(Edited 10th of September 2005)

I have bought a Logitech Bluetooth Headset Pro (HS01) and an X-Micro Bluetooth dongle for my PC - AND IT WORKS GREAT!

Getting there was however quite troublesome with a lot of "trial and error", but once you know the tricks, it takes less than ½ hour to set it up, so I would like to share my experiences with you. This is how to go ahead under XP SP2 (at your own risk):

1) Buy a Bluetooth version 1.1 or version 1.2 dongle with Class 1 reach ("up to 100 meters"). The brand of the dongle is not important (as long as it is not Sony Vaio!), but it is very important to check the specs of the dongle to make sure it supports "headset" services. You should go for Bluetooth version 1.2 if possible, as it has better headset support and is less susceptible to WLAN interference.
My dongle uses the Widcomm drivers and as far as I know, all Widcom drivers from version 1.4.2.10 and up support headsets. Alternative drivers are from BlueSoleil, but I don't know much about them (search the Forum for tips on BlueSoleil!).

2) Download latest drivers for the dongle from the producers' website (if avaliable).

3) Make an XP back-up point (just to be sure).

4) Install the dongle using the latest drivers for your dongle according to the manual and then reboot. In most cases, Bluetooth is NOT working correctly now - the Widcomm Bluetooth "B" icon in the system tray (lower right of your screen) is red. You might also see a white and light blue "B" icon, but that is the Microsoft Bluetooth (bad!).
This is how your Bluetooth icon should look when you have completed the steps below - compare with the MS Bluetooth icon:
This is the Microsoft Bluetooth icon - follow the steps below to disable.
The Widcomm Bluetooth icon is red when the Widcomm driver needs a manual update (follow the steps below).

Added note September 2005: Many Bluetooth dongle producers are now aware of the troubles with Microsoft drivers and have added functions in the drivers that do automatically disable the MS BT drivers, so you might be lucky that everything works fine (white non-MS BT icon) right after installing the drivers. If not continue to the next step!

5) Go through "Start" > "Settings" > "Control Panel" > "System" > "Hardware" > "Device manager" and then expand "Bluetooth devices". You will most probably see two different Bluetooth drivers - one from Microsoft and a "Generic" or "CSR" (or other) driver.

6) Disable the Microsoft driver - DO NOT remove! This is the problem with XP SP2 - Microsoft Bluetooth drivers will allways be installed and will override Widcomm drivers, but they have no support for headsets! If you remove the driver, it will reinstall again if/when the dongle is reconnected, so do only disable. Hopefully one day soon MS drivers will support and work with headsets and the Bluetooth headsets will finally just be "plug and play"...
An ALTERNATIVE step 6 (more complicated but technically better) is posted by Kevoh92 in this thread: http://forum.skype.com/viewtopic.php?t=14646[/i]

7) Right-click on the "non-MS" Bluetooth driver and choose "Update driver...". Click along in order to get to where you can manually select the driver for your dongle (the "Have disk..." option). Point to the file called "btwusb.inf" on CD or in downladed driver files and update with this driver. Reboot only if necessary. Bluetooth "B" icon in your system tray should be white now - if that is the case, then non-MS Bluetoth is now working on your PC and you're half-way through!
This is how your Bluetooth icon should look - now you're ready to play! :wink:

Note: The Microsoft Bluetooth icon will always remain visible in the control panel (root directory), but that is no problem!

8 ) Activate Bluetooth on your PC and pair with your headset according to the manual (quite simple but it takes a few steps). Experience shows that it is a good idea not to activate the "audio gateway" profile, but only the "headset" profile. If you know that you need other profiles for e.g. file sharing over BT or other stuff, then do activate those profiles, but keeping it to a minimum will surely minimize the risk of setup errors!

9) Close Skype completely, restart Skype and then choose "Bluetooth Audio" as sound input and output in Skype.

10) Connect your headset from the PC (Right-click on BT icon on the lower right of the screen, choose "Fast connection" > "Headset" and then choose your headset). Receive the incoming call on the headset itself (press "accept call" button when you hear a repeating sound in the headset). If the Bluetooth "B" in the system tray goes green, you're nearly there! Your headset is now in "call" mode so it does consume battery at the highest rate (my Logitech still has power for 6 hours in this state). All audio on your PC now goes through the headset.

11) Make a test call to Skype profile "echo123" and do a test recording.

12) If your hear audio and your own recorded testcall, you're done! CONGRATULATIONS!

____________________________________________________________________

13) If you hear the nice lady, but not your own test call (or just noise), then it is most probably because you do not have the latest Bluetooth driver installed. If you hear nothing at all, check carefully if you did all of the above once again - or you might not have a Bluetooth 1.1 dongle (in that case - bad luck!).

