

[Eug]

Thanks. I can't ship those noname ones from Amazon.com to Canada. Also, it seems a lot of the similarly-looking eBay ones don't support Macs for some reason.

However, Newegg.ca does have the Iogear one. It seems their GBU421 (Bluetooth 2.1) supports Macs, but the GBU521 (Bluetooth 4.0) makes no mention of Mac support.

I'm a little concerned about getting the later GBU521 model since I'm only running OS X 10.5.8. That came out in 2009, so no native Bluetooth 4.0 support.

 

[Tegeril]

I actually have a G4 iMac in my kitchen (doing mostly nothing, but occasionally looking up a recipe). I would be cautious about newer BT devices in that computer. The one I have now appears to work fine in the OS, but whenever I reboot the computer, it can never find paired devices until I re-pair them. All because I lost a very old Bluetooth 1.2 module that worked fine

I've started contemplating trying to find the internal module that was BTO on the system, but apparently it needs antenna connectors? I haven't dug hard enough because of how little use the machine gets.

 

[Eug]

The DBT-120 seems to function like a built-in one (esp. after you use Apple's custom firmware for it), but unfortunately, it's discontinued, and on eBay they're $37-50 after shipping.

I think one of the problems though is via USB, the power shuts off after sleep.

 

[Tegeril]

Interestingly enough, I haven't had issues with sleep with mine. I actually deliberately never turn the thing off and just let it sleep, because after it wakes, it re-pairs fine. It's a full reboot cycle that breaks it. And when both the mouse and keyboard are bluetooth, that's a pain in the ass with finding the spare keyboard and mouse that are tucked away in some drawer...

 

[Eug]

Interestingly enough, I haven't had issues with sleep with mine. I actually deliberately never turn the thing off and just let it sleep, because after it wakes, it re-pairs fine. It's a full reboot cycle that breaks it. And when both the mouse and keyboard are bluetooth, that's a pain in the ass with finding the spare keyboard and mouse that are tucked away in some drawer...

What I meant is that if the USB shuts off, how do you wake up the computer via Bluetooth, if it's an external USB Bluetooth adapter? This is an issue with some Bluetooth adapters. ie. Shouldn't need to repair in the first place.

BTW: Interesting support article, mentioning the DBT-120 and this issue.

If a wired USB device wakes the computer from sleep, but the option is dimmed [Ed note: for Bluetooth], try these additional steps:

Be sure the computer has Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later installed.

Be sure the computer has either an internal Bluetooth module or a connected D-Link DBT-120 USB-to-Bluetooth adapter, revision B2 or later. This feature only works with these devices.

Download and install the latest Bluetooth software for your operating system.

If the computer still will not wake, download and install the latest Bluetooth Firmware Updater.

Note: The D-Link DBT-120 USB-to-Bluetooth adapter is not compatible with OS X v10.6 or later.

Also this article:

Some third-party USB Bluetooth adaptors, such as the D-Link DBT-120 (C1 rev or later) may not allow wireless keyboards or mice to wake some Macs from sleep.

---

Apple has identified issues waking from sleep with certain models of the D-Link DBT-120 adaptor with hardware versions of C1 or later. Models with versions of B2 through B4 are not affected by this issue.

 

[Tegeril]

You can tap the power button to wake it from sleep.