1

I am facing the computer running Windows 10 Home (clean installation) with GIGABYTE AORUS B550 MASTER motherboard. It has integrated Intel Wireless Bluetooth ver. 5.

When I do pair Sennheiser HD BT350 headphones, the sound is excellent for about 90 seconds (even at a 20-meter distance), and then the constant stutter starts - no matter how far Headphones are. Reconnecting headphones does not help, and stutter is back again after 90 seconds. Also, it does not matter what application is feeding the sound.

The external WiFi/Bluetooth antenna is connected to motherboard alright.

Headphones work with Bluetooth 5 capable smartphone and with Bluetooth 4.2 USB dongle at the same machine just fine, but not with integrated Intel Bluetooth.

So far, I tried combinations of the following:

HW & Drivers:

  • Updating to latest driver for Bluetooth and WiFi from Intel site
  • Flashing BIOS to version F6
  • Disabling WiFi module
  • Disable all nearby WiFi networks
  • Disabling all nearby Bluetooth devices

In the Control Panel -> Hardware & Sound -> Sound -> Headphones setup

  • Disabling all audio enhancements
  • Disabling / Enabling Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device

In the Control Panel -> Devices And Printers -> Headphones properties -> Services

  • Disabling - Handsfree
  • Disabling - Remote Control
  • Disabling - Unknown Service

In the Device Manager

  • Disabling Microsoft Bluetooth LE Enumerator
  • Disabling Bluetooth Device (RFCOMM Protocol TDI)

Longshots

  • Power Management - set to High Performance
  • Uninstalling NVIDIA HD Audio drivers
  • Reinstalling High Definition Audio Drivers
  • Reinstalling Realtek Audio Drivers (desperate longshot)
  • Enabling / Disabling XMP memory feature in BIOS
  • Also tried to measure Bluetooth signal strength - no problem there - strong.
  • Tried turning it off and on again (multiple times).

None of the above solved the issue, and I am run out of ideas.

Update 1: When I do connect non-Bluetooth 5 speakers, everything works as expected. Also tried V4, V5 versions of BIOS. The behaviour persists - stuttering after approximately 90 seconds of continuous play.

Update 2: I tried a few more desperate measures in the following order:

  • Connecting Sennheiser HD BT350 headphones via USB (should not do anything, as USB is there merely for charging)
  • Installing Sennheiser updater from the official site (again it is not meant for this product, so there was no way to update it)
  • Removing them from paired devices (did this before few times)
  • Removing all related drivers from Bluetooth and Audio sections in Device manager. One thing to mention here - headphones driver LE-HD 350BT were listed twice (but I did this before few times)
  • Updating BIOS back to V6
  • Powering off the computer, disconnect it from the power grid for a minute.
  • Paired headphones again

All the sudden, everything works as expected for about a day, even after a few restarts / powering offs. Unfortunately, I can't be sure which move, or combination of moves fixed it in case issues get back.

Improve this question
4
  • Did you try Reset? Hold power button for 7 s
    – Tony Stewart EE75
    Commented Aug 30, 2020 at 14:43
  • @TonyStewartSunnyskyguyEE75 not like that before, I just powered off computer and then disconnected it from the power grid for a few minutes. I tried your suggestion now, but the result is the same, after about 90 seconds of playback, the stutter is here again.
    – Zenithies
    Commented Aug 30, 2020 at 15:13
  • Time to call support site
    – Tony Stewart EE75
    Commented Aug 30, 2020 at 15:18
  • I've been having this issue on my HD 450BT. The one thing I've noticed is that when I turn off Bluetooth on other devices in the area (in my case my phone and iPad) the choppy audio stops and it works fine. Contacted Sennheiser support in my country, completely useless
    – ebooyens
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 8:38

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

I had this problem for a while and probably also a combination of solutions was required. Still, I think that in my case the problem was that the headphones had a double bluetooth connection with my laptop and was jumping between connections: the normal Audio bluetooth connection (HD 350BT) and the More Devices connection you mention (LE-HD 350BT) that is part of a related driver. I unpaired the LE-HD connection and kept the standard audio bluetooth connection (also with microphone). Now it works perfectly.

I think the LE-HD connection has more features to combine with other applications but it probably also consumes more battery life of the headphones.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    Since then, I have seen similar behaviour on more machines with Bluetooth ver. 5 and different Bluetooth ver. 5 capable headphones. As you noted, it usually comes to fact, that headphones are connected to same device ‘twice’ and ‘rotating’ in between those two connections. What I have found interesting, it usually takes multiple attempts to remove duplicity in device manager combined with system reboot to get it fixed.
    – Zenithies
    Commented Apr 12, 2021 at 23:01
0

what worked for me was buying a USB Bluetooth Adapter, installing it's driver, and disabling Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R), which can be found under Device Manager > Bluetooth. Oh, also, I've heard disabling automatic Windows Updates helps out, because the updates tend to fuck it up. I've had updates disabled since. just today, it started all over again. I forgot about the whole process, so i've been spending the last couple hours raging about how I fixed it last time, since its been a while. Finally, I noticed an "Unrecognized BT Device" and reconfigured that, which turned out to be the BT adapter I bought. Issue was fixed right away. Hope this helps! If you ended up paying someone to fix the issue, and it worked, would love to hear how they solved it.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .