Apple Magic Trackpad unresponsive after a few seconds of inactivity with BT5 adapter.

[k4in_5037]

There is a serious bug with the Apple Magic Trackpad I'm troubleshooting, I didn't even knew it was reWASD handling the device, I thought windows had native support for it, that's how seamless it works with reWASD installed. Anyway, my Bluetooth adapter was an Asus BT4 (chip broadcom BCM920702), with this adapter is working fine, I updated it because I needed more range and I'm connecting more devices (some are also BT5), I bought a generic no brand Bluetooth 5 adapter with chip realtek rtl8761, then I started to notice that the trackpad doesn't register my taps and the cursor doesn't move if I stop touching it for anything in between 10 to 20 seconds (sometimes more), until I lift my finger and touch it again, is extremely annoying.

I bought another adapter, a tp-link UB5A with the same realtek chip, it was actually better, stable connection (the cheap one disconnected devices randomly), but the issue remained, I thought it was because some powersaving feature of Bluetooth 5, or the realtek chip or the driver, then I bought another adapter, the Asus BT5, it uses the rtl8761b chip, almost the same, I guess a revision of it, but since the previous Asus works fine I gave it a shot but no luck, the same bug persists, If I let go the touchpad for 10 to 30 or so seconds and tap it or slide my finger to move the cursor its unresponsive until the next touch.

Then I installed the mac precision touchpad driver on github, but I noticed that windows wasn't loading this driver, then I found this issue https://github.com/imbushuo/mac-prec...pad/issues/467 and I realized it was reWASD that made the trackpad work and also the bug is on reWASD side, after uninstalling reWASD and using the precision driver the problem went away, I also tried https://magicutilities.net/magic-trackpad/features and it doesn't become unresponsive like with reWASD, but it treats the trackpad like a mouse and I don't like that.

Another thing that I noticed, when I connect a Bluetooth headset the problem disappears, is like the headset is keeping the Bluetooth connection alive so the trackpad doesn't become unresponsive.

A side note, there is another bug when you make a 4 finger swipe and your palm happens to touch the bottom edge of the pad, the trackpad disconnects from reWASD, from windows is still showing as connected but is totally unresponsive until I toggle the trackpad switch to off/on, this also happens with the Asus BT4 adapter.

So right now my options are:

• Not using reWASD. Not possible I've become dependent of this awesome tool.
• Use the old Asus BT4 adapter. Not ideal, but I guess I could work with it in the mean time.
• Just grit my teeth and keep it like this like I've been doing for the past 2 weeks.

Is there a way to disable the trackpad support from reWASD?, or even disable reWASD globally so it doesn't start with windows, not only the frontend but the underlying service?, so I could use the precision driver without uninstalling reWASD, I wouldn't mind that much to restart the system when I want to use reWASD.

Finally as a feature request, It would be nice if you could show the battery level for the trackpad, the magic utilities can do it and this tool https://www.bluetoothgoodies.com , I'm sure you could do it too .

Thank you!

[Miron4ik42]

Hello.

Please let me know where you purchased your BT5 adapter. You can also try to uncheck the [Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power] option in [Power Management] tab. Then, check the behavior.

Is there a way to disable the trackpad support from reWASD?

There is a trick to achieve this:

Mechanism for reWASD to completely ingnore specific classic bluetooth device (Apple Magic Trackpad 2 used as example)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After pairing your device in Windows open device manager and find it under Bluetooth category.
In this case you must see Magic Trackpad 2 device.
Now click on it and select View->Devices by connection.
This will display device connection tree.
Here you will see 'Bluetooth HID Device' above it and it is actual device which you need.
Now right-click on it and select Properties->Details-> Device instance path.
You will see long string like BTHENUM{....
This is actual registry location created by Windows for your device after pairing.
Now open registy editor, go to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\ and find 'Device Parameters' under this key.
Create new DWORD value with name 'IgnoredbyreWASD' and assign any non-zero value to it.
Then reboot your PC and this bluetooth device will be ignored by reWASD.
NOTE: if you manually remove your device inside 'Bluetooth & other devices' your pairing will be deleted.
and the above registry key is removed too. So the above procedure will need to be done again.

