"Ultimate" Bluetooth Frustration

June 15, 2008 11:34 AM

How do I get this Bluetooth headset working with Skype on Windows Vista?

The S.O. is leaving tomorrow on a long trip, and I said I'd install and set up Skype with her Bluetooth headset (a Motorola H700) so she could use it while abroad.

I've done this without problems on my Windows laptop, which runs XP. Once I paired it, the audio seemed to basically just work after I set it in Skype's options. Unfortunately, she just got stuck with a Vista machine, and I can't get it to work. I can pair the headset with the machine, but it always reports itself as "Disconnected" in the 'Audio' tab of 'Bluetooth Devices.' Hence, nothing happens.

The machine is a Dell M1330 running Vista Ultimate 32-bit, the headset is a Motorola H700. The machine's BT chipset is a "Dell TrueMobile 355", which Windows says is running the latest drivers (6.0.6.6000.16682, dated 6/21/06). The "Bluetooth Hands-free Audio" device appears in Device Manager and claims to be working properly; it's also using what Windows says is the latest driver from Broadcom (6.0.1.3100, dated 11/3/06). The Broadcom Bluetooth Update page hasn't been of any help either; it's apparently XP-only.

I've found a few other people reporting problems getting BT headsets to work under Vista, but no solutions. I know next-to-nothing about Vista, except that it's apparently a royal pain. I've tried rebooting, deleting and re-pairing the device, invoking various gods, all to no avail. Is there anything I'm missing, here? Or is this combination just broken?

Alternately, does anyone out there have a Bluetooth headset that works under Vista that they'd like to recommend? I'm under a very tight time crunch, so one that I could acquire in the DC Metro area on a Sunday afternoon would be preferred. I'm not averse to spending money if that's what it takes (unfortunately solutions involving a new laptop, or downupgrading this one to XP, aren't practical given the time I have left).

posted by Kadin2048 to computers & internet (3 comments total)

I've got the same headset for using with Skype. The only way I got it working was the use the BlueSoleil program to actually begin the "headset pair" with the computer, which then made it show up in Skype.

The other thing that took me 700 years to figure out was that once paired, I needed to press the button on the headset to initialize mic/listen functions. Not sure of that makes sense. Good luck!
posted by TomMelee at 1:35 PM on June 15, 2008

I have the same M1330 (Vista x64), and in the BlueTooth "properties", under the Audio section there is a specific "Skype" checkbox.

I did install the Bluetooth stack available from the http://support.dell.com - not just the one that came w/Vista.

Admittedly - I don't use Skype, or have a Bluetooth headset, but you may want to check-out the Dell Driver's section to a M1330-specific "stack".
posted by jkaczor at 4:20 AM on June 16, 2008

I just wanted to post here, for the future reference of anyone who might come across this — the problem was never really resolved. In attempting to replace the Bluetooth stack, somehow the entire audio subsystem stopped working (so, no sound). Hours have been spent with Dell Support trying to fix that problem, also to no avail.

The ultimate solution is that the machine is going to get sent back to Dell, and will be replaced by one running XP. (The Vista thing was sort of an experiment to see if it was ready for prime time within their company — verdict is pretty clearly 'no.')

As for my S.O. and her trip, she took an old 12" iBook G4 with her, for the sole purpose of using Skype, and it worked perfectly.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:26 AM on August 3, 2008