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AC 8260 Bluetooth Audio Sample Rate

DWein7
Beginner
3,637 Views

Product Name: Elitbook 1040 G3 Notebook

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit)

I recently switched to a HP Elitebook 1040 G3 with Windows 7 Professional 64-bit from an older Elitebook 8470p. I am loving the upgrade with a few exceptions. When I connect a bluetooth headset (I have tried 3 now) and go into Sounds -> Playback Devices -> Bluetooth Headset -> Proeprties -> Advanced I am unable to change the sample rate under default format. It is locked at 1 channel, 8000 Hz (Telephone Quality). I connected the headphones to my old laptop (Elitbook 8470p) and they work great.

I figured this was a driver issue so I updated to the latest drivers on the HP site for my Intel AC 8260 wireless card as well as the latest bluetooth drivers. I then uninstalled the drivers and loaded the latest ones directly from Intel and there was no change. I then uninstalled and loaded the previous set of drivers from Intel, again with no improvement.

Please help. I need stereo bluetooth audio to get through my work day.

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ASouz7
Honored Contributor II
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dweinberg,

The Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 complies with the latest Bluetooth* standards as you can confimr here: http://ark.intel.com/products/86068/Intel-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC-8260 Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 Specifications and http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/product-briefs/dual-band-wireless-ac-8260-brief.pdf Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 - Product Brief

Could you please confirm if the wireless adapter is the one installed by factory?

When you said you have used three headsets to test it, are they all the same brand?

What kind of headset are they? (Audio only or is it also used for other multimedia features as VoIP (Voice over IP) calls, phone calls...etc?

Could you send us a picture of what you get when it shows you are unable to change the sample rate so we can understand the issue much better in order to help you.

Please bear in mind that even though the wireless adapter has Bluetooth* capabilities Windows* hands this connectivity so you might want to take a look at this solution provided by Microsoft* : http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mobiledevices/forum/mdaccessories/horrible-quality-sound-via-bluetooth-it-sounds/6ce6ed55-5bbf-4974-8ebb-3bbd606dae6d Horrible quality sound via bluetooth, It sounds like its stream is at low bit rate so all the higih frequencies create cracking distorted.

It is also important to mention that the audio quality of a Bluetooth* device depends on several factors including what paramenters are used while implementing the A2DP profile. You can find more information about this here: https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/adopted-specifications Adopted Specifications | Bluetooth Technology Website

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DWein7
Beginner
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Thank you for the prompt response!

Yes, the wireless adapter is the original factory installed adapter.

The three headsets were made by Motorola, Bluedio and iLive.

All three headsets are stereo capable and include a microphone so can be used for VoIP, phone calls, etc. All three provide stereo sound when connected to my previous laptop (HP Elitebook 8470p with Broadcom wireless card) and my cellphone (Samsung Galaxy Note 4).

The link you provided is for Windows Mobile devices only. When added to the registry of my Windows 7 laptop it caused the BT audio to cease functioning.

When connected to my HP 8470p laptop with Broadcom 20702 Bluetooth 4.0 adapter (built-in) the default format is also locked but it is set to "2 channel, 16 bit, 48000 Hz (DVD Quality)" which is perfectly acceptable.

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DWein7
Beginner
1,363 Views

So I purchased an external USB Bluetooth adapter (ASUS brand, Broadcomm chipset) and used it. I hate tying up a USB port with this but it works just fine. What is wrong with the Intel drivers?

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idata
Employee
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dweinberg,

 

 

Thank you for the clarification. Now, just to make sure we understood everything. Does this issue occur when you're attempting to stream music or during VoP calls? We were wondering if you could provide the brand and exact model of the headsets so we can check further.

 

 

In the meantime, we always recommend for you to contact your computer manufacturer and obtain the latest Bluetooth* drivers. If after using their drivers you notice that issue still continues, you are welcome to try our latest generic drivers found in our donwload center.

 

 

If possible, try a clean installation of the Bluetooth drivers first. Another option as well, whould be a whole clean installation of the adapter drivers. For your conevience here are the links to both Bluetooth* drivers for this adapter as well as the whole PROSet pakage.

 

Bluetooth drivers:https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25838/Intel-PROSet-Wireless-Software-for-Bluetooth-technology-for-Windows-7-?product=86068 Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software for Bluetooth® Technology for Windows 7 - version 18.16.1

 

Wireless Adapter whole pakage:https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25835/Intel-PROSet-Wireless-Software-and-Drivers-for-Windows-7-?product=86068 Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers for Windows7* - Version: 18.40.0

 

 

Let us know at your earliest convenience if this worked for you.

 

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DWein7
Beginner
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Sorry for the delay. This occurs when I am attempting to stream music or other media audio. I have not attempted any VoIP calls with it.

The headsets I have tried include the Bluedio T2+ Turbine, iLive (unknown model) and Motorola S305. All three work without issue on my previous laptop. They also work with the external USB BT adapter I bought from ASUS (Broadcomm chipset).

I contacted HP and used their latest drivers. There was no change. I also tried using the Intel drivers that you linked with no change.

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idata
Employee
1,364 Views

dweinberg,

 

 

We haven't heard from you in a while so we would like to know if the information we provided regarding the driver updates helped you to resolve the issue. Please let us know at your earliest convenience.
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idata
Employee
1,364 Views

dweinberg,

 

 

Some Bluetooth*-related issues have been root caused back to the BIOS. Intel recommends that you check with your Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to make sure that you have the latest BIOS for your system.