[k4in_5037]

I forgot to mention that I'm using Windows 10 Pro Version 22H2 OS build 19045.3208 and reWASD 6.6.0.7724

I bought them all from amazon, these are the links.
The cheap generic one https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B0BM44WSKP
I was deceived by the antenna, well... it did seemed to have better range but this thing keep disconnecting my devices.
Tp-Link UB5A https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B0B5B7R9FF
Asus BT500 https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B08DFBNG7F

I don't notice any difference between the Tp-Link and the Asus, both work fine and have a stable connection, they both use the same driver (I checked) but the Asus uses the "bu" version of the chip which is slightly different I think, at least according to this https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquesti...mment/g2cgtj6/

these devices use the Realtek 8761BU chipset, take a look at the btrtl Linux kernel driver and you will see that there is support for the 8761B but not the 8761BU.

I got it mixed up in my OP with the models, from what I gather from my searches, the first two uses the rtl8761b an the asus is rtl8761bu, right now I'm using the Asus.

You can also try to uncheck the [Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power] option in [Power Management] tab. Then, check the behavior.

Yeah that's one of the first things I tried, disabled it in the device itself and all of the devices lower on the tree by ordering by connection, I also disabled usb selective suspending in the old control panel power options, nothing seemed to make any difference.

There is a trick to achieve this:

Ok so this works, the trackpad is not showing as touchpad and only functions as a simple mouse with the windows hid drivers, weirdly enough for some reason it also always shows as connected in "Bluetooth & other devices" even with the trackpad switch on off.
BUT here's the bad news... when I install the precision driver I get the same error as in the github issue that I linked.

So I looked at this topic https://forum.rewasd.com/forum/rewasd/technical-questions-aa/232969-rewasd-breaks-my-magic-trackpad-2?p=235434#post235434

Ok, we'll try to investigate this issue more. Looks like Magic Trackpad 2 still does not have any native Windows driver on bluetooth, right? And yes, in the past we tried to contact the developer of this 3rd party driver but he did not bother to reply. We looked at its source code and honestly it is just a "dirty hack" into HID stack on Windows, that is why it has compatibility problems.
It is not working with reWASD just 'by accident', because reWASD also has own filter driver for USB and bluetooth gamepads and this driver does not expect it.
It is clear that author of this driver has made it without proper testing etc.
We don't recommend to install this software at all as it may break operation of other bluetooth devices and if you use it you are 'balancing on the edge' already.

So I guess there's no much I can do?, or can I disable reWASD from starting so I don't have to uninstall?.

Yesterday I was using it with reWASD installed and I noticed that the issue is more easily reproducible if I'm at a longer distance from the BT adapter, since I use it for chill couch gaming for point and click games, VNs, turn based and the like, but is not a signal issue, since there is no lag or shaky connection, and it doesn't fail as long as I'm touching the pad (and the fact that it also happens if I'm a few cm away from the adapter).

Right now I'm using the precision driver and I've not had any unresponsiveness like with reWASD, it may not be pretty internally but the trackpad is snappy.

Let me know if you need more info to help you reproducing this, thanks for the assistance!

[Miron4ik42]

You are right. It is not recommended to install another firmware for Apple Magic Trackpad 2 if you have reWASD.

So I guess there's no much I can do?, or can I disable reWASD from starting so I don't have to uninstall?.

Unfortunately, there is no other way except uninstalling reWASD

Yesterday I was using it with reWASD installed and I noticed that the issue is more easily reproducible if I'm at a longer distance from the BT adapter, since I use it for chill couch gaming for point and click games, VNs, turn based and the like, but is not a signal issue, since there is no lag or shaky connection, and it doesn't fail as long as I'm touching the pad (and the fact that it also happens if I'm a few cm away from the adapter).

Interesting observation. I'll pass it on to reWASD team.