14) Did you download the latest driver from the producer of your dongle? If not, do so and go to step 16. Widcomm 1.4.2.10 does sometimes work fine, but you're better off, if you can get a Widcom 1.4.3 or 3.0.1.xxx driver.

Added note September 2005: Widcomm Bluetooth drivers used to be available from many Blutooth dongle producer's websites, but because a lot of people cross-downloaded drivers from other producers' websites, it is now nearly impossible to find BT drivers on the web which are not locked to the producers own dongles (through MAC address) or in other ways password protected. It is therefore important that you buy the rigt dongle (see step 1) in the first place!

16) When you have found a more recent Blutooth driver then unzip/unpack the files in a re-findable directory (do not run any install.exe or other exe-files in the unzipped folder). Then repeat steps 7 to 12 and you should be up and running!

____________________________________________________________________

With my headset and class 1 dongle, my whole house is covered with a fairly good sound quality (sort of like a cellular phone). Even with 15 meters to the dongle and a 15 cm concrete wall in between, a conversation is by all means possible. What a great addition to Skype!!!

However, DO NOT expect the crisp Skype quality that you are used to using a wired headset - most BT headset users are slightly dissappointed with the sound quality! Sound quality seems to depend a lot on the driver and on the headset.

Only downside - you have to repeat step 10 above (only) before I start using the Bluetooth headset after each reboot of my PC, but I can then use it for any number of consecutive calls (until battery runs out after 6 hours!). Alternatively, you can buy "SkypeHeadset" (www.skypeheadset.co.uk) for 10 GDP / 15 EUR / 20 USD and then your BT headset will connect automatically at each call. I use it and it works well on my PC, despite some driver problems with my Nokia PC Suite...

A tip: Shut down your BT headset using the on/off button on the headset before shutting down you PC - in that way all sound settings are set back to default on your PC instead of all sound getting directed to the BT headset.

I believe that the above procedure will work for most headsets and Bluetooth 1.1 dongles.

[b]If you use my tips and it does not work, please post in this thread in order to get the problem-solving concentrated here. Once your problems solved, please post again to confirm. In that way, we'll get a little smarter every day :wink:

Just wanted to share this great experience!!!
Anders, Denmark

A great write-up.

Moderators: This should be made Sticky !!!

I reverted to SP1 to get my headset to work so I was encouraged to read this report.

Unfortunately it does not work for me. I upgraded to SP2 and followed the instructions. When I disable the Microsoft Enumerator and upgrade the Generic Bluetooth radio driver to that from my CD (which is the Widcomm 1.4.3.4 driver) the Microsoft Enumerator disappears completely - I only disabled it - and then there is no Bluetooth hardware showing in my Bluetooth devices at all. Device manager shows only one Blutooth USB device. So maybe it is back to SP1 for me - any ideas anyone?

Oh and BTW - if I try to upgrade the driver via My bluetooth Places hardware tab, it looks as though it has worked, but as soon as you close and re-open the Bluetooth 'radio' device is gone!

Rick

Unfortunately it does not work for me. I upgraded to SP2 and followed the instructions. When I disable the Microsoft Enumerator and upgrade the Generic Bluetooth radio driver to that from my CD (which is the Widcomm 1.4.3.4 driver) the Microsoft Enumerator disappears completely - I only disabled it - and then there is no Bluetooth hardware showing in my Bluetooth devices at all. Device manager shows only one Blutooth USB device. So maybe it is back to SP1 for me - any ideas anyone?

Hi Rick!
I am sad to hear that it did not work for you! However, it seemed quite convincing on my machine, so I think it is the right way to go. I checked my own device manager and the Microsoft Enumerator is also completely gone on my PC now, so I have only one Bluetooth device in my device manager with one sub-device, but everything still works fine. I can even unplug and replug the dongle (in the same usb port) without "New hardware found" starting. No trouble at all (only a red ear from BT-Skyping all day !)
Did you install the dongle as specified by the producer in step 4? Maybe the drivers alone won't do it!?
Maybe a stupid question, but did you remember to turn on Bluetooth radio (turning the Bluetooth icon in the system tray white) and then pair your headset and so on in step 8???
Please try out a bit more and tell us if it works! Else you will just have to call your PC "a Dell" and find the appropriate driver on the Internet :wink:

Best wishes
Anders

PS: Running SP1 is NOT a long-lasting option - might as well leave the door to your house open while at work :shock:

Hi Anders

Thanks for the tech support! I agree that SP2 is inevitable for me one day (and I want that day to be soon!). I just want to use skype/bluetooth headset.