 

 

Please check these links as they may contain information that might help resolve this issue:

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking/000007450.html Connect Your Device with Bluetooth* Technology

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking/000005475.html?wapkw=bluetooth Bluetooth* FAQ

 

Product Compatibility for Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software

 

 

However, we also would like to inform you that when add a external Bluetooth* adapter, its drivers override that of Intel's. There have been been cases that this procedure currupts the Intel® Drivers beyonde repair.

 

 

In cases like this, we recommend to clean uninstall both external Bluetooth* adapter drivers and Intel's and then proceed to a clean installation of Intel® Drivers again. Please know that there is a chance that such procedure may not resolve the issue as third-party drivers overrides the Intel's one.

 

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DWein7
Beginner
1,364 Views

I checked and there was a new version of the BIOS available so I updated it. Unfortunately there was no change.

Before I installed my external adapter I uninstalled the device for the Intel BT adapter and removed the drivers. I then disabled it in the BIOS. Then I added the external adapter and its drivers. When I have been doing testing of the Intel adapter I have removed the external adapter in Device Manager and uninstalled the drivers before going into the BIOS to re-enable the Intel BT.

I have been working in IT for nearly 20 years now, the first 10 of which were on various Help Desks.

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idata
Employee
1,364 Views

dweinberg,

A lot of Bluetooth* headsets will swap over or even lock to the low-quality mode when something tries to access the Bluetooth* microphone and that happens with certain brands and models of compurers. There are a couple of steps that you can follow in order to check if the issue can be resolved this way. Please let us know it they helped you.

1. Try to turn off the Bluetooth* microphone.

 

2. If you are playing games, try to turn off the game voice chat mode or or force voice chat to use some other auido input/output.

 

3. Also, check the Bluetooth* profile supported on the headset such as HSP (Headset Profile), HFP (Hands Free Profile), A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) and son on. How the headset plays stuff will depend on which profile is currently active.

For your convenience, here is the definition of what each profile mentioned above does:

*A2DP - This profile defines how multimedia audio can be streamed from one device to another over a Bluetooth* connection (it is also called Bluetooth* Audio Streaming). For example, music can be streamed from a mobile phone, to a wireless headset, car audio, or from a laptop/desktop to a wireless headset; also, voice can be streamed from a microphone device to a recorder on a PC. The Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) is often used in conjunction with A2DP for remote control on devices such as headphones, car audio systems, or stand-alone speaker units. These systems often also implement Headset (HSP) or Hands Free (HFP) profiles for telephone calls, which may be used separately.

Each A2DP service is designed to uni-directionally transfer an audio stream in up to 2 channel stereo, either to or from the Bluetooth host. Some Bluetooth* stacks enforce the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Copy_Management_System SCMS-T https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management digital rights management (DRM) scheme. In these cases, it is impossible to connect certain A2DP headphones for high quality audio.

HSP - This is the most commonly used profile, providing support for the popular Bluetooth* headsets to be used with mobile phones and or VoIP (Voice Over IP). It relies on SCO (Synchronoous Connection Oriented) for audio encoded in 64 kbit/s CVSD or PCM found in certain models of headset to be used with GSM 07.07 for minimal controls including the ability to ring, answer a call, hang up and adjust the volume.

HFP - this is commonly used to allow car hands-free kits to communicate with mobile phones in the car.

Let us know if the steps above helped you to resolve this issue and if the explanation above helped to understand about better about these essential Bluetooth* Profiles for headsets of this kind.

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DWein7
Beginner
1,364 Views

All three headsets function fine when connected to a Braodcomm chipset Bluetooth. I am only using trying to stream music over A2DP and/or HSP. This extremely generic advice has not been helpful in the least.

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idata
Employee
1,364 Views

dweinberg,

 

 

Thank you very much for the info. We are going to check this further and will adavise as soon as possible. In the meantime, please let us know if you have any addtional information regarding the situation presented.
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idata
Employee
1,364 Views

dweinberg,

 

 

Thank you for your time. Could please do the following below and let us know if there is any change.

 

 

Please go to the device properties by going to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers > select the Headset/Bluetooth device and right-click, open Properties > Services tab and uncheck Handsfree Telephony.

 

 

Then you can go back to the sound devices, and check if the sound quality can be improved. Some headsets will need to use a Headphones profile for High quality sound.

 

 

Let us know the results as soon as you can, please.

 

 

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idata
Employee
1,364 Views

dweinberg,

Thank you for your time. Could please do the following below and let us know if there is any change.

Please go to the device properties by going to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers > select the Headset/Bluetooth device and right-click, open Properties > Services tab and uncheck Handsfree Telephony.

Then you can go back to the sound devices, and check if the sound quality can be improved. Some headsets will need to use a Headphones profile for High quality sound.

*After checking the steps above you don't see any improvements, please send the logs by suing this tool:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293/Intel-System-Support-Utility Download Intel® System Support Utility

Let us know the results as soon as you can, please.

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idata
Employee
1,364 Views

dweinberg,

 

 

We haven't heard from you after our last troubleshooting steps and it has been around 6 days ago as fo this reminder. We would like to know if the situation has been resolved. Please let us know as soon as you can.
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DWein7
Beginner
1,364 Views

After following the instructions there was no change.

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idata
Employee
1,364 Views

dweinberg,

Thank you for letting us know. We are going to engage a higher level of support to help us with this situation. This might take some time and, at this point, we cannot estimate a time frame for a reply but, please rest assure that we will do our best to get back to you in a timely manner. Should you have any relevant updates, please let us know at your earliest convenience.

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idata
Employee
1,364 Views

dweingerg,

 

 

Could please be so kind and provide us the Wireless Adapter logs? Please, use this tool: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293/Intel-System-Support-Utility Intel® System Support Utility to extract such information. Once you have it, please send us here so we can take a look. We are looking forward to hearing from you.
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