How can I get my Airpods to do Mic/Sound at the same time with my Windows 10 Dell Laptop?

Question

I have a Dell E5450 laptop running Windows 10 Enterprise. The laptop has an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 card. I have AirPods 2 (non-pro) and I've been trying to use them with this laptop for a while now. When the AirPods pair, I get the following audio devices:

• [Name]'s AirPods Stereo (Playback)
• AirPods Hands-Free (Playback)
• AirPods Hands-Free (Recording)

It seems that the Stereo device is supposed to be used for audio only, and the Hands-Free devices are supposed to be used for communication (Teams, Skype, etc.). However, when I choose the AirPods Hands-Free Microphone and Speakers for Teams (or any communication app) I get mic, but no sound. I also tried choosing AirPods Stereo for speakers and Hands-Free for Mic, and that gives me sound but no mic. The only way I can get anything to work properly is to use my laptop's Mic and use the AirPods Stereo device for sound. This is a suitable workaround, until I walk away from my laptop a bit.

I suspected it may be an issue with the bluetooth chipset or driver. I updated all of my drivers to the latest available from Dell.

Next, I wanted to try a completely different Bluetooth adapter, so I purchased an Asus BT500 adapter (Bluetooth 5.0). I installed the latest Asus drivers, disabled the onboard device, paired the AirPods with the new adapter, and surprisingly I have exactly the same problem.

Is there some other piece that I'm overlooking here?

Answer 1

Apparently Bluetooth is a little weird with Windows devices. With my Turtle Beach Stealth 700's (Bluetooth) I also can only play audio, but not use my mic unless I switch to low definition audio. I do this by holding down my bluetooth button on my headset for about 2-3 seconds. I do not know about airpods, but try clicking on your volume button in your taskbar, clicking on the text above the volume adjustment bar and check if their is an "AG Audio" option.