I have a relatively new laptop (lenovo ideapad pro 5) running windows 10. Each bluetooth headset I connect, I get awful choppy sound. It is unusable. I have spend hours with it following different approaches listed online for a fix, but nothing has helped. The headsets work perfectly when connected to my phone.
If I buy one of the little usb bluetooth dongles, is that likely to make any difference?
Thanks.
Bluetooth works fine for wireless mouse and keyboard.
ok, tested this a bit more. If I put my head about 1mm from the keyboard I have good audio! it's sounding like a hardware issue.
I have spend hours with it following different approaches listed online for a fix
Does one of those include removing bluetooth driver and starting again?
I didn't do that one, because I figured it was new computer so shouldn't be required (and I don't really know what I am doing…). I also didn't do the update bios update fix, as when I went to do that, I got a few weird messages popping up, and worried I may do damage.
Have you opened it up and made sure the two little wires are connected to the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card?
Not prepared to open it up. But bluetooth works fine for wireless mouse and keyboard.
Sounds like a software issue, reinstall drivers, remove and add the bluetooth device back. if still nothing reinstall windows 10/11 and test before you change or add a single program and if it still does it then the wifi card is or may be faulty and needs replacing.
reinstalled drivers. Realised when my head is real close to the keyboard, I get good sound. I'm now thinking I do need to open it up and have a look for those wires you mention.
Try updating the drivers using the ones available from the lenovo website if you haven't already as sometimes the default windows drivers can be terrible.
Also try disabling wifi on the unit for testing as this can interfere with BT connections on 2.4, the other thing to look at is checking to see what profile the laptop is connecting to the audio device with as if its connecting as a headset profile vs a headphones one it can sound like garbage.
Getting a cheap BT USB dongle will allow you to troubleshoot the issue a bit better so an amazon cheapie is probably a good investment. In all honesty I would recommend upgrading to Windows 11 as it has solved a lot of the BT issues I used to see. Microsoft finally seems to have given the BT stack an overhaul in WIndows 11.
Are we talking about 'Realtek bluetooth adapter' driver? It shows the driver provider as 'Realtek Semiconductor Corp.'
I have disabled the wifi. Made no difference. I have also tried on 5G vs 2.4G.
It is connecting as a headset. I only want it for music, so is there a way to force it to be seen as headphones?
I could move to windows 11. I haven't bothered before as I haven't seen the need.
Thanks.
What is the exact model of your Ideapad pro 5? should be something like 16ACH6
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@iamherenow: In your bluetooth device list remove / forget your headset first.
Download the "Atheros, Realtek, Mediatek" driver from their website (https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/lt/en/products/laptops-and-netb…) - it should be dated 26-Jan-2022 and install it.
Give the laptop a reboot and try pairing the headset again
@baronorder: I try to update to that driver, but after going through the 'update drivers' process, and pointing to these drivers, windows tells me "The best drivers for your device are already installed". Do I need to 'uninstall device' before trying to install these drivers?
@iamherenow: That may be the easiest route, give it a try.
If that fails you may need to manually select the driver by doing the "Browse My computer for drivers" -> "Let me pick" -> "Have Disk" and pick the location that the driver package was installed to.
@baronorder: I have done both approaches now. The driver now shows as from 3 months earlier than the previous version (now showing 6/2021, rather than 9/2021 that it previously was showing). I'm still getting the choppy audio.
I'm assuming I have correctly updated the driver, given the driver date change?
@iamherenow: Yes it should have worked if the date has changed.
What is the name of the audio playback device that you have set at the moment?
Is there "Hands-free" in the name?
@baronorder: There is no "hands free" in the title. I have seen it there before, but it's not there now.
I mentioned above, I have realised if I put my head right on the keyboard, the audio is perfect. Do you think that narrows it down to hardware issue?
@iamherenow: Definitely sounds like you may have an antenna issue, if you feel comfortable opening the machine to check the antenna connections on the wifi module one might be loose or have the cable pinched / broken then go ahead. If its under warranty then definitely lodge a fault with lenovo and see what they are willing to do about it.
I would just order a cheap BT USB dongle from amazon to test and get you by until a repair can be done at least.
@baronorder: I just opened it up given it seems like hardware issue. The two wires look well connected to me (not that I am familiar with the connection method). They were behind some clear plastic plate, but tugging on the wires, it was well attached.
Time to order a usb bluetooth dongle.
The computer will be under warranty, but not sure I'd bother getting it fixed if the dongle does the job.
Thanks or your help - appreciate it.