In step 4 of your guide uou advise to install the latest drivers - for my dongle this process installs the the whole SP1 bluetooth manager software - it does not seem possible to just install the drivers. If I let SP@ do it's thing it installs the microsoft drivers. I am able to update these drivers with the Widcomm 1.4.3.4, which is on my USB CD, and then if I check device manager the driver is 1.4.3.4, and I only have the Bluetooth USB device as a 'child' in the Bluetooth devices. So this all look fine - same as you.

The bluetooth icon in the system tray is white, but there is no 'device' listed in the hardware tab. Strange huh? So if I try to search for a device I am asked to check that my bluetooth radio is attached to the computer. So the Blutooth manager is not talking to device manager at the moment. Wierd. Any thoughts?


Thanks Rick

Hi Rick!

Sounds very much like the situation I had before doing my step 7 (manually adding the "btwusb.inf" file from driver CD), but as far as I understand, you did complete this step too. I also suppose that it was the non-Microsoft driver that you updated?

Have you got other USB-devices avaliable so that you can check that the USB-port you're using is OK? I once drove the hotline of my ADSL provider mad trying to install a simple LAN-card - turned out the one PCI-port that I was using was physically defect!

Have you tried to plug out and plug back the dongle?
Did you run the "Set up Bluetooth" guide?

As you can see from above, I am in no way a specialist - I was just extremely persistent in getting my headset to work (took me 3 days to find out the solution above)!

Any users out there that have tried my steps with success? Maybe I did one little thing that might have seen unimportant but that is the key to success...

Best wishes
Anders

:!: Thank you for the detailed instructions!

I am using a Logitech Headset as described that works fine with my T610 and have bought a Yakumo Class 1 Blueport USB dongle. The software that came with it was Widcomm 1.3.

Initially, I setup everything as described, and was happily able to hear crystal clear audio in the Headset from Skype or any other windows audio source. However, when I used it to phone someone via Skype, my voice was terribly dissorted, whilst when I switched back to a normal (wired) microphone, quality was tops again.

I have thus downloaded the Widcomm 1.4.2 drivers for the ANYCOM USB100, which is a clone device to the Yakumo and works without patching.

However, despite the new Widcomm stack, I now have just distorted noise on my mike, while the crystal clear audio in my earpiece prevailed.

I have then tested the windows audio-recording tool to find out if this is a general problem, and it turns out that indeed, the noise occures there as-well (which admittedly makes it not skype specific, but it may be a problem that many users with similar setups may experience).

I am using WindowsXP SP1, have a Wireless LAN connection, which however does not seem to interfere, as audio-out is untainted.

Does anyone have any quick or slow ideas?

And yes, I did search the forum up and down, but the only suggestions I found was updating to the 1.4 drivers, which is what actually caused the change in the first place....

Thank you very much for any help!!

From the posts above, I get the impression, that maybe it is the Dell driver that does the magic. Is anyone courageous enough try to install that driver on their PC and see the effect?
Just remember to turn Bluetooth radio "On" before installing the Dell driver. It would also be wise to make an XP back-up point!

Worked fine for me :wink:

Best whishes
Anders

I installed successfully a Linksys USB bluetooth (USBBT100) dongle and a Cardo Wireless Scala 500 headset. The linksys software used widcomm 1.4.2.8 stack.

1. plug-in dongle, go thru XP plug and play install of bluetooth dongle.

2. use device manager to force install of linksys USB driver.

3. activate and connect Scala 500 headset.

4. change Skype options for audio in and out and ringing to bluetooth.

works fine. earphone quality is excellent - microphone is little thin in sound.

for best posting on how to do bluetooth, see anders messages.

John

x-micro has just realeased some new BT software for their latest bluetooth 1.2 dongles http://www.x-micro.com/dongle2.htm

it is available here http://www.x-micro.com/drv.htm

The version number is 3.0.1.906. The User Guide indicates it's the widcomm 3.0 driver. I haven't tried it since I like the Toshiba BT stack.

AMP,

You most certainly rock on that explanation.
I have a D-link WIDCOMM 1.1 dongle and an Plantronics M 3500 Headset. i followed all your instructions (installing WIDCOMM 1.4.1 drivers, the only ones available) and the bluetooth works just fine.

connecting my headset something strange happens though. i can connect it perfectly but then the headset just keeps on producing this bip-biping sound every 5 seconds and no sound whatsoever comes out.

Does dis have to do with the headset or the dongle??

i also tried to install the dell drivers (i have a dell inspiron 8500, with no internal bluetooth card,hence the dongle) and i indeed have to turn on bluetooth radio but pressing Fn+F2 nothing happens.

