The fix for Vista Bluetooth A2DP and WMDC Bluetooth Sync

** UPDATE - NOTE: SEE POST #10 and #11 FOR UPDATE - YOU CAN DO IT ONE BLUETOOTH ADAPTER, ASSUMING IT IS CSR CHIPSET AND BLUE SOLEIL or TOSHIBA STACK ***

*** UPDATE - TWO DONGLES NOT NEEDED. BLUE SOLEIL DOES INDEED WORK QUITE WELL ***

*** UPDATE - IF YOU WANT THE BEST PERFORMANCE, PAY THE $20 FOR THE BLUE SOLEIL STACK. IF YOU WANT FREE, BUT POORER PERFORMANCE, GO TOSHIBIA. AVOID WIDCOMM AT ALL COST. ***

Well, after an unbelievably painful process, I've finally come to a workaround for something that should be out of the box, but alas is not.

Do you run Vista? Would you like to be able to use Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) headsets? Would you also like to be able to sync via Bluetooth your Windows Mobile 6 device (using WMDC 6.1 / Sync Center) to Outlook? Do you want to do this reliably?

The answer is....get two bluetooth adapters/dongle (2.0 versions) (or use built-in Bluetooth and another USB dongle).

WTF, you may ask...well, read on.

In the world of Bluetooth, there are "chipset" makers and "software" makers (also referred to as "bluetooth stacks")

The common Bluetooth chipset used by laptop manufacturers and USB dongle makers are:

Broadcom (ex. sold under the name Kensington, others)
CSR (Cambrisge Silicon Radio) BlueCore (ex. sold under the name Azio, etc.)

The common Bluetooth "stack" makers are:

Widcomm (which Broadcom owns)
Toshiba
Blue Soleil (aka IVT)

You cannot mix and match stacks and chipsets - Widcomm goes to Broadcom, and Toshiba and Blue Soleil goes to CSR BlueCore
Attempts to install the software to the wrong chipset will fail - save yourself the trouble.

If you want to just use bluetooth mice, sync your Windows Mobile devices, etc. the built-in Microsoft stack or Widcomm stack, with a Broadcom chipset adapter works just fine. However, if you want Stereo A2DP, you are out of luck. Supposedly the Broadcom update to 6.0 extends this support, but it is buggy and unreliable.

If you want A2DP, mice, etc, then the Blue Soleil, with a CSR chipset works excellently...except if you need use WMDC for Bluetooth sync. In that case, while you can pair your smartphone just fine, the ActiveSync service cannot be found. No amount of COM port shennagins can fix this.

So what is to be done?

Get one dongle - Broadcom to so that WMDC Bluetooth Sync works
Get one dongle - CSR for everything else.

Insane, I know, but that what we get for Microsoft's short-sighted (for not baking this into Vista, and the Bluetooth SIG for allows incompatible chipsets and stacks (is is any wonder people ***** about Bluetooth? Imagine if every Wi-fi router required a special, unique radio on the client in order to connect to it! It would have gone nowhere!). But I digress.

The only trick is that the Blue Soleil stack costs ~$23. And it disables the built-in Microsoft Bluetooth Service (normally, this is not an issue, except they don't properly support ActiveSync/WMDC yet). Al you need to do is go into services and re-enable the service.

Then install you Broadcom BT adapter in another USB port, and pair up/sync your windows mobile 6 device.

Yes, both services can run at once. (I've streams stereo for hours without any skips or cut-outs). Just make sure don't pair the devices to more than adapter. Also, you may want to uncheck "allow devices to connect" in the Windows BT Control panel; that way, the stereo headset (and other devices) won't keep trying to connect to it. Just make sure when you want to connect with your Windows Mobiles device, you check the box to allow it to connect.

Now, maybe the Toshiba stack eliminates the need for two adapters. Maybe I will try that in the near future to see.

In the meantime, it's an awkward workaround, but it does work, and it's solid.

 

Thanks for the guide mikec.. but I couldnt understand much out of it. I use toshiba stack and a bluetooth dongle (I dont know the chipset) on my XP desktop to sync my treo using ActiveSync and listen to stereo music over A2DP headsets. But I cant do both at the same time. Its either ActiveSync or A2DP.. Even I had been looking for ways to use two dongles one for each thing. Also, I heard from ppl that WidComm stack is superior to Toshiba and Blue Soleil stack almost always creates trouble with one thing or another. I personally dont have no experience with any stack other than Toshiba, so I cant say it myself. But I like toshiba so far. Also, I thought A2DP has to be hardware and software enabled. You cant buy any bluetooth dongle and install A2DP supporting BT stack and have BT stereo working. It has to be supported by dongle hardware,, I dont have all the knowledge on BT though and correct me if I am wrong...
Now if I understood you right, are you saying I can install widcomm stack for my in-built bluetooth to use mice, HID devices etc and use another CSR dongle with either toshiba or bluesoleil stack for A2DP. Then can I have both stacks running at the same time without conflict??

 

Sorry you couldn't understand it; I tried to keep it simple.

Yes, I can do both at once. And yes, you should be able to do both at once (A2DP and ActiveSync). Unfortunately, the only way I have found to do that is to use two Bluetooth adapters. You are on XP, so things may be a bit different; I am only focusing on Vista.

A2DP needs to be supported by hardware and software...but even if you have supporting hardware, that does not mean the software will work.

Widcomm is crap, except for ActiveSync.

Blue Soleil is great, at least for A2DP and everything except ActiveSync.

Toshiba I cannot comment on, as I have not installed yet.