The good thing about a bluetooth dongle is that its cheap. So its probably worth that small cost to help diagnose the problem, and tell Lenovo what does and doesn't work, even if you don't end up continuing to use it.
The other option that doesn't cost much more to try is another wifi/bluetooth card. That would be an opportunity to upgrade it to wifi 6.
The first thing I'd look at though is the antenna connections to the wifi/bluetooth card in the laptop. They are fiddly little connectors that can look like they're on, and they aren't.
yeah maybe I should just order one and give it a shot. Some of them I saw said no drivers needed. Then I figured maybe it's just doing the same thing as the internal one anyway…
What they mean by no drivers needed is that it uses the drivers included in Windows. So it might or might not use a different driver, but it would certainly use a lot of the same Windows bluetooth software, and if the problem is there plugging in a bluetooth dongle wouldn't fix anything. But if the problem is in the hardware or the antenna, it would. And at least you'd know that by trying one. You'd know whether you have a hardware or software problem.
Bluetooth radios have limited bandwidth, so each additional device you add can reduce the quality of the connection to other devices. Do you have other BT devices connected (e.g keyboard, mouse)? In particular, anything older (as earlier versions of Bluetooth were less efficient and used more of the radio's total bandwidth)
I do have an old keyboard and mouse connected. But I did try removing them and it made no difference.
Well the BT is working as your KB&M work, so sounds exactly like your Bluetooth A2DP profile is defaulting back to SBC (low quality and will cause choppiness for HQ music sources)
Make sure you have current drivers from Lenovo directly, and not Windows Update or Realtek's website, then do a google and follow steps to check the profile it is using. Easy to review and resolve in Linux, not as much so in Windows.
quick google, and it sounds like a real process to figure out the profile that is being used.
It's not just for HQ music. Every bit of audio is affected.
I just noticed you mentioned you're using headsets (with mic), not just headphones…
Headsets have two types of profiles, Recieve-only (e.g A2DP) and Communication. When you use a bluetooth headset as a communication device (the microphone is also being used), it will be in a headset profile which dramatically lowers the audio quality (but is necessary to the headset to both transmit and recieve sound at the same time).
Is there any chance that your headset is connected as a communication device rather than headphones? Your phone will instantly switch between these two modes depending on what you're doing, but a computer can default to/stay in one.
I think it is connected as a communication device. I can see when I go into bluetooth settings is says it is 'connected voice, music'. Is there a way to get rid of the 'voice' part?
Edit: tested out that theory with a bluetooth speaker without a microphone. It shows 'connected music' only. But it still has the choppy audio - but it's not quite as bad as the headsets.
@iamherenow: 'Connected voice, music' is perfectly fine, as long as (for Windows) it says music there. Sometimes you might have headphones drop down to voice and you'll notice a lack in quality requiring a resync.
I still think it's your profile and yes, unfortunately as you've found out, it can be a pain on Windows depending on your laptop and drivers. Good luck resolving it.
@Typical16-bitEnjoyer: Ended up ordering a usb bluetooth dongle from Amazon. Hopefully that does it.
@iamherenow: That should hopefully fix it. A good tip for laptops in future is to avoid everything Realtek, especially wifi!
@iamherenow: Good diagnosis step.
If choppy audio = audio that stutters, skips, lags, or drops out, that sounds like a bandwidth issue to me. If it was a stream issue (like it's using a really low bitrate or a lower quality codec like SBC) then the audio would sound low quality (muffled as in playing in another room, robotic) but would play smoothly.
The bandwidth is mainly affected by two things - signal quality (distance, the quality of the radios in your laptop and the headphones) and available capacity (what's left all the other communication your laptop is doing with other stuff over bluetooth).
Your troubleshooting has already confirmed it's not capacity (you tried with nothing else connected to your laptop), and it's not a signal problem on the headphone side (as you've tried other headphones), so my guess would be it's an issue with the signal broadcast by your laptop's transmitter - in which case, yeah, a seperate bluetooth dongle should resolve that.
Make sure the dongle you get supports at least bluetooth 4.0 (even the cheap ones are usually 5.0+), and if you have headphones with aptX, spend a little extra for a dongle that also has aptX.
@silentsoar: got this one:
https://www.amazon.com.au/TP-Link-Bluetooth-Adapter-Compatib…
Mainly because it looks small in size and it seemed capable enough.
Don't know anything about aptX - so I"m guessing i don't have it!
Update: I disabled the internal bluetooth. Then plugged in the usb bluetooth adapter i bought and straight away works perfectly.
Thanks for coming back and giving us an update : )
Sounds like antennae issue with laptop BT.