How do i turn bluetooth radio on on the dongle?

Thanks for the explanation!!

connecting my headset something strange happens though. i can connect it perfectly but then the headset just keeps on producing this bip-biping sound every 5 seconds and no sound whatsoever comes out.

Hi there!

I think that the sound you hear might be the computer "ringing up" your headset. Look in the manual and see what to do to accept an incoming call (I have to press the "accept" button for 2 secs).
As I wrote in my post, the headset has to be in the "off hook" state as long as it is connected to the PC in order for any sound to go through...

Best wishes
Anders, Denmark

(ssaverys has later confirmed by mail, that the above procedure did solve the problem)

I am using windows xp with SP1 (since, I am somewhat skepical about microsoft support of bluetooth on sp2).

I use a bluetooth dongle from arotech with Widcomm 1.4.2 Build 10 drivers (unfortunately, the company does not provide downloadable drivers). I tried to install the 'dell' driver on my home build system. I got the following error:

"Bluetooth Radio is Turned off. Press Fn+F2 to turn it on. Then click OK to continue installation"

I tried to do fn+F2, but to no avail. Does anyone know how to turn on the bluetooth radio ?

TIA. Appreciate your time

I tried to install the 'dell' driver on my home build system. I got the following error:

\"Bluetooth Radio is Turned off. Press Fn+F2 to turn it on. Then click OK to continue installation\"

I tried to do fn+F2, but to no avail. Does anyone know how to turn on the bluetooth radio ?

I had that same problem (but it seemed to have slipped out of my initial post).
Solution: Before installing the Dell driver, turn Bluetooth "on" by right-clicking on the "B" logo in your system tray (buttom-right of your screen). That should do the trick! (fn+F2 is one of those laptop shortkeys and will surely not work on a PC!)

Good luck!
Anders

To all Skypers who want to use Bluetooth headsets with Windows XP SP2:

Following some Skype support chats with other Bluetooth Skypers in trouble, I have edited my initial post in this thread and tried to make it much clearer and hopefully easier to follow. I have also added a new source to a driver that works with headsets.

I believe that if you follow my instructions in the initial post carefully and step by step (please print before trying!), you will get your Bluetooth headset to work under XP with SP2. Please try and post your results and suggestions for improvements here!

Good luck!
Anders

Well... I will not take through the all "NOT WORKING" issues... Solved everything and it's working.

However, when I click the ANSWER button on the headset, it doesn't kick the bluetooth service of headset... it just give a little message, blink the tray icon to green and back to white... and that's it...

Only when I am already connected to my headset (From the computer) then the ANSWER button diconnects the session.

I would like to configure everything like that... The headset will be paired but not in "CALL MODE" and waiting for the call.
When an incoming call on the skype coming, I want to be able to press this button and cause two actions... kick the service of HEADSET on and answer the call on skype.

Anyone has an idea of such a configuration?

This will just make the skype bluetooth connection - PERFECTO...

Thanks,
Dvir

Ok, Now I realized that the "My Headset" service, is not what we need in order to use skype... This is if you want to use the computer as a headset of a cellular phone. What we need is the "My Audio Gateway" service... That's the one.

However I still have the problem that the "Audio Gateway" service kicks in whenever I press the "ANSWER" button on my headset (Nokia HDW3) but immediately closes down.

I want it to remain up, then I will look for a solution that also answers the call on Skype... Any ideas?

Thanks,

Dvir

i've got the same troubles:

headset: SE hbh-660
dongle: ACER USB-700
os: windows XP professional


some ideas to get my micro working....?

Ok, Now I realized that the \"My Headset\" service, is not what we need in order to use skype... This is if you want to use the computer as a headset of a cellular phone. What we need is the \"My Audio Gateway\" service... That's the one.

Are you sure about that? When I installed my headset, I let my computer explore available Bluetooth services and it found and installed my Logitech Bluetooth Headset (HS01) as a "Headset service", not as an "Audio Gateway service" - and it has always been working very fine!

I am not sure, but it could be that the trouble originates from your headset being connected as a Audio Gateway service...

I would also suggest that you give the driver in my re-edited original post a try if everything else fails.

Best wishes,
Anders

I have the Jabra BT200. I was able to get connected to my BT adaptor which is an IO Gear GBU211. It should have a range of 60 feet but seems to fade out at about 15. I had the chance to get an adaptor that would reach 150 feet and did not cause this one supported the 1.2 spec. My question this - what determines the range? Is the range determined by the headset or the adaptor or both combined.