How to pair/connect Bluetooth audio device to Windows 7 PC.

I spent many hours trying to figure out how to connect my two Windows 7 64-bit PCs to my Bluetooth stereo audio device (the Motorola S705) and so I thought I'd post my solution in case it helps anyone else.

SYMPTOMS:
A Bluetooth-capable Windows 7 PC can pair, but can’t connect, to a stereo audio device (like the Motorola S705 SoundPilot) via Bluetooth. The PC and the audio device may pair, but then Windows 7 provides the following error messages: “Device driver software was not successfully installed. Bluetooth Peripheral Device. No driver found.”

It may be worth noting that I had no problem connecting my Bluetooth audio device to my cell phone or Windows XP PC. And the Windows 7 PC was able to connect to other Bluetooth devices, such as mice or keyboards.

CAUSE:
Even though the Windows 7 PC may have a working Bluetooth driver that connects to some Bluetooth devices (like mice or keyboards), the Windows 7 PC does not have the necessary A2DP & AVRCP (audio-capable) Bluetooth software & drivers installed. This software deficiency may occur, especially if the PC has been upgraded from an earlier version of Windows or the PC maker has simply not provided the latest driver update.

SOLUTION:
If the PC has an add-on Bluetooth adapter/dongle, download & install the latest driver directly from the Bluetooth dongle maker’s website, if possible.

If the PC has Bluetooth built-in, download & install the latest Bluetooth driver directly from the PC manufacturer, if possible.

If the add-on Bluetooth adapter/dongle maker, or the PC-maker doesn’t provide working Bluetooth software for Windows 7:
1) On the Windows 7 PC, go into to the “Device Manager” (Start Menu/Control Panel/Device Manager) and expand the “Bluetooth Radios” section to determine the maker of the Bluetooth chip. Typically this is a chipmaker like Broadcom, Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR), or Toshiba.
2) Go to the chipmaker’s website to download the latest driver. For example, in the case of Broadcom, download the Widcomm Bluetooth software from Broadcom’s website, http://www.broadcom.com/support/bluetooth/update.php
3) With the Bluetooth hardware adapter/dongle installed (if not built-in), install the chipmaker’s Bluetooth software.

Once the Bluetooth software is installed, you should be able to pair and connect with the Bluetooth audio device in the normal manner (Start Menu/Devices and Printers/Add a device).

Note that in any case, once the driver is installed and the Bluetooth audio device is properly installed, paired, and connected, you will need to go into the audio properties of the PC (Start Menu/Control panel/Sound) and set the default audio playback device to be the Bluetooth headphones when listening through the Bluetooth audio device. When not listening through the Bluetooth audio device, the user will have to switch the default audio playback device back to the speakers.

Pairing problem with CSR dongle #9370

I installed the dongle and tried to add my Samsug M390 phone. The pairing timed out as I was entering the passkey on my phone. My phone recognized the Acer Aspire One netbook computer but the computer does not recognize the phone. Successive tries have not successfully paired the devices. How do I add the phone to my computer's recognized devices now?

Broadcom no longer provides those drivers for download on their site. They claim Windows Update is suppose to have them. Of course when I try to do that through windows update it doesn't find any new drivers for this. How do you deal with this Catch-22?

The bluetooth usb dongle uses a broadcom bcm2045A it appears. On linux mint it detects it as bcm2046b1 however. It also works just fine on linux mint but not on windows 7 x64 for me.

Looks like Broadcom stopped hosting their drivers around Dec 2016. Their page claims you can get the drivers through Windows Update. I plugged in an Insignia Bluetooth USB and it did download and install Broadcom drivers, but it did not install the "WIDCOMM Bluetooth Software" that Broadcom's installer used to install. WIDCOMM includes the Bluetooth profiles necessary to do things like A2DP audio encoding which is what makes a bluetooth headset play audio from the computer. So when I paired a new Skullcandy Ink'd headset, it showed up as a headset with four "Bluetooth Peripheral Device" features that did nothing. It did not show up as a device capable of playing sound or doing anything else.

There are lots of places you can find old versions of Broadcom's installer that will install WIDCOMM, but old versions would not work with my Bluetooth 4.0 dongle. The latest versions compatible with Bluetooth 4.0 dongles were released in 2015 and can be found hosted here. Comments have links to some other sources like here and here.