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Dongles are usually not Bluetooth or WiFi. But sometimes share the same frequencies. The M1 MacBooks have been having Bluetooth issues. Not applicable to your

Dongles are usually not Bluetooth or WiFi. But sometimes share the same frequencies. The M1 MacBooks have been having Bluetooth issues. Not applicable to your dongle issue, but for others: One weird trick that works without fail for me is disabling WiFi, connecting your Bluetooth devices, and reenabling WiFi. Don’t know why it works.

Stratoscope 6y ago
To elaborate on this for GP, if a keyboard has its own wireless dongle, it is usually in the 2.4GHz frequency band, same as used by microwave ovens, Bluetooth, and 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. The keyboard and/or dongle should list the frequency band it uses. The Wi-Fi chipset in the computer is not used at all here. The dongle presents itself to the computer as a USB human input device, just like any other USB keyboard or mouse. This is why you can use a keyboard like this to access the BIOS settings at boot time on a PC, which you can't do with a Bluetooth keyboard. That said, the wireless connection between the dongle and the keyboard is subject to interference by other 2.4GHz devices. So one thing to make sure of is to connect to a 5GHz Wi-Fi network, not 2.4GHz. And as you mentioned, Bluetooth can also interfere. I had an interesting case of this some time ago. I was using a ThinkPad TrackPoint Wireless Keyboard II with a desktop computer on the floor several feet away. This keyboard can either use Bluetooth or its own USB dongle; I used the latter so I could access BIOS settings. It worked great - except when I used my Bluetooth Apple AirPods with a phone (either iPhone or Android). Then the keyboard would start missing characters or repeating them wildly. The solution was to use a USB extension cable to put the keyboard dongle on my desk near the keyboard itself. That improved the signal between the two and eliminated the Bluetooth interference.
- dm33tri 6y ago
  Yeah same I thought my laptop broke because my AirPods and my mouse weren't working. Turned out it's the other laptop connected to 2.4GHz across the room.

Stratoscope 6y ago

To elaborate on this for GP, if a keyboard has its own wireless dongle, it is usually in the 2.4GHz frequency band, same as used by microwave ovens, Bluetooth, and 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. The keyboard and/or dongle should list the frequency band it uses. The Wi-Fi chipset in the computer is not used at all here. The dongle presents itself to the computer as a USB human input device, just like any other USB keyboard or mouse. This is why you can use a keyboard like this to access the BIOS settings at boot time on a PC, which you can't do with a Bluetooth keyboard. That said, the wireless connection between the dongle and the keyboard is subject to interference by other 2.4GHz devices. So one thing to make sure of is to connect to a 5GHz Wi-Fi network, not 2.4GHz. And as you mentioned, Bluetooth can also interfere. I had an interesting case of this some time ago. I was using a ThinkPad TrackPoint Wireless Keyboard II with a desktop computer on the floor several feet away. This keyboard can either use Bluetooth or its own USB dongle; I used the latter so I could access BIOS settings. It worked great - except when I used my Bluetooth Apple AirPods with a phone (either iPhone or Android). Then the keyboard would start missing characters or repeating them wildly. The solution was to use a USB extension cable to put the keyboard dongle on my desk near the keyboard itself. That improved the signal between the two and eliminated the Bluetooth interference.

dm33tri 6y ago
Yeah same I thought my laptop broke because my AirPods and my mouse weren't working. Turned out it's the other laptop connected to 2.4GHz across the room.