Bluetooth Profile A2DP in Win 7: I need a driver to support it!

[Herkulese]

I just purchased a new SAMSUNG Series 3 NP305E5A-A07US Notebook from NewEgg, and the reason that I went with this particular unit is that it has integrated Bluetooth 4.0.
I had also purchase a Crative D100 Bluetooth speaker to use with the new laptop.

Now I find out that the Speaker uses Bluetooth profile A2DP, and that Win 7 does not come with this particular profile.

I see that there are drivers available for adding A2DP to Win 7, but am having trouble finding one that I can actually download.

Can anyone speak to this issue, and is there indeed a driver to make this work?
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Yes, I can buy a dongle, but I prefer not to use up one of my usb ports for this, and that is pricely why I dis not by the Lenovo that I was looking at.

Thanks,
Herk

 

[Herkulese]

Help, someone, anyone, please...............

Ok maybe a bit dramatic, but I really would like some help with this, even if it is a suggestion to another forum somewhere that is more geared to this type of question.

 

[mfenn]

A2DP support is a function of your Bluetooth driver, not anything native to Windows 7. What you need to do is figure out who the actual manufacturer of your Bluetooth chipset is (maybe download the trial of SIW and poke around). Then go to their site and download the most up to date Bluetooth stack. If that doesn't have A2DP support, you are probably SOL.

 

[Herkulese]

Would I find out the MFG of the chip in Device Manager, or is there some other place to find it?

There are Braudcom drivers that work with Broadcom chips, but I am pretty sure mine is not Broadcom.

 

[mfenn]

You might get some hint if you poke around in the Details tab of the device's Properties page. In particular, copy the Hardware Ids property and paste it here.

 

[Herkulese]

I have found out that the Bluetooth chip is made by Atheros.
I checked there site for drivers, but there latest driver for Win7 64 bit is for:

Bluetooth 2.1+EDR/3.0+HS

The 4.0 drivers are only for Win7 32 bit so far.

I will poke around to see if that driver has A2DP support.

 

[mfenn]

It looks like you may have found this site. Make sure that you get the right drivers for your particular chip. I checked the contents of a couple of the packages that are marked Win 7 32-bit, and they actually contain both 32-bit and 64-bit drivers, it's just mislabeled. There are also driver files with the a2dp in their name, so I think you're in luck!

 

[Herkulese]

It looks like you may have found this site. Make sure that you get the right drivers for your particular chip. I checked the contents of a couple of the packages that are marked Win 7 32-bit, and they actually contain both 32-bit and 64-bit drivers, it's just mislabeled. There are also driver files with the a2dp in their name, so I think you're in luck!

That is just the issue, I have to verify which chip is actualy used in my laptop.
Hopefully Samsung can tell me that.
UPDATE:
I just talked with one of the Samsung service facilities, and they told me that the bluetooth on this laptop is part of the INTEL BA5903061A module listed as "MODULE-WLAN_BLUETOOTH; INTEL WIRELESS-N 130, 130B".
So now I guess I go to Intell and try to find something out.

 

[mfenn]

That is just the issue, I have to verify which chip is actualy used in my laptop.
Hopefully Samsung can tell me that.
UPDATE:
I just talked with one of the Samsung service facilities, and they told me that the bluetooth on this laptop is part of the INTEL BA5903061A module listed as "MODULE-WLAN_BLUETOOTH; INTEL WIRELESS-N 130, 130B".
So now I guess I go to Intell and try to find something out.

Please follow the directions I posted in step 5 and give me the device info. Then I can figure out what you really have.

 

[Herkulese]

Please follow the directions I posted in step 5 and give me the device info. Then I can figure out what you really have.

I check it out when I get home tonight, and post what I fing then.
Thanks

BTW, no success at Intell either, allbeit I am not too supprised.

 

[Herkulese]

OK, I checked in device manager and I see on both bluetooth lines that it says:

"On Atherons AR3012 Bluetooth 3.0"

The wireless network adapter is listed as:

Atheros 7"AR9485WB-EG"

So I need to download the AR3012 3.0 Driver.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Herkulese]

Man, nothing is ever easy.
I downloaded the Atheros Win7-64 bit AR3012 driver from the site listed above, and it is named as follows:

bt-7.0.2.13-win7.zip

When I tried to open the archive, a message came up that Windows could not open the file, and that the file was invalid.

I then went and downloaded Win7-Zip, installed it, and tried again.
No go. I still get the same message.
I even opened Win7-Zip and tried to open from within the program, but to no avail.

Any ideas?

 

[Herkulese]

OK, there was a "Bluetooth_Suite_win7.exe" file in the folder that extracted the files.
I don't really understand it but, never the less, it worked.

I will attemt an installation tonight to a freshly imaged, up to date, clean Windows 7 64 bit system. If it all goes south, I can always reimage and try again.

QUESTION - Should I remove all of the bluetooth drivers, or install over them?
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BTW, I am using EaseUS Todo Backup to Backup and Reimage my Windows partition at each major stage of the setup of this system.

 

[mfenn]

If you installed the existing drivers via another installer package, yes uninstall that. Otherwise you can just install over it.

 

[Herkulese]

If you installed the existing drivers via another installer package, yes uninstall that. Otherwise you can just install over it.

Well, I did it both ways.

1) I installed over the existing, and it did not help. No device came up at all.

2) Then I reimaged the system back to stock, uninstalled the two Bluetooth Items in Device Manager, under Network adapters, installed again, and still not go. The driver would not bring up any bluetooth device at all.

