Bluetooth lags with Intel 11th gen devices (Intel AX)

[Marcus_St]

Hello all,

As many others, I do experience, that Bluetooth 5.0 input peripherals do not work to a usable state on Intel 11th gen devices with Intel AX* wireless cards.

The issue is that mouse/keyboards inputs ARE received by the devices, but not processed on an OS level. As a result, the mouse cursor/scroll wheel/buttons constantly "hang" until the OS can process the input and then "jump" around the screen.

You can see a video here: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AgyIEcRUU6OZhCEM2e6mDG54SNGC?e=Mxqxwb , please notice the red circles to see when the mouse cursor jumps. A timer is running in the background to show that the video was not cut.

The devices tested/affected are:

Intel devices:

• Dell XPS 9310 (Intel AX1650)
• Dell Inspiron 5406 (Intel AX201)

Bluettoth devices:

• Logitech MX anywhere 3
• HP Spectre 700 mouse
• Dell Mobile Wireless-Maus – MS3320W

Operating systems:

• Windows 10 (latest version)
• Ubuntu 20.04 with latest patches

Connected Bluetooth peripherals face a constant lag after not being actively used for 3-5 seconds. It affects movements, scrolls, mouse pressed, etc. 3-5 seconds is so fast, that it completely interrupts the workflow. It is the time to read a sentence and then to move the mouse again or klick a button.

The issue is reproducible on Windows AND Linux (Ubuntu 20.04) operating systems. So it is NOT a Windows issue but either with Intel drivers or on the firmware level.

The lags do NOT occur on a Dell Inspiron 7501 with Intel i5-10300H. The issue is completely absent there! Also on other devices running a Intel <11th gen system or AMD systems (HP, Lenovo, Fujitsu), the issue could not be reproduced. The issue could also not be reproduced using non BLE peripherals! The issue can also not be reproduced if an external Bluetooth adapter is used on the affected devices. 

I've went through Dell support for the last 4 months and the 3rd level team finally responded that the "behavior is according to the Intel specifications".

There is a fix available which is to disable all USB power management but that leads to multiple hardware related OS crashes, as proper power management is essential for most hardware components including Intel components.

The forums of all OEMs are full with reports according  this issue in combination with 11th gen Intel processors. 

@intel, what can your customers do about that? Is there a fix in the works?

If you need more information, I am happy to support where I can!

Kind regards,

Marcus

[David_G_Intel]

Since we have not seen an update for several days, we will close this thread. You can contact live support in case that you need assistance.

This thread will no longer be monitored by Intel, thank you for your understanding. 

Best regards, 

David G. 

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[Marcus_St]

Hello @David_G_Intel 

as I said, the solution for me was to move away from Intel hardware. Since then, everything works without any issue.

It is sad to see how Intel is not recognizing the issue as it is 100% reproducible on all devices I've seen so far. In my case, Dell even confirmed that this is an issue with current Intel hard- and firmware and provided a full refund for a 10 month old laptop. It is not what I wanted (I want a working laptop) but it looks like this is the only solution for now.

Alternatively, you could raise the issue to your technical teams, as there are many many reports of the same issue for different notebooks OEMs even in this forum. But I guess that is what you should avoid

Best regards,

Marcus

[NavMan]

Might be completely wrong here but we are experiencing the same issues with Intel NUC's. We found adding a USB hub or USB extension cord made a difference.

Just found this and confirms what we are doing is correct.

https://www.intel.com.au/content/www/au/en/support/articles/000016225/intel-nuc.html

[n_scott_pearson]

It's certainly true that USB 3.x utilizes a signaling frequency in the 2.4GHz band and thus could be a point of interference with both 2.4GHz Wireless and Bluetooth communications. All it takes is one poor quality, improperly shielded USB cable or improperly shielded USB device and this interference can manifest. If moving a device or cable to a USB hub or away from the system via a (good quality) USB extension cable alleviates this interference, you know that this device/cable has a shielding problem and should be replaced.

Hope this helps,

...S