Bluetooth noob here... Re: BT headphones...

I just got an e1705 from Dell with the 350 Bluetooth. I also have some Bluetooth headphones I bought a while back. Bluetooth is enabled and I found the devices and apparently I'm connected. I have the Sound Blaster HD Audio software and I have headphones selected, but it keeps playing through the laptop speakers.

How do I enable the sound to filter through the headphones and disable it from playing through the laptop speakers?

Help is much appreciated. ^_^

 

You have to do the switch to the BT audio before you open the audio application (ex: winamp). Applications detect what the deafault audio output is when they are launched and they stick with it, even if you change it later.

 

Bumping this as I'm still clueless as to what I need to do. How do I switch to the "BT Audio" and does this mean I need to disable the sound blaster control that boots up with my computer?




Help would be greatly appreciated!

 

After you pair and connect your headphones. Go to sound and audio devices in the control panel. Then select the Audio tab. Is BT audio appearing as the default device in use in the sound playback section? If not, select it and press "apply"

In my case when I switch on the headset, it automatically pairs/connects to my computer, and then automatically the default sound device changes to BT audio. After that any application that I open uses the BT audio for audio output. Any applications that were open before I switched on the BT headset maintain their audio output thru the notebook's speakers. So I can actually get audio output from the 2 devices at the same time. Great for listening to my music thru my speakers as I voice chat over the headset.

I don't have a sound blaster sound card, so I am not familliar with the options in there. Sorry.

Hope this helps a bit more than my initial comment

 

Dang I'm just getting frustrated now. I don't even have the option to choose bluetooth audio under sound playback. How do I make this stupid audio recognize that bluetooth is installed?

My headphones are on, they are connected via BT and all ready to go to...

 

it seems that your bluetooth service is not initiated/present, otherwise the option should appear there even when the headphones are switch off.

You said that you are using the built in BT that came with your Dell. Are you sure that it even supports headsets/headphones? Some Bluetooth drivers by default don't support headset/headphone BT stacks. Specifically if your bluetooth uses the default XP-SP2 drivers. Those for sure don't support headset/headphones.

I would look thru dell support site to figure out if by default your bluetooth supports headsets/headphones. And if not if and how you can add the correct BT stacks to make it work.

 

For reference:

I use widcomm drivers, since my bluetooth has a widcomm chipset.

If I go to "My Bluetooth devices" I get the first attachement.
and if I go into "My bluetooth services" I get the second attachement.

 

Well I'm not sure what kind of chip/core I have and Dell's site doesn't help much: "RD530 CARD (CIRCUIT), WIRELESS, LEAD FREE, INTERNAL, BLUETOOTH, 350."

I re-DLed the Dell BT drivers (New drivers were posted since I got my laptop) with no luck and I then tried WIDCOMM drivers for the heck of it. With WIDCOMM drivers I was able to pair the set with my laptop and everything seemed to be working fine. The Headset was pairing with the laptop and I was able to choose "BT audio" under sounds/audio devices in control panel...

Then I tried to "connect" to my headset but the laptop would sit on "connecting..." for a minute or so and then tell me the device (headset) closed the connection.

I'm thinking I need to newest, latest, and greatest WIDCOMM drivers and I wanna give this a shot again. Where can I find the LATEST WIDCOMM drivers? I used the ones found on the NBF sticky post regarding Dell's BT drivers.

Thanks a ton for the help too!

 

I got my drivers from the MSI site. Currently using Version:4.0.1.2900

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/search/ser/SerConDownRes.php?pro=8&chp=93

Choose BToes or Star Key (2.0 refers to BT v2.0)

They also have instructions for changing/updating the XP stacks

 

Thank Qwester, I'll check these out after work today. I did finally end up getting the headphones to work after installing the Dell drivers with a modified .inf file. I did this according to a post on NBF. The sound quality is HORRID though and I hear a lot of crackling... It's not even worth using them with this quality. So back to the drawing board for me it looks like.

This is quite a bit of fricking screwing around just to get these to work which SHOULD work initially. BT is a pain in the @$$!

 

If your Dell BT card is v.1.2 don't expect much. The sound quality will be bad with any drivers. BT v.2.0 is the one that allows for high quality audio.

The headset that I use is one of those that you would get for a cellphone. The sound is good for voice chatting. There is a bit of crackling every now and then, but not too bad, not worse than talking over a cellphone with a variable strength signal

 

How can I tell if I have BT2.0 or not? I Just bought my e1705...