Bluetooth problem when switching profile between Headset/Headphones

Question

I'm using an HP Elitebook 1040 G7; ever since I got that a couple of weeks ago, I have a problem with my bluetooth headsets (no matter which).

Every bluetooth headset is usually connected with two profiles, Headset for communications and Headphone for media, with stereo sound etc.

Now...

Upon a clean reboot, I can run Skype for Business, Bria, Teams, whatever and make calls without any problem.

I can listen to Spotify or any other media, works as well. I can listen to music, when a call comes in the music stops, I can answer the call, everything fine.

After a while (and I can't say how long, as it differs a lot), I can't hear people on the other side of the call anymore. And no, nothing is muted.

Going back to media, the sound comes as usual, but somehow the bluetooth stack seems to have a problem switching to the Headset profile for some reason.

I've already updated Windows itself as well as the driver for the bluetooth adapter (Intel), nothing helped.

Sometimes it all works for several hours or even an entire day, sometimes I even have to boot twice, before it starts working again.

What's more: when disabling/enabling bluetooth through the settings, this takes forever. Switching off is fast, but then the settings are kind of freezing and I can click the bluetooth-button as much as I want, nothing happens instantenously.

After 2 to 3 minutes then bluetooth suddenly kicks in again and devices start to reconnect.

As everything worked on the device I had before this Elitebook and the headsets (I have several, all show the same behaviour) also work flawlessly with a Samsung tablet, I'm beginning to fear the bluetooth-chip might be faulty.

Any ideas? Help?

Answer 1

Just to keep you informed:

I may have identified another culprit.

After trying hard to find out what else could be different, I realized this is an HP laptop.

Loads of bloatware... So I dug around in the installed apps and found "HP Audio Control".

No idea why I'd need that, but it seems it fiddles around with all sorts of audio devices.

So far, after two breaks where the headset went to powersave and coming back, everything still works.

This is totally new and good :)

I can imagine that the Windows audio management and that HP Audio Control somehow don't work together well, under certain circumstances.

Will give a (hopefully) final feedback here next week, in case anybody else runs into a similar issue.

Answer 2

I was saving that as a last resort, as it's time consuming and sucks ;)

But: after not having headphone mode at all when booting this morning, I was desperate enough to go to the intel site again.

And voilà, they published another new driver just a few days ago.

Giving that a try, maybe it'll help.

Will update this post after a day or two of thorough testing.

Answer 3

Have you tried contact with the HP support to check if it can be a hardware issue ?

Answer 4

Hi Felipe

Yes, as I stated, they worked with the predecessor of this laptop, which was a Matebook X Pro.

And they also work on a MacBook Pro.

Best regards

Markus

Answer 5

Hi MarkusKohli, my name is Felipe Lucas, Independent Advisor and Microsoft Windows user like you.

I'll be happy to help you.

Just to make it clear, have you tested the Elitebook with other headsets and it presented the same error?

But when you try your headsets with your Samsung tablet it works fine?

Did you have the opportunity to test the headset on another laptop or desktop ?

Feel free to ask back any questions and let us know how it goes. I will keep working with you until it's resolved.

___________________________

Felipe Lucas

Independent Advisor