PS3 controller to PC via bluetooth issue

[FreezingIceKirby]

I've been using my PS3 controller on my laptop for some time now, but something strange has been going on with it as of late... hopefully one of you guys can help me solve this.

It connects to the bluetooth dongle just fine, but after a certain amount of time (practically at random it seems), the controller starts acting weird. For example, pressing left on the d-pad/analogue stick won't make the character move in-game until about a second later, sometimes I'll let go of the d-pad/analogue stick and the character will keep moving in whatever direction he's going for a couple more seconds (or he won't even stop, forcing me to disconnect the controller or unplug the bluetooth), and button presses sometimes won't respond at all. It doesn't do this all the time, and it's usually perfectly fine when it first connects... and disconnecting and re-connecting does fix it, but often only temporarily.

I thought it only happened whenever I was playing something that might be considered CPU-intensive (for my laptop, anyway), like the Dolphin Emulator or certain Steam games... but it also seems to do it with less-strenuous games, too (like Spelunky, for example).

Anyone have any idea what might be causing this? Is it the controller itself, the bluetooth dongle, or perhaps something wrong with my Laptop?

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Here's some info. Let me know if I need to provide more.

I'm using an official first-party PS3 controller. It's a dualshock, six-axis version. The battery can be fully charged and it'll still happen.

The bluetooth dongle is a TaoTronics TT-BA03 4.0 USB adapter. It's the only adapter I've got, so I haven't been able to test if it happens with another or not.

Laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad X230. Windows 7 Professional x64, 4gb of ram, 2.6ghz of memory (can be boosted up to 3.3), Intel i5, HD 4000, and has three USB slots (two 3.0, one 2.0). This issue doesn't seem to happen with corded USB controllers, so it may not be a hardware issue?

I also tried both MotionInJoy/BetterDS3 and the ScpDriver, but it still manages to happen regardless of which one I use.

Anyone have any ideas?


EDIT - Oh crap, I think I posted this in the wrong section. Can a mod move this to the general board or something? Sorry about that.

 

[FireEmblemGuy]

Having used an x230i with similar specs, it's not your laptop hardware.

My guess would be either interference with the dongle or the dongle itself just generally being useless, although I've used a handful of generic Bluetooth 4.0 dongles without issue. How far are you from your laptop while you play, and are there any other wireless devices in use?

I do see some reviews with people saying they've used it for PS3 controllers, without any note of if or when it stopped working for them. According to Amazon.de these use the CSR8510 chipset, as do the generic ones I generally buy. If you have $5 to spare you could try one of these, but if the dongle itself isn't actually the issue it's more or less a waste of $5 (plus you've generally got to do something about the overly-bright LED).

 

[FreezingIceKirby]

My guess would be either interference with the dongle or the dongle itself just generally being useless, although I've used a handful of generic Bluetooth 4.0 dongles without issue. How far are you from your laptop while you play, and are there any other wireless devices in use?

I'm usually about five to six feet away from it. As far as I'm aware, nothing around me should be interfering with it... at least, I don't think so, anyway. Now that I think about it, it always seems to happen whenever I'm over visiting my father, and I can't seem to recall if it's ever happened at my house or not. I'll have to test it later and see what happens.

But otherwise, I think you might be right... I think the dongle itself might just be junk. To be honest, I only bought it specifically to use with my PS3 controller, so perhaps I'll just buy that Mayflash PS3 to PC adapter, since I already own the Wii U Pro controller version and it's never given me any trouble (the only reason I don't use it instead is because I just generally like the PS3 controller more... and analogue triggers, which is nice to have when playing some Gamecube games in Dolphin).

Thanks for the help, btw. I appreciate it!