Extend Bluetooth on motherboard? (MSI MAG X570 TOMAHAWK)

Vegeta · 31 Oct 2022 at 17:37

Hi I recently routed a HDMI cable to a tv in the next room to be able to play my pc on my 55” Oled. I have a couple of PS5 controllers linked to steam and they use Bluetooth. Although the distance isn’t that far the signal drops out as soon as I leave the bedroom where the PC is located.

I have noticed my motherboard has two antenna type connections location on the I/O shield - would I be able to buy an antenna to plug into there move the antenna closer to my room to be able to boost the bluetooth? Or is this for Wifi only? Or would I have to buy a whole other unit external/internal Bluetooth to be able to extend my range?

Thank you

gpuerrilla · 31 Oct 2022 at 17:42

Can you run a length of USB as the extender and just plug in a Bluetooth receiver dongle into it (that would be in the room your playing)?

lsg1r · 31 Oct 2022 at 20:52

Vegeta said:
I have noticed my motherboard has two antenna type connections location on the I/O shield - would I be able to buy an antenna to plug into there move the antenna closer

Yes, you can get external antenna's on the end of a cable, some high end boards even come with this approach as standard.

Vegeta said:
to my room to be able to boost the bluetooth? Or is this for Wifi only?

I think it's for both but I can't say I noticed any difference to my bluetooth when I had the antenna's disconnected so I'm not going to say it would do anything to increase the range. Even if it did affect bluetooth you'd only be extending the range of the pc, not the ps5 controller, so you'd get better signal going to the controller but it would still be weak going from the controller to pc.

Vegeta said:
Or would I have to buy a whole other unit external/internal Bluetooth to be able to extend my range?

Personally I'd do as gpuerilla said and grab a usb extension and a bluetooth usb dongle. Then disabling the built in bluetooth and using the one on the end of the usb cable instead.

BUDFORCE · 31 Oct 2022 at 21:27

The in built Bluetooth on this motherboard is ****.

Best using a usb dongle instead and disabling it.

pc-guy · 7 Nov 2022 at 20:41

Don’t have any issues with my Bluetooth on my MSI unify. It’s range is insane for my headphone - not tried it with the Xbox controller.

Personally I would keep your pc close to your TV - running long length of HDMI isn’t ideal - should be running fiber instead.

That obviously creates the other issue of be able to work on your computer but least trying to get mouse and keyboard working is less critical than degraded graphic signal and latency laced controller signal.

Vegeta · 10 Nov 2022 at 14:03

So just got a cheap usb T-Link Bluetooth 5 connector for £10 and it works plugged into the pc let alone having to route the cable... It covered the distance to the controllers in the other room. Which is not an issue as I routed the other cable under the floorboards/through the walls. I have routed it anyways to be at the centre of where my controllers will be and PC is and all works fine.

BUDFORCE · 10 Nov 2022 at 14:20

Vegeta said:
So just got a cheap usb T-Link Bluetooth 5 connector for £10 and it works plugged into the pc let alone having to route the cable... It covered the distance to the controllers in the other room. Which is not an issue as I routed the other cable under the floorboards/through the walls. I have routed it anyways to be at the centre of where my controllers will be and PC is and all works fine.

Yup just shows you the inbuilt bluetooth is absolute trash. I have the same motherboard, was initally running bluetooth headphones and was getting this wierd popping and distortion, turns out, even though my head was what, 3 feet away??? from the motherboard, I was already starting to go out of range, now I use an asus BT dongle plugged into the front USB port and my headphones work fine even if I am downstairs.

There was a guy from MSI who used to occasionally come on this forum and I did feed it back to him, funnily enough he never really acknowledged the post.

You might find every now and then, after a windows update or similar, your settings may revert back to the onboard bluetooth, if you start getting wierd issues check there first.

Otherwise touch wood this motherboard has been fine.

JollyJamma · 10 Nov 2022 at 15:00

Unfortunately the big metal chassis that your computer is in blocks a lot of the bluetooth signal so I'd suggest moving to an external adapter.

I go out of my way to not use onboard wifi and so on for this very reason as even with external antennae, the signal isn't great. They also don't use the best bluetooth/wifi controllers.