Persistant Bluetooth Issues

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PsychoPsyops

PsychoPsyops

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Hello everyone,

I have a pair of Sony h.ear MDR-100ABN wireless headphones, which connect to my desktop pc via bluetooth dongle when turned on.

Nearly every single day I use them, I get two reoccuring issues.


1. After the headphones are turned on and connected, no audio will play until I go into the Windows 10 bluetooth settings, disable the headphones and reenable them. Only after I do this, does audio finally play.

2. After using the headphones for an hour or two, the audio will start to constantly and consistently skip until the headset's power is turned off and on again.


My Windows 10 is fully updated as well as the drivers. I had already tried a clean re-install of Windows 10 as well.

Does anyone know a fix? This is incredibly annoying.

Thank you in advance.
 
Solution
Ralston18
Yes they do appear identical but they are not.

One is "Headset" and the other is "Headphones".

Plus in an earlier image "Connected music" and then "Connected voice, music".

Not a matter of semantics. It is just that your computer is responding to the underlying code, the associated device configurations, and the physical connections being detected (or not).

And somewhere in all that Windows, device drivers, and physical connections come into some conflict.

I had a problem with some Bluetooth Headphones a few months ago - nothing worked and Windows seemed to be the issue. Finally some update fixed the problem and my Bluetooth Headphones started working as expected. Paired, connected, played audio...

All I can think of, at...
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Ralston18

Ralston18

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Which Bluetooth dongle are you using?

There are Bluetooth problems with Windows 10 - especially with the Creator's Update version.

Broadcom based products seem to be the most susceptible. Intel not so much as I understand it.

First run the built-in Windows 10 troubleshooter for Bluetooth. Then apply the Troubleshooters to audio, and hardware devices in general. May find and fix something.

Try using Task Manager and Resource Monitor to observe the Bluetooth related Processes and Services.

And audio processes and services as well.

Look for changes that take place before and/or after the disable and re-enable actions.

Likewise do the same at the "hour or two" mark when audio starts skipping.

Just drag the Task Manager and Resource Monitor windows to one side leaving them open for viewing.

Listen as you normally do.

The objective is to or find identify some system change or parameter that maps to either of the 2 problems that your computer is having.


 
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PsychoPsyops

PsychoPsyops

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This is the dongle I'm currently using.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GCJSK9A/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I had tried the troubleshooting audio feature, did not find anything wrong.
I will try to remember to check the processes and services before and after using bluetooth as well.
Thank you.
 
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Ralston18

Ralston18

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Try to determine if the adapter is Broadcom based or Intel based.

Broadcom's website directs you to Microsoft to get the Bluetooth drivers for Windows 10.

Have not gotten Microsoft's drivers to work at all. Pairs (sometimes) but refuses to connect.


 
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PsychoPsyops

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Yes it's a Broadcom based adapter. The Bluetooth Protocol Support Driver, LE Enumerator and Enumerator (which I'm guessing are the drivers) are all Microsoft.

 
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Ralston18

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I am currently working with a Pluggable Support Tech to see if a Pluggable adapter can be made to work.

One thing that seems to be very key is to ensure that every other Bluetooth driver, etc.. is absolutely gone.

Used Start > Apps and Features to uninstall Qualcomm Atheros Bluetooth Suite (64) and WIDCOMM Bluetooth Software.

Run "pnputil /enum-drivers" (with quotes) via Powershell to list all the third party drivers.

They list (published names) as oemxx.inf where "xx" is a number.

Broadcom related numbers were (so far) 31, 68,76, and 30.

The above may not apply to your system - just take a look and see what you find.

We went through removing all Bluetooth drivers one by one.

First pass through and reinstall did not work. A "do over" is in progress....

May download and try another driver via s3.amazonaws.com

TBD

And, just for the record, the Pluggable Support Tech, has been very good. Using emails to communicate. He sends diagnostic links, utilities, and uses the results to make suggestions. All very well written and up-to-date.