And yes, you are understanding me correctly - you can run both stacks at once, tied to different hardware (dongle) and they work. Again, I am talking about the built-in stack in Vista.

 

Well, I am getting my vista hp ntoebook in a weeks time so I am checking out the possibilities of connecting my smartphone and stereo headset togather. Also, I dont want to use MS's windows BT stack for my inbuilt BT adaper. I rather want to download Widcomm for that. How is Widcomm with general BT devices in general comapred to MS stack?? and I will run widcomm in parallem with toshiba stack and see how it goes.. thanks for your guide...

 

I think HP uses Broadcom chipsets in the laptops - so the Toshiba stack won't work (someone correct me if I am wrong).

You could disable the Bluetooth Support Service; that would prevent the MS BT stack from working. But you still need a stack that would work and provide you an interface for managing devices.

 

Yeap, I am planning to disable BSS from MS and instead use widcomm for on-board bt chipset and another CSR chipset dongle using toshiba stack for A2DP.. That should work, right??

 

hey wait a sec, i get a2dp on my 9700t using its internal bluetooth. HP released a new package towards the end of december that brought some more profiles with it. haven't tried active sync yet...

 

Do we need to download a specific driver for this or it would work with A2DP right out of the box??

 

Using Vista, and doing WMDC?

 

Okay revision here:

Looks like you can do this one dongle and the Toshiba stack.

I am doing A2DP, mouse, and WMDC (version 6.1) / ActiveSync using a Windows Mobile 6 device in Vista without issue (minor ones, read on).

It's funky, but it works. Make sure you have no other stacks loaded (disable the service "Bluetooth Support Services")

First, you need a CSR BlueCore dongle (such as Azio). Not Broadcom.

Second get the Toshiba BT Stack, version 5.x, and the Toshiba BTMonitor

Install the Toshiba BT stack, and plug in your dongle when asked. Windows will try to automatically install drivers for it - you do no want this; click never ask again.

Let Toshiba complete and reboot. Install the Toshiba BT Montior. (do not think reboot needed)

So you can use the Toshiba tool (shows in tray). I did custom instead of express. Add your mouse; very straightforward. Add BT headsets - make sure you choose AUDIO SINK. If you choose headset, you only get the crappy mono stuff. You can connect to these devices and it should work fine.

Not the funkiness. Add your Smartphone/Windows Mobile device. Pair it up, and it add the "Network Acess Service"; nothing else shows. That is fine. Do NOT try to connect. It will fail, even though it is paired.

On you WM 6 device, it only shows "Serial port", not "ActiveSync". Do not fret.

Go to control panel. Open "Bluetooth Local COM". Note the "LocalCOM Server" port, which was COM13 for me. Then, go into WMDC, and change the port to connect to from Bluetooth to COM13.

Now if you refresh the connection/service from the WM 6 devices, you should see "ActiveSync"

It may help to turn BT off and on to refresh things on the device.

Then "connect via Bluetooth" from the device. (no com ports need to be set on the WM 6 device, by the way). WMDC will connect and see the device, and off you go.

It's weird, there's no way to monitor it; the device will say connect, and WMDC and SyncCenter will say connected. But it works, even with A2DP headsets connected and streaming.

The minor issue is that there are occasionally there are short cut-outs in the A2DP stream; this is minor to me - it's not for that long (1/8 second). I suspect this is due to frequncy hopping and interference from my wireless network (ex. there is a lot of wireless activity going on in the 2.4Ghz range; it self-recovers, so no biggie.) (This doesn't happen with the two dongle solution for some reason).

Regardless, it works sweet now with one dongle.

I highly advise a Class 1 Bluetooth dongle (2.0) for improved range; I can roam all over my home (~1500 sq. ft) and it stays connected. Very slick.

Jeeez, it really should not be this complicated!

 

Well, it looks like no more two dongles!

Blue Soleil 5.0 working like a champ now.

The trick is to enable certain services listed (not the windows service, but the ones in Bluetooth places, including only ONE Serial port, Personal Area Network, File Transfer and Object Push).

Once you paid the Windows Mobile device, go to the properties and make sure the authorization for the services are checked; only have ONE serial port checked (in my case COM10; uncheck the other (in my case COM9)).

In WMDC, select the serial port listed in Bluetooth places (mine was COM10).

With the device paired to your laptop, do a refresh on the service available on the laptop; "serial port" should turn to "activesync".

And you are all set.

Seem to be a little faster to connect and sync than the Toshiba stack.

Be careful to only enable one serial port on BlueSoleil (it enables two by default). BlueSoleil will switch between the two ports, which results in ActiveSync failing.)


Bluetooth Stereo is much better (no cut-outs, better connection) than the Toshiba stack.

(Note: when initially connectiing a Windows Mobile Device to WMDC; there can be cut-outs...this is true of all stacks. Also, sometimes connections fail from device to the laptop - this is due to problems with WMDC; somehow is "loses" it's listening on the COM port, even though everything is set properly; close and re-starts to have to it work again.)

So it looks like CSR Dongle + BlueSoleil is the best combo.

 

Windows vista SP2 installs generic CSR driver. It works all Audio stream, WM sinc, HID etc. It has auto connect and reconnect features. The only trouble I've encountered: A2DP skips. 1. if HID are intensively used. 2. after a while and eventually increases skip time making it unbearable. A PC reboot is required to solve the second problem for a while.

Does somebody know how to enable bluesoleil at boot time? I couldn't use it for login. BT keyboard and mouse are useless until a complete boot-up and enabling it manually. (The BT icon in tray is gray, devices have to be told to reconnect)