Windows 7 Bluetooth won't connect

[Mugsy]

Quick question.

I have two cheepo USB Bluetooth adapters for my Windows 7 PC. One is a tiny generic (thumbnail sized) micro adapter, the other a small USB "stick" made by Rocketfish.

Both adapters install and "claim" to detect my Bluetooth speaker (misidentifying it as a Bluetooth headset. I have no headset), but the speaker doesn't detect the PC (both are in Discover mode.) My cellphone however sees the speaker just fine, but it too DOESN'T see my PC.

Are all Bluetooth adapters the same? And if my cheap adapters won't pair with anything, will an expensive one? Is this a known issue or might there be something else going on?

 

[Mugsy]

The latest is BT v4/4.1. This version is known as Smart BT. Which is the one you should be using

Yes, that is helpful. The adapters I have I know are quite old (WinXP era) and didn't know the standard had since changed.

When I plug in my adapters and switch on my BT speaker, Windows claims to have successfully loaded the proper drivers for each, but I guess that would be based on just what the adapter thinks it is seeing.

I'll look into a BT 4.x adapter. Thanks.

 

[strollin]

I have used quite a few of those little Bluetooth dongles and have never encountered one that didn't work. Even ones that I purchased from Hong Kong for 99 cents each. The more expensive ones are probably a little more durable but don't seem to work any better. I've never had to load drivers from a disk, very few of the dongles I've used even came with a disk. I just plug them in and Windows finds and installs drivers for them.

As to whether you need a dongle with the latest Bluetooth version - that depends on the device you want to use. If the device only supports BT version 2.x then having a dongle that supports version 4.x is kind of pointless. It will work since the versions are backwards compatible but you won't gain any advantage.

The most likely reason your dongle sees your BT speaker as a headset is probably because the speaker has the ability to answer phone calls, meaning it has the ability to act as a speakerphone with both a speaker and a microphone (hence headset).

 

[Mugsy]

I have used quite a few of those little Bluetooth dongles and have never encountered one that didn't work. Even ones that I purchased from Hong Kong for 99 cents each. The more expensive ones are probably a little more durable but don't seem to work any better. I've never had to load drivers from a disk, very few of the dongles I've used even came with a disk. I just plug them in and Windows finds and installs drivers for them.

Thanks. But since both my speaker (a new "MicroBoom") and two separate cellphones all don't detect my PC (and the PC doesn't detect either phone), yet the phone and speaker find each other readily, I'm more apt to suspect my ancient dongles.

 

[Nathan Wood]

Another thing to do is update your bluetooth drivers at the Broadcom web site. Windows 7 could not find all the drivers for my Photon 4G. These drivers fixed that. Go to Broadcom, click on downloads, click on bluetooth (in red lettering) and you will find the updated drivers.