Strongly believing that the issues are on Microsoft's end - starting with Creator's update.

 
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PsychoPsyops

PsychoPsyops

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Okay so the software you've found in Apps and Features are not there for me, and only one bluetooth driver, the Broadcom one, was shown under the Powershell list of third party drivers.
 
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Ralston18

Ralston18

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Most likely all the things found on my system were leftover from previous attempts to get Bluetooth to work.

Have not yet succeeded but have unfortunately have not had the time per se to delve into it all again.

Will now be away for week or so and unable to assist during that time.

My current plan/hope is to obtain another Bluetooth adapter - Intel based - to see if that resolves the problem.

When that can be done is TBD. Apologies....

 
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PsychoPsyops

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I attempted to receive help from Sony, but they insisted it was an issue on Microsoft's end.
I then contacted Microsoft and via remote assistance, they had uninstalled the Broadcom Bluetooth driver, which was then reinstalled after my computer rebooted and my headset connected. This seemed to fix the issue. I will give it a few more days and mark this thread solved unless it persists.
 
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PsychoPsyops

PsychoPsyops

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So the issue came back again after waking system from sleep mode. The driver was still disabled, so the h.ear driver can't be the culprit.
The dongle uses two main drivers, the h.ear driver which is the model of the headphones, and the Broadcom usb driver which seems to be that of the Bluetooth dongle. The rest are Microsoft's, titled bluetooth enumerator, bluetooth LE enumerator and bluetooth protocol support driver. In an attempt to contact Broadcom support, their website states they cannot provide support for Bluetooth devices that use Broadcom-based drivers. So if Broadcom can't help me and I've exhausted Sony's and Microsoft's support, I don't know what else to do.


 
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PsychoPsyops

PsychoPsyops

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Alright so after looking in the Bluetooth settings of Control Panel, I can see that when I turn on the headphones, the status seen for the headphones goes back and forth between "Paired" and "Setting up Device." I believe this is causing the Bluetooth to not connect and audio to not be played, until I disable and reenable the device in Bluetooth settings.
 
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Ralston18

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Interesting. Whenever I try to get Bluetooth to work the Notifications Window tells me that Miracast is not supported. Have not figured out the source or the why of that notification. Not trying project....

Will add that the Bluetooth plugs do work on another older desktop which is also running Windows 10 Pro. Starting to believe that the issue is just some unsupported/obscure hardware or other unique "perfect storm" on my current desktop. Troubleshooter keeps "fixing" the radio to no avail.

 
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Ralston18

Ralston18

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Try "WIN" + "I" > Update & Security > Troubleshoot.

Many options available.

Just work your way through the applicable troubleshooters. The troubleshooters may find and fix some error of omission or commission.

Keep track of what you do and find. Read all the screens etc. carefully.
 
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PsychoPsyops

PsychoPsyops

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So I had tried the Audio troubleshooting and Bluetooth troubleshooting. The Audio troubleshooting kept crashing upon searching for problems. The Bluetooth troubleshooting only "turned on" Bluetooth when it was already on and said a problem was resolved. My issue had persisted afterwards. Then I tried Hardware & Devices troubleshooting. After running this, Windows told me it was not getting the most up-to-date drivers because it was using Windows Update to search and download drivers, rather than prioritizing initial installation drivers that are downloaded and installed when you first plug in a new device to your computer. I had allowed for turning off Windows Update driver installations, unpaired my headphones, plugged in my headphones to my computer and let the drivers reinstall. Afterwards, I repaired my headphones and, as of now, it is currently connecting and playing audio as it should.

Of course, this could change at any moment, so I will come back with any updates. Though if it behaves for a week or so, I will mark this as solved.
 
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PsychoPsyops

PsychoPsyops

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Lol, not for me. Although my headphones started connecting to bluetooth on their own again, I still have to manually get them to play audio. Ran the troubleshooters again, nothing new.
 
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