Bluetooth not working properly since windows update

greedy123 · 10 Jul 2017 at 08:35

I've got a set of bluetooth headphones connected via a USB bluetooth dongle (EkoBuy Bluetooth 4.0 - top seller on the jungle) on my desktop. They worked perfectly up until windows 10 did an update this week. Now when using the headphones, the sound drops constantly to give a stuttering effect.

I can't find out what is causing it. Nothing else has changed apart from the windows update.

The headphones connect to the PC fine every time I turn them on and they do play music at full quality. They just drop constantly. I've tested the headphones with my iphone and the work perfectly still, it's just with the PC. I've tried repairing the headphones with the PC but it didn't fix it.

The USB dongle is literally 30 cm from the headphones with a direct line of sight so there's no possible interference, and as I said, it worked perfectly before.

The windows update did other annoying things such as re-enabling every disabled sound device, switching my monitor colour profiles around... but that's by the by.

I should clarify, the update windows did was called "feature update to Windows 10, version 1703"

Any ideas?

Chris Caudy · 10 Jul 2017 at 11:15

Could you search for drivers using the usb hardware ID found in device manager -> properties -> details dropdown to hardware IDs. In my case, for an ASUS BT-400 USB bluetooth adapter its hardware ID is 'USB\VID_0B05&PID_17CB'. Copy and paste it into your search engine, should give you non-generic drivers somewhere in the results.

greedy123 · 10 Jul 2017 at 19:46

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried this but it says the best drivers for my device are already installed.

jpaul · 10 Jul 2017 at 22:05

Have you tried an alternative blue tooth stack - see my earlier posts
I don't know whether these exist for win 10 , but that was the only way I got apt-x working
what protocol are you trying to use , and , if apt-x, can you try the less hi-fi protocol a2dp , does that drop ?
the stacks have some fairly rigorous install sequences too, so have you tried uninstalling them and re-installing, to the degree win10 permits.
I would try and ensure you can reliably stop win 10 messing with these drivers too, otherwise you are at its mercy.

specifically I bought
LogiLink USB Bluetooth V4.0 EDR Class 1 Micro Adapter

as Chris said find out what the BT chip is and then you can more or less follow driver recommendations for any other part that has the same chip
find the most expensive part using the same chip and they may have good documentation on how to fix win 10 issues

edit: your usb part does not seem to have apt-x, but maybe your (still working) iphone connection does use apt-x

greedy123 · 11 Jul 2017 at 19:46

Hi jpaul, really didn't follow any of that haha. I have no idea what protocol it is trying to use! The headphones are "Bose Quiet Comfort 35" if that helps?

So in device manager this is what I'm seeing.

The 3 devices listed under bluetooth - the Alpha one is my headphones. The Bluetooth Radios - CSR Bluetooth Radio is my bluetooth dongle. The drivers are up to date as previously mentioned. The hardware ID is "{473a6b1d-3407-400e-b91a-f991c5a39dc3}\CsrBtPort".

I've tried right clicking the device and installing it but that didn't help, the audio is still stuttering.

jpaul · 11 Jul 2017 at 21:26

Seems it uses a csr8510 chip, try a fresh install following something like this http://www.todaypdf.com/csr-harmony-windows-10-drivers.pdf
remove usb device, get rid of all the drivers (which are hidden when it is unplugged - so need to unhide in device manager), reboot, plug in device and see what happens as win 10 rebuilds all drivers

a quick google on the headphones

ResultsOriented wrote:

You are correct that the QC35 does not support aptX. However, the QC35 is one of the few headphones that supports the Bluetooth transmission of the AAC audio codec, which is of great importance to those of us with Apple devices (which also support AAC). Supporting the AAC codec means that .aac music files can be transmitted from an AAC-supported device without having to be re-compressed to use the default SBC codec. This is why iPhone owners will get better results from their QC35 headphones if their compressed music files are .aac, rather than .mp3 -- the wireless fidelity will be almost as good as wired.

If a QC35 owner is using a device that does not support AAC, the transmission will have to rely on the SBC codec because, as you said, neither plain aptX nor aptX with Low Latency is supported by the QC35. For anyone interested in reading a short but informative overview of Bluetooth audio transmission to headphones, I suggest this article

they should be good/best if you are using an AAC music source (but maybe you already knew that ) but otherwise do not have apt-x, so it does not matter that your BT dongle does not support that. !

greedy123 · 11 Jul 2017 at 21:45

Thanks again for replying jpaul.

I uninstalled and deleted the drivers then restarted. I've plugged the device back in and now I'm seeing this in the device manager:

When I click update drivers I get:

I'm now looking for a manual install for the driver. Watch this space!

greedy123 · 11 Jul 2017 at 21:57

I've found the CD which came with the device. I used it to uninstall the CSR Harmony wireless stack software and then re-install it. Install worked and drivers reinstalled and device now appears under bluetooth radio once again. Still got the same stuttering problem though sadly. Hasn't had any effect.

Regarding your bit about quality, I've never had an issue with the headphones before this week and I've been using them 8 months now. It's only since the recent windows update that this problem has been happening. The quality has been perfect up until now, no matter what source was playing through them.

greedy123 · 11 Jul 2017 at 22:03

Is it worth buying a different bluetooth device to try?

jpaul · 12 Jul 2017 at 11:35

greedy123 said:
I've found the CD which came with the device. I used it to uninstall the CSR Harmony wireless stack software and then re-install it. Install worked and drivers reinstalled and device now appears under bluetooth radio once again. Still got the same stuttering problem though sadly. Hasn't had any effect.

did you also uninstall CSR when you got rid of the drivers ?- I did not say that earlier, but it is what I did, get rid of everything BT related

edit this was link I followed - unplug/get rid all drivers/reboot/install csr/replug/let it find drivers

seems odd windows could not then find the driver, since it was windows update that messed things up. (psychotic OS)
ekobuy website said "Note: You don`t need to download any driver for Windows 10."

greedy123 said:
Is it worth buying a different bluetooth device to try?

the logilink I ref'd is £8 dispatched/sold by aamzon and uses a broadcom not csr chipset - return it if it does not work

greedy123 · 15 Jul 2017 at 09:06

I did uninstall CSR. God knows what microsoft have done!

I've ordered a bluetooth device with a broadcom chipset. Will post again once that arrives and I've tested it. Thanks for you help!

greedy123 · 17 Jul 2017 at 22:23

New one arrived today. It's working perfectly so far. Thanks for all the help

coolsurfer · 15 Mar 2018 at 23:05

greedy123 said:
New one arrived today. It's working perfectly so far. Thanks for all the help

Which one did you buy? I have a CSR with Windows 10 and it doesn't detect squat