Audio broken on Bluetooth earbuds after Windows 11 Canary 25982 update

Sani · Oct 26, 2023

Windows 11 Canary 25982 broke the audio driver for my Bluetooth headphones. Terrible choppy audio quality. In the Bluetooth menu, it states "Connected mic", instead of "Connected mic, audio" before the update. I tried installing the latest Bluetooth driver and Realtek audio driver from the Intel website, which was the first search result on both Google & Bing. (Realtek* High Definition Audio Driver for Windows® 10 & Windows 11* for Intel® NUC8i7BE, NUC8i5BE, NUC8i3BE Products.)
Updating the Bluetooth driver changed absolutely nothing, and updating the Realtek audio driver actually broke Windows Audio completely, and gave this error:
Install Realtek Audio Driver Failure !! [Error Code: -0001] No driver supported in this driver package.
This led me to think that maybe my hardware wasn't compatible with this newer driver, so I checked the Dell website to download the latest supported driver for my device from this link: Realtek High Definition Audio Driver | Driver Details | Dell Pakistan
But alas, I got the same error code! Feeling dejected, I just restarted the computer and opened Windows Update. And voila, Windows Update fetched compatible drivers all by itself! It took several restarts to install them all, but all compatible drivers were finally installed through Windows Update. I thought that maybe my broken Bluetooth audio would also be fixed this way, but alas! Even after this entire panic and ordeal, the audio on my Bluetooth earbuds is still broken! And the problem isn't with the Bluetooth earbuds! I checked them on my phone and on another Windows machine as well! They work perfectly fine! The problem seems to be within the updated Windows 11 Canary kernel IMO, but I'd be elated if there is some other, fixable issue that I may have overlooked!

cereberus · Oct 26, 2023

Sani said:
Windows 11 Canary 25982 broke the audio driver for my Bluetooth headphones. Terrible choppy audio quality. In the Bluetooth menu, it states "Connected mic", instead of "Connected mic, audio" before the update. I tried installing the latest Bluetooth driver and Realtek audio driver from the Intel website, which was the first search result on both Google & Bing. (Realtek* High Definition Audio Driver for Windows® 10 & Windows 11* for Intel® NUC8i7BE, NUC8i5BE, NUC8i3BE Products.)
Updating the Bluetooth driver changed absolutely nothing, and updating the Realtek audio driver actually broke Windows Audio completely, and gave this error:
Install Realtek Audio Driver Failure !! [Error Code: -0001] No driver supported in this driver package.
This led me to think that maybe my hardware wasn't compatible with this newer driver, so I checked the Dell website to download the latest supported driver for my device from this link: Realtek High Definition Audio Driver | Driver Details | Dell Pakistan
But alas, I got the same error code! Feeling dejected, I just restarted the computer and opened Windows Update. And voila, Windows Update fetched compatible drivers all by itself! It took several restarts to install them all, but all compatible drivers were finally installed through Windows Update. I thought that maybe my broken Bluetooth audio would also be fixed this way, but alas! Even after this entire panic and ordeal, the audio on my Bluetooth earbuds is still broken! And the problem isn't with the Bluetooth earbuds! I checked them on my phone and on another Windows machine as well! They work perfectly fine! The problem seems to be within the updated Windows 11 Canary kernel IMO, but I'd be elated if there is some other, fixable issue that I may have overlooked!

I suspect this is related to the alleged new feature to connect to bluetooth low energy hearing aids to Windows for streaming.
I just cannot get it to work - my hearing aids connect for about three seconds then disconnect.

I have checked drivers, hardware etc and as far as I can tell it my laptop is compatible, and my drivers ok but it just does not work.
It works fine with my Samsung mobile phones.

I cannot say for certain but I thought earbuds used BLE for earbuds.

"Bluetooth Low Energy Audio (BLE with my Audio) is a new Bluetooth standard for audio streaming introduced in Bluetooth 5.2. BLE Audio is designed to work with low-power, battery-powered audio devices, such as wireless earbuds, headphones, and portable speakers"

Fabler2 · Oct 26, 2023

On the Dell site this is what it shows for the driver for Dell G15 5510.

Support for Dell G15 5510 | Drivers & Downloads | Dell US

verbal_666 · Feb 25, 2024

Sani said:
Windows 11 Canary 25982 broke the audio driver for my Bluetooth headphones. Terrible choppy audio quality. In the Bluetooth menu, it states "Connected mic", instead of "Connected mic, audio" before the update. I tried installing the latest Bluetooth driver and Realtek audio driver from the Intel website, which was the first search result on both Google & Bing. (Realtek* High Definition Audio Driver for Windows® 10 & Windows 11* for Intel® NUC8i7BE, NUC8i5BE, NUC8i3BE Products.)
Updating the Bluetooth driver changed absolutely nothing, and updating the Realtek audio driver actually broke Windows Audio completely, and gave this error:
Install Realtek Audio Driver Failure !! [Error Code: -0001] No driver supported in this driver package.
This led me to think that maybe my hardware wasn't compatible with this newer driver, so I checked the Dell website to download the latest supported driver for my device from this link: Realtek High Definition Audio Driver | Driver Details | Dell Pakistan
But alas, I got the same error code! Feeling dejected, I just restarted the computer and opened Windows Update. And voila, Windows Update fetched compatible drivers all by itself! It took several restarts to install them all, but all compatible drivers were finally installed through Windows Update. I thought that maybe my broken Bluetooth audio would also be fixed this way, but alas! Even after this entire panic and ordeal, the audio on my Bluetooth earbuds is still broken! And the problem isn't with the Bluetooth earbuds! I checked them on my phone and on another Windows machine as well! They work perfectly fine! The problem seems to be within the updated Windows 11 Canary kernel IMO, but I'd be elated if there is some other, fixable issue that I may have overlooked!

I have the same issue on my Desktop/W11 with any USB BT 5.x Dongle!!! ANY!!! I tried 3 different Dongles (BT 5.1 + 5.2 + 5.3)!!!

After testing Dongles in other Systems, the issue, IMO, is the Realtek Audio Driver for W11. For some reason it's buggy!!!

Using same Dongles inside an Intel MiniPC, all with Intel chipset (audio/video etc...), with same identical BT drivers, Dongles works perfect with all devices i have. For me Realtek forgot something in W11 audio support for BT!!!

AMD Desktop with Realtek Audio Chipset