Solved Issues with wireless headphone connectivity

I have two sets of wireless headphones, one from jabra, one from epos/sennheiser and an asus BT dongle.
I have used them for a long time on this installation of windows and they worked fine.

But now they wont connect properly.
When i turn the headphones on they connect immediately as they are already paired and the bluetooth tray area shows them connected and after a while they disconnect. If it try to connect manually same behavior. Trying to play anything doesnt work. If i go to the sound dialog it shows the devices as disconnected the whole time.

Turn Bluetooth off and on again:

Click the Bluetooth button to switch it off.

Turn off wait a few seconds, then switch the same toggle to turn Bluetooth back on

Unpair and Re-pair your Headphones:

If you’ve paired your headphones with another device in the past, unpair them from that device.

Then, pair them again with your Windows 11 computer.

Run Bluetooth Troubleshooter:

Open Settings > System > Troubleshoot > Other troubleshooters.

Locate Bluetooth and click Run.

Check Device Manager for driver issues:

Look for drivers which have a question marks or exclamation marks over them.

Note: you can choose to stop here and let us know which drive/s are corrupted before taking the next step.

Or right-click on the affected driver and choose to uninstall.

Reboot, windows will load a new driver, then go back into device manager to make sure the affected driver is now working correctly.

Check signal interference:

Make sure there are no obstacles or electronic devices (such as Wi-Fi routers, microwaves, or cordless phones) interfering with the Bluetooth signal between your headphones and the connected device.

Keep your headphones and the device close to each other to maintain a strong connection.

I tried most of these...in no particular order... ive also tried moving the dongle to other usb outlets... the behavior stays the same
The headphones appear in device manager and i can uninstall them... but the dongle doesnt seem to be there... there is not obvious entry in that list that would represent the dongle... it should be something like "asus BT 4.0"

I rolled back my Dell audio drivers. All was well after MS screwed up my drivers.

lone_wolf32 said:

I tried most of these...in no particular order... ive also tried moving the dongle to other usb outlets... the behavior stays the same
The headphones appear in device manager and i can uninstall them... but the dongle doesnt seem to be there... there is not obvious entry in that list that would represent the dongle... it should be something like "asus BT 4.0"

Click to expand...

My motherboard has native BT through a Wi-Fi + BT combo card (m.2 key E card on the motherboard) that has been giving me fits since the beginning of the year.

The (temporary, apparently) fix is to power off my machine, unplug it (I just use the power switch built into my PSU), try to power on the machine after confirming no incoming power, to drain caps and such in the PSU, then let it sit for 10 minutes. Finally, power it back on, and it starts working, until the next fail.

What I've noticed is that when the BT has failed, almost invariably, there is also an 'Unknown USB device descriptor' entry in Device Manager, and sometimes I've have to take the additional step (after the power off and then boot) to 'uninstall' that device and then let Device Manager scan for new devices.

Since you're dealing with a dongle, you could try simply unplugging it from your PC and leaving it out for around 10 minutes, see if that helps. Before you unplug it, though, while it is still plugged in, see if you have an Unknown USB device showing in Device Manager - if you do, try this:

1) In Device Manager, right click on that Unknown USB Device and select uninstall (if there is a check mark to uninstall the driver, don't check it - it should not appear, but stranger thing shave happened).

2) As soon as you uninstall that 'Unknown USB device' unplug the dongle.

3) Let it sit out for 10 minutes.

4) Reboot your machine, and after you're fully logged in, verify there is no 'Unknown USB device' in Device Manager.

5) Plug the dongle back in.

Admittedly, this is a long shot - as I mentioned, this happens to my on-board BT a lot since the beginning of this year, and I'm searching for a replacement (Mobo won't support Wi-Fi 7 replacement cards - tried 2 already). But I've adapted the procedure suggested for my mobo to your purposes as much as possible, in hopes that it might actually help. As always, YMMV.

HTH

lone_wolf32 said:

I tried most of these...in no particular order... ive also tried moving the dongle to other usb outlets... the behavior stays the same
The headphones appear in device manager and i can uninstall them... but the dongle doesnt seem to be there... there is not obvious entry in that list that would represent the dongle... it should be something like "asus BT 4.0"

Click to expand...

The USB Dongle would appear in Device Manager under the heading of either, Universal Serial Bus Controllers - 'USB Composite Device' or under both headings, Universal Serial Bus Controllers - 'USB Composite Device' and under heading, Human Interface Devices - USB Input Device & HID Compliant Vendor - Defined Device'

But, as I expressed earlier if there is an 'Question Mark' or 'Exclamation Mark' over the driver you would uninstall it, reboot and let Windows attempt to load a fresh driver. Then go back into Device Manager and check to see it the driver loaded properly. And if there are no marks over the driver then there is most likely no problem with that driver.

At this point, I'll wait before suggesting more fixes since other members have also suggested some more fixes of their own. Will wait to see if those fixes help you.

lone_wolf32 said:

the sound dialog

Click to expand...

Which is that?

If not the following, then click on the speaker icon in the SysTray and check if it's set to the headphone and not another speaker-type.

"the sound dialog" the "Sound" entry in the control panel


Ok, taking out the dongle and putting it but back in after a while seems to have fixed it.
One of the headphones , the Jabra, is working normally now.
The other one im still having an issue. But i think its in the realm of sound drivers now.
When i connect these headphone, at first one driver kicks in and the sound is poor, after a few seconds a second driver kicks in and the sound is good. Well, with my other headphones now, i have the problem that when the second driver kicks in the sound just goes away. In the sound dialog screen i see the device and the volume bobbing up and down but nothing comes to the headphones.

lone_wolf32 said:

When i connect these headphone, at first one driver kicks in and the sound is poor, after a few seconds a second driver kicks in and the sound is good.

Click to expand...

Do you by chance have Discord running in the background?

I have this exact scenario while Discord is running - regardless of if I have allowed Discord to notify me on sound device change or hidden that notification. The sound almost sounds like an amplified mono signal, coming through a tweeter, doesn't it?