Question Significant Bluetooth Interference/Loss

[swurl]

About a month and a half ago, for seemingly no reason, my bluetooth radio started completely spazzing out. Connecting is totally fine, as usual; but on both Windows and Linux, there is a ridiculous amount of interference; audio often cuts out for a few seconds and sometimes spasms and goes on and off repeatedly for a second or two. There is some delay, but it's minimal; nothing more than a typical bluetooth radio.

What I don't understand is it worked perfectly beforehand and now it's just almost completely unusable. I've tried several different environments, no luck. I don't know where the bluetooth radio is located though; it is connected via the USB interface (showing up in `lsusb`) but I'm not quite sure where to disconnect it. If I can find that I'll try reseating it, but any suggestions otherwise?

FWIW, it's reported over the bus as "Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Bluetooth Radio". Nothing more. This is a GIGABYTE B650 X AX motherboard.

 

[KingLoki]

Do you have a bluetooth dongle, a small usb plug-in device for your pc?

 

[swurl]

No. The bluetooth radio is built-in to the Realtek/Ryzen chipset. I'm considering getting one to see if my hardware is the issue, though, or perhaps as a PCI-E card.

 

[KingLoki]

A bluetooth dongle is just a tiny usb plug-in that provides fast blutooth access for everything.

Bluetooth 5.0 Nano USB Adapter

UB500 equips your PC with more advanced Bluetooth 5.0 technology. It ensures a strong and stable wireless connection between your PC and Bluetooth devices.

www.tp-link.com

 

[swurl]

Alright, I'll get that. I do really wonder what happened, though, WiFi works fine, antennas are in etc.

 

[swurl]

Okay, for some reason when I updated the bluetooth driver it works totally fine now? I'll test on Linux in a bit.

 

[KingLoki]

👍

 

[swurl]

Linux is not, in fact, fine. I'll try recompiling my kernel with updated drivers and go from there.

 

[swurl]

Didn't fix it. USB it is...

 

[Misgar]

I do really wonder what happened, though, WiFi works fine, antennas are in etc.

Your Bluetooth and WiFi radios are separate entities, and I doubt the Bluetooth circuitry on your motherboard makes use of the WiFi antennas. I could be wrong though. I've disabled Bluetooth and WiFi on my motherboard.

If the Bluetooth antenna is nothing more than a short PCB track on the motherboard and your computer case is particularly effective at screening radio waves, the Bluetooth signal level outside the case may not be sufficient.

there is a ridiculous amount of interference; audio often cuts out for a few seconds and sometimes spasms and goes on and off repeatedly for a second or two.

If your computer has a metal side panel, remove it temporarily and see if Bluetooth reception improves.

I'm guessing you're using Bluetooth speakers or headphones. As a test, try placing the speakers/headphones closer to the exposed motherboard. As you reduce the separation, the signal strength and reception should improve.

A Bluetooth USB dongle connected to the front panel of the computer should help reduce the separation to a minimum and improve signal strength. There are several different Bluetooth radio standards, some with lower latencies and better HiFi quality audio. Make sure you match the dongle with your audio device. Cheap dongles operate on Bluetooth 4, but Bluetooth 5 and 6 devices exist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth

If you have a smartphone or other device nearby with Bluetooth switched on, it might be generating interference. Download a copy of Nirsoft's Bluetooth Viewer and monitor other sources in the vicinity.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/bluetooth_viewer.html

You might just be plain unlucky and have a bad Bluetooth implementation on your audio device and no amount of fiddling around with Bluetooth radios will make any difference. I wouldn't expect a pair of headphones costing $12 to work as well as a pair of Sennheiser or Sony headset costing $300+, let alone the difference in audio quality.

 

[Ralston18]

Will add another suggestion.

Those small USB dongles of any sort can get very warm and even hot.

I have noticed that USB wireless network addapters tend to get hotter with age and use. Problems begin.

Try using a USB extension cable with the USB dongle.

Two benefits: 1) you can raise or otherwise move the dongle up and about for improved transmission and reception , and 2) helps keep the dongle cooler.