I appreciate your cooperation

[DevX]

We have got ASUS USB-BT500 adapter too and will study it more carefully with Apple Magic Trackpad 2.
Also in the next version we'll try to add option in reWASD GUI to disable Apple Magic Trackpad 2 support so you can more easily install other 3rd part drivers (including the one you mentioned) without uninstalling reWASD.

>A side note, there is another bug when you make a 4 finger swipe and your palm happens to touch the bottom edge of the pad, the trackpad disconnects from reWASD
Thank you for this report, we'll fix this in the next version as well.

>Finally as a feature request, It would be nice if you could show the battery level for the trackpad
We'll consider this once reWASD will add direct touchpad support in GUI and will allow to assign mappings to fingers etc. This is in our TODO list.

[strokel]

Hey there!

We recently updated reWASD with issue fixes.
Please update to a new version of reWASD and check if your issue persists.

You can download the current version of reWASD on our official website.

[k4in_5037]

Hey there!

We recently updated reWASD with issue fixes.
Please update to a new version of reWASD and check if your issue persists.

You can download the current version of reWASD on our official website.

Hi again, I saw the new update and notes yesterday and updated reWASD, I've been using the Asus BT4, and the first thing I noticed when I restarted is that the cursor was very choppy like skipping a good chunk of pixels at times, then I thought of trying the BT500 and when I was unplugging the BT4, the USB connector (the surrounding metal part) just fell off and got stuck in the port! talk about bad luck, so now I'm unable to test and give you more feedback for that BT adapter...

Anyway after plug in the BT500 and restarting the cursor was smooth again but after a little while the spontaneous unresponsiveness reappeared, it was late at night, so today I gave it more test time and yet the problem persist. One thing to note is that my trackpad ran out of battery today, I thought that maybe low battery was the problem, while wired the trackpad worked flawlessly as expected, then after charging it and connecting via bluetooth the cursor movement was very choppy the same as with the BT4, I restarted and that fixed that issue, but the unresponsive touch at times was still there.

We have got ASUS USB-BT500 adapter too and will study it more carefully with Apple Magic Trackpad 2.
Also in the next version we'll try to add option in reWASD GUI to disable Apple Magic Trackpad 2 support so you can more easily install other 3rd part drivers (including the one you mentioned) without uninstalling reWASD.

Thank you for implementing this in such short time, it works well and I can use other drivers and reWASD while you figure out the issue with the trackpad, and of course I'll keep and eye on this thread and updates and provide any help I can.

>A side note, there is another bug when you make a 4 finger swipe and your palm happens to touch the bottom edge of the pad, the trackpad disconnects from reWASD
Thank you for this report, we'll fix this in the next version as well.

From my testing this is fixed in the new version, nice!.

>Finally as a feature request, It would be nice if you could show the battery level for the trackpad
We'll consider this once reWASD will add direct touchpad support in GUI and will allow to assign mappings to fingers etc. This is in our TODO list.

That sounds great I'm looking forward to it, I'm always happy to experiment with new features, thank you for your hard work and keeping making reWASD better.

[DevX]

In our tests ASUS USB-BT500 works fine and your issue with unresponsiveness cannot be reproduced. So there must be something else on your side.

[k4in_5037]

I don`t know what else could be, if there is something on my end and hardware combination causing the issue, but is certain that this doesn't happen with the 3rd party driver. I made a short video showing the problem:

In this video I don't have another input device connected other than the mouse, the only thing in bluetooth is the trackpad, first I show my PC configuration, and at 01:25 I reproduce the issue.

[tij]

Do you have Steam running in background? If you do, try quitting Steam and see if the problem persist.

[k4in_5037]

Sorry for the late response, I tried closing steam but it made no difference, also, since I have a steam controller with its proprietary wireless adapter, I unplugged it in case it was making some interference, still the same result.

At this point I kind of want to try windows 11 in this machine just to see if it works, but I don't really like it, and I don't have a spare drive to put it there.