3) Then I re-imaged again, put my bluetooth speaker in pair mode, and it brought up the phone style, single ear, headset item in devices, and paired as before.

The difference now, is that it actually continues to work. I can shut down the laptop, then reboot it, and it automatically pairs. I can turn off the speaker and turn it back on and it automatically pairs.

Question 1) This makes no sence, as the system is back to original installation, and it was completely flakey before. Why would it work now?

Question 2) Also, does the type of device that is listed as the connected device have any effect on the type of signal that gets sent, meaning that if the device is a phone style single ear headset; will I get a stereo signal to my speaker?

 

[mfenn]

It's pretty hard to follow the steps you did, so I honestly have no idea why it worked this time but didn't before. Are you using the Atheros driver package or not?

As for the device type, yes the profile you use makes a difference. Most Bluetooth devices have multiple different profiles that they support, each with slightly different features, in order to ensure as broad a compatibility as possible. If you're telling Windows that the device is a mono headset, you probably won't get stereo sound.

Please do the following:

Device Manager -> Bluetooth Radios -> Right click on your Bluetooth device (i.e. not Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator) -> Properties -> Details Tab -> Choose Hardware Ids from the Property drop down.

You should see some really ugly lines with numbers and letters. These are the IDs that I need in order to determine what exact type of device you have.

 

[Herkulese]

I am starting with the Windows installed drivers for the two bluetooth items listed under Network Adapter, and then attempting to install the Atheros package over the top.

Then I tried re-imaged my C-Drive back to the same state as in the above, uninstalling the Windows installed drivers for the two bludtooth items listed under Network Adapter, then attempted to install the Atheros package.

Neither of these worked.

Now I have found a Bluetooth item under Sound Video and Game Controlers.

I will try to get those data lines you are asking for, and I know where to find them now.
They will be for the as purchased, onboard, device.

BTW. do you think the Win7-32 driver pachage would work, since there isn't a Win 7-64 package for the AR3012 chip?
That is the one that I tried.

 

[mfenn]

Is there no Bluetooth radios entry in the Device Manager? If not, please college the Hardware Ids for every Bluetooth device that you find.

As for the drivers, yes the 32-bit package will work. It's actually got drivers for both 32-bit and 64-bit inside (I extracted it and checked).

 

[Herkulese]

Sorry to take so long to get back, but I ran into an issue with the Samsung Recovery utility, and am inthe process of completely wiping, repartitioning, and reformating the drive, for a completely clean reinstall of Windows 7 from their supplied CD.
I have all the appropriat drivers for my specific model, but am incliened to download and install the Atherow Win7 32 driver instead of the supplied driver.
The only issue is that it is not completely clear how to actually install this driver.
It won't extract using WinXip, but inside the folder is an exe that extracts, then there are seemingly two install files, one at the top level, and another inside the files folder.
Can you shed any light on this?

 

[mfenn]

Can you provide me with the information I asked for in replies #5, #9, and #16 (all the same info)? At that point I will be able to guide you through the installation process.

 

[Herkulese]

Can you provide me with the information I asked for in replies #5, #9, and #16 (all the same info)? At that point I will be able to guide you through the installation process.

I have windows reinstalled so I will give it a go. I have the laptop at work with me.

 

[Herkulese]

Hardware ID's as follows:

Bluetooth Radios
- - Generic Bluetooth Adapter
- - - - USB\VID_0CF3&PID_3004&Ref_0001
- - - - USB\VID_0CF3&PID_3004

- - Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator
- - - - BTH\MS_BTHBRB

Network Adapters
- - Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
- - - - BTH\MS_BTHPAN

- - Bluetooth Device (RFCOMM Protocol TDI)
- - - - BTH\ME_RFCOMM

BTW, I am having trouble unziping the downloaded file, even with 7zip.

 

[mfenn]

Thank you for the information! Vendor ID 0CF3 is Atheros Communications, Inc., so we are on the right track. Sure enough, the INF file for the 7.4.0.125 AR3012 drivers site reference PID 3004.

This, you need to download the package from this page. Unzip that file (worked fine for me in WinRAR), then click on the EXE file (which is a 7-zip self extractor). That should give you another folder. Go into that and run Bluetooth_Suite_win7.EXE. After you accept the UAC prompt, you should se a wizard titled Atheros Bluetooth Suite (64). Run through that and reboot.

 

[Herkulese]

This, you need to download the package from this page. Unzip that file (worked fine for me in WinRAR), then click on the EXE file (which is a 7-zip self extractor). That should give you another folder. Go into that and run Bluetooth_Suite_win7.EXE. After you accept the UAC prompt, you should se a wizard titled Atheros Bluetooth Suite (64). Run through that and reboot.

WELL, I have the system completely set up from a clean Windows install. I did an incramental install of drivers and software, and imged the C Partion at each stage. I also recoverd each partition as I went, in order to make sure that the emages are all good. Then I backed up all the the images to my external hard drive.

I also ran CCleaner to clean up any extrainious files and to clear out any registry issues, at each stage, then after all else was completed and set the way that I want it, on the last image, I installed Bitdefender, updated it, and ran a complete system scan.

Now, if I hose anything up, I can simply recover the last image, and start over clean. I like to experiment, and I can finally afford to do it the right way, what with storage so huge, and the cost so cheap these days. If I brake it, I can easily fix it.
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OK - I have the file folder extracted, and the final exe file is named: Bluetooth_Suite_win7.exe

Is this the file I am looking for?

 

[mfenn]

Yes, run that installer.