I’ve been having some issues with my network card on my new Minisforum UM690S. The issue is related to both WiFi and Bluetooth, but seeing as I have now a cabled connection for internet (and it will stay that way), I am really just in need of solving this for the Bluetooth-issue. I’ve been trying to figure out how to solve this using iwconfig and hciconfig, but so far I am coming up empty with a concrete solution.
The problem:
The Bluetooth signal strength seems to be very poor. The computer is in a cupboard under my TV, with a wooden panel blocking the line of sight (this will need to stay closed). I use a Bluetooth keyboard with mousepad, and otherwise I connect game controllers when I want to play games. If I am close enough to the machine, especially the controllers work just fine while the keyboard is a bit wonky, but when I am in my couch (about 3 m / 10 ft away), the keyboard stops working and the game controllers are behaving mad. There will be many lines in dmesg reporting from the controller that says something like “compensating for 27 dropped IMU reports”. This is a big problem for me, because the computer’s main function is as an entertainment station where I will spend 99% of my time using the computer in the couch.
The keyboard has been used with no problems with a previous computer at the same distance, never had any issues with it then. I also had a similar issue with my WiFi - when the computer was temporarily placed in a room further from my WiFi hotspot, the dl/ul speeds were extremely slow. Moving the computer much closer to the hotspot fixed this issue.
I suspect the root of the issue is the low transmitting power, which for WiFi is reported to be 3 dBm (output from iwconfig). My laptop outputs 22 dBm, and the previous computer would output the same (if not 20 dBm). I don’t understand the output that hciconfig inqtpl yields, but the number following “TX bytes” is significantly lower than on my laptop. I think I need to change this, but I am not entirely sure how and to what, and if it is even a good idea to mess around with this.
Some relevant (?) output: Let me know if there are other output that can be helpful in diagnosing / fixing the problem.
$ inxi -Fxpmrz
...
Network:
Device-2: MEDIATEK MT7921 802.11ax PCI Express Wireless Network Adapter.
driver: mt7921e v: kernel bus-ID: 03:00.0
...
Bluetooth:
Device-1: MediaTek Wireless_Device type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
bus-ID: 5-3:2
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter>
bt-v: 3.0 lmp-v: 5.2
$ hciconfig inqtpl
hci0: Type: Primary Bus: USB
BD Address: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX ACL MTU: 1021:6 SCO MTU: 240:8
UP RUNNING PSCAN
RX bytes:12353226 acl:217808 sco:0 events:496 errors:0
TX bytes:10815 acl:145 sco:0 commands:193 errors.0
$ iwconfig
wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"MyNetwork"
Mode:Managed Frequency: 5.5 GHz Access Point: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
Bit Rate=780 Mb/s Tx-Power=3 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=70/70 Signal level=-32 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
I’d like to keep it neat without anything sticking out and being visible from the cupboard. None of these devices had any issue with my previous computer that was placed in the exact same manner, so I imagine it must be possible to get it working here. But could it be that the network card is simply trash and can’t output any stronger? In that case the same kind of USB BT adapter could simply be placed in the cupboard. I think that would be an acceptable backup solution if I can’t resolve it with existing hardware.
EDIT: I should add, keeping the door open does not improve anything. The cupboard is wooden.
Well it was a quick and dirty solution that would’ve been easier to implement.
What kind of computer is it?
I have a OG Surface Pro tablet and the Bluetooth and WiFi will often fail because they’re too close to each other and causes some kind of interference or something. Maybe there’s something causing interference in your case? Wireless phones? Something else that uses a frequency in the same range?
It’s a Minisforum UM690S. Currently I’ve turned off WiFi, and there are no other devices nearby with Bluetooth turned on. I have a laptop and phone nearby that are on WiFi.
I just tried to have a gaming session a bit closer to where I would typically sit. It would sometimes work flawlessly for a long time, but then it would enter a period of lag and missed button presses. I can’t think of whether there would’ve been anything that started interfering at the times it started lagging. The keyboard can be pretty unresponsive very close to the computer as well. This keyboard has worked perfectly with another mini-PC at my desired distance that this computer meant to replace.