AX200 - bluetooth disconnection with multiple game controllers

[claudspeed]

I have a Legion 5 Pro 16ACH6H (from 2021), with Intel Wifi-6 AX200 160MHz card with integrated bluetooth, driver: 22.190.0.4 (from 23/11/2022), OS: Windows 11.

Using an external bluetooth dongle I can connect any number of bluetooth controllers (joypads) of different or same manufacturer.

If I use the intel bluetooth AX200 card integrated in the Legion 5 pro I'm only able to connect one controller. If I connect another the first one disconnects.

No problem on other laptops I've tried with the same controllers.

Other users have complained about this here, but you ignored them.

This IS clearly a driver bug. I am a software engineer, btw.

Can you escalate and try to have this fixed asap, please?

[will6]

Seems to be some improvement. Not perfect but better.

Connected 2 dualsenses and 3 wiimotes. Have to follow specific order to connect them. Still didn't tried prolonged play.

But yes, now is somehow similar to a good BT dongle.

Except for the TR wiimotes which still doesn't have audio on dolphin.

[Tommysonic5]

I wanted to share my experience with 23.30.0.3 which I tried over the last week with Dualsense and headphones on Bluetooth.

The connection does seem better overall, but not fixed for me when using 1 Dualsense and 1 headset. It tends to work perfectly for short periods, but after a little while I get those usual audio cutouts every 15 minutes or so.

Just rolled back to 21.0.0.4

[filament]

The problem has been known for years... but apparently Intel doesn't care.

community.intel.com/t5/Wireless/Can-Intel-AC-9260-Bluetooth-work-with-4-concurrent-PlayStation/m-p/1306591#M37212

[will6]

The issue was somehow resolved or improved for AX cards since driver 23.30.0.0. Remember to check asus forum for newer drivers. They should update older cards too since this bug affects them all.

[AnniH]

I would be interested to know if the problem also occurs with Intel's new WiFi 7 module BE200NGW and BE202NGW. Has anyone already had experience with it?

[will6]

It's mostly a driver problem. Don't think it will work better on BE cards. The hardware has some limitations too, but probably it's the same hardware.

But issue was greatly improved since driver 23.30.0.0.

And yesterday was released 23.60.0.0 on Asus forums.

BTW we made it to the news

https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/intel-upgrades-bluetooth-for-windows-11-and-its-great-news-for-people-with-the-ps5-dualsense-controller

Kudos to all the people that help here. Even the ones at Intel that didn't believe this problem exist.

[claudspeed]

Wow! Amazing! So cool to be on the news! This makes sending logs for 6 months-ish almost worth it eheh

[AnniH]

Hehe, and if we're lucky, in 5 years we'll be able to connect a third game controller. That would almost be an entire PlayStation 5.

[will6]

Lol. Dont be mean. They didnt have enough budget to buy 3 controllers.

BTW, I tried 3 wiimotes. And they have some troubles to stay connected, but it's usable (unusable with drivers prior to 23.30.0.0). The bad, they dont have speaker sound with intel bt and they refuse to fix it.

2 controllers of any kind seems to be fixed.

But well, intel bt is getting better. Maybe, someday of this century, or maybe the next one, it will be on par with 5 dollars bt dongles.

[claudspeed]

Btw, I found this old petition: https://www.change.org/p/intel-get-intel-to-fix-the-driver-problem-with-various-wireless-bluetooth-chips

It probably won't change much, but I still signed It, since the fix is not perfect! Personally It seems to works fine for me, only weird thing I've seen recently is some controller reconnection notification in retroarch every 20ish minutes, but I'm not sure If It's a driver issue or there's something wrong with my Retroarch.

[AngryChair]

Strange, I've been consistenly using 4 controllers: 1 dualsense and 3 dualshock4 for the past few months and never had a single disconnection or noticeable latency spike. Are you disabling the power saving option from device manager?

I wasn't able to borrow another dualsense to try with 2 of them and 2 ps4 one's but i'll report when i can. Still, i think 4 joysticks is pretty good for a BT that had problems with only 2.

[will6]

Dualsense use a lot more BW than ds4.

But yes, its kind of usable.  Four ds4 are probably possible since 23.30.0.0. 

Four dualsense not so sure.

[will6]

I dont use more than one controller too often. But last time I played 2 player didnt have any disconnection. Only 2 dualsense. No other bt device connected.

Dont know if controller can lose connection without having to turn it on again. I used to get those retroarch messages with x series bt controller. Never understood completely why it happens.

I keep this bt mainly because their external antenna. Bt dongles tend to have a nano antenna and sometimes they need to be separated from pc case to have better signal. And having the bt dongle hanging from a usb port is not that great.

Maybe someday I should try another brand pcie wifi/bt card, but its a pain to replace it.

[will6]

BTW I dont why they release so many drivers updates for wifi / bt. Looks like they are working like mad, but barely fixes anything.

[Nakano]

I don't see the situation has improved at all with Intel Wireless-AC 9260. I had Dual Sense (PS5 controller) connected. It works fine itself. Next connecting PS4 dualshock controller. It disconnects immediately. Using the latest released Intel(R) Wirless Bluetooth(R) driver 23.60.0.1 for Windows 10. Tried with Tekken 8 as a game.

[teeedubb]

Intel used to be synonymous with quality and reliable hardware, but recently they have become hot garbage. Between driver issues like this, to CPU's that don't innovate and fail spectacularly to taking 5 years to merge bug fixes for opensource vaapi drivers, Intel has lost its way. It spends more time sending its users on wild goose chases than it would take for them to fix the issues - check this thread where this issue was reported 5 years ago! If providing useless support was an Olympic sport, Leonardo_C_Intel would be a multi gold medal winner. https://community.intel.com/t5/Wireless/Can-Intel-AC-9260-Bluetooth-work-with-4-concurrent-PlayStation/td-p/662264.

To those with issues in this thread who are tired of waiting for intel to fix functionality as basic as connecting controllers via bluetooth, I have a rz616 wifi card in my new Ryzen 7800x3D and it has not skipped a beat - it connects 4 DS4's flawlessly.

[will6]

Last time logged here intel stock worth something. And they had like 15k more employees.

Happened what we all knew, most of their HW is faulty.

The OP did a great job to have a better driver. And in fact, it´s better. But still has many limitations, which we all knew from the start, faulty HW design.

I tried to reach them many times about the Wii Remotes TR not having sound with this trash. And they couldnt care less. So, let them fall and forget about this company. They never listen.

[will6]

My board uses a cnvi card, so not sure which realtek or mediatek card could work. When searching for cnvi, only intel card shows, so probably no way to change this trash.

[will6]

BTW, they have a warning for new drivers

IMPORTANT! Prior to Upgrading from 23.10.x.x - 23.50.x.x versions to this 23.70.3.1 driver, the user needs to
disconnect all the Bluetooth® devices and unpair all the previously paired devices in the PC. Once upgrade is
complete, the user can repair the devices and connect them. Fixes for PCs with Bluetooth® drivers prior to
23.10.0 can be upgraded to 23.70.3.1.

Not sure what else they f***d up. Tried with or without doing that, and didnt notice any improvement. It´s the same trash.