9

I have a notebook with an inbuilt Broadcom BCM2046 bluetooth adapter and several bluetooth HID-devices (mice, keyboards etc.) The operating system is Windows 7 64 bit Professional.

The HID-devices all work perfectly with other computers, but on the system mentionend above, problems with some power-saving features inside the HID-devices occur (see eg. Amazon reviews for Microsoft Mobile Keyboard 6000 not waking up).

I have tried the bluetooth drivers supplied by Windows update and the latest Broadcom drivers directly from the Broadcom updater software. The problems persist (I can rule out any further configuration issues or alternative device drivers, I have tried every possibility).

I have tried a trial version of the BlueSoleil Bluetooth stack and it solved the wake-up problem. However the BlueSoleil stack causes some other problems, is relatively expensive and I would prefer not to use it.

My question: are there any other alternative bluetooth stacks availible for Windows 7 64bit?

To my knowledge there used to be Toshiba Bluetooth stack for non-Toshiba hardware, but the older versions I have found on the internet do not install, they do not seem to recognize the bluetooth hardware when installing the driver.

3
  • 1
    make and model of notebook?
    – Dave M
    Apr 3, 2012 at 19:47
  • It is an Acer 8371, but it should not really be of relevance to my question (I tried the broadcom driver provided by Acer for my model). There are only a handful of bluetooth chips around, so for example I tried installing an older Broadcom stack for Lenovo laptops, which worked, but showed the same symptoms. I really need some alternative stack working with broadcom, but not from broadcom.
    – Martin
    Apr 3, 2012 at 21:51
  • 1
    Knowing Make and Model may allow someone with teh same problem to offer a suggestion/Solution. Or offer another route.
    – Dave M
    Apr 3, 2012 at 22:59

5 Answers 5

6

Here is what I finally did to solve the problem: I did not find any other bluetooth stack, besides the ones mentionend in the first post. I then kept on experimenting with the Microsoft and the Widcomm stack, until I broke my registry. I made a mistake a long the way, but it still seems to be a reasonable way to go: how to remove bluetooth entries from registry

With the basic functionality broken, I had another look at the BlueSoleil stack, which works well with the keyboard but has minor problems with the mouse. Unfortunately it seems no longer to be supported.

Next I took an older version of the Toshiba stack and tried it with a secondary bluetooth adapter. Things still did not work properly, but at least it installed in trial mode. Next step was to make the Toshiba stack work with my inbuilt adapter. I added the relevant vendor and product id into tosrfusb.sys and overrode the driver manually. Worked.

The good thing about the Toshiba stack is that it is very configurable. It did work with each HID device seperately, but not when multiple devices were connected at once. I then went into the advanced security configuration and tried the different combinations of server and client encryption etc. This works for me now.

2
  • good guy for working that out! at this state of knowledge, can you tell me if it is possible to use the PC sound device (e.g. speaker, headphone) as a bluetooth headset for mobile phones (to receive calls via PC headset)? That would be very interesting for my setup... Nov 30, 2012 at 12:15
  • FreeBT also used to be a thing in the past.. Now its descent is maintained as a part of ReactOS.
    – mirh
    Mar 23, 2020 at 3:09
6

As Martin mentoined, Toshiba bluetooth stack can be used with non-Toshiba hardware. Broadcomm drivers making my windows 7 unusable so I tried installing Toshiba driver. Here's the steps.

How to install Toshiba bluetooth stack for non-toshiba hardware

Warning. This "trial" will work for 30 days and will ask for licence which cannot be obtained anymore. But you can try 672f43f7901858fdc9d5ab10b2b8aa1872e2f1be

Tested: Win 7 x86, Win 7 x64

  • Go to device manager (Win+R, compmgmt.msc, Device manager)
  • Go to bluetooth adapter > Generic bluetooth device (or whatever your adapter name is. IT IS NOT "Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator"). Right click on it > Properties
  • On a "Details" tab Select "Device id" and save the one like this: USB\VID_AAAA&PID_BBBB. This is your device id
  • First, go get toshiba stack drivers here (or here for older versions)
  • Click "Downloads", scroll down, "Accept"
  • Download appropriate version for your OS in

"PC Bluetooth Stack (= "Bluetooth software + drivers". For Toshiba Notebooks )"

  • Unzip and run exe. Install drivers normally until such dialog appears:

"Connect bluetooth device and click OK"

  • Click Cancel
  • Now go to driver folder which is

C:\Program Files (x86)\Toshiba\Bluetooth Toshiba Stack\Drivers\tosrfusb

for 64-bit windows

C:\Program Files\Toshiba\Bluetooth Toshiba Stack\Drivers\tosrfusb

for 32-bit windows

  • Back-up and open file "tosrfusb.inf" in notepad. You need to run notepad as admininstrator rights.
  • Find two sections, [Standard] and [Standard.NTamd64]

First

[Standard]

; DisplayName Section DeviceId

; ----------- ------- --------

%TosrfUsb.DeviceDesc1%=TosrfUsb_Device, USB\VID_08EA&PID_abba

Second

[Standard.NTamd64]

; DisplayName Section DeviceId

; ----------- ------- --------

%TosrfUsb.DeviceDesc1%=TosrfUsb_Device, USB\VID_08EA&PID_abba

  • Now, in each section, before the line "%TosrfUsb.DeviceDesc1%=TosrfUsb_Device, ..." add

MyBluetoothDevice=TosrfUsb_Device, USB\VID_????&PID_????

  • Replace USB\VID_????&PID_???? with your VID and PID values we found before
  • Go to device manager again. Find your bluetooth device, right click > Update drivers...
  • Select "Find drivers on this computer"
  • Select "Select already installed driver from list"
  • Click small "Install from disc" button
  • Copy-paste (or select) the driver folder (where tosrfusb.inf is located) or tosrfusb.inf itself. Click "OK"
  • Now you can choose our "MyBluetoothDevice1" driver! Select it, click "install anyway" if prompted with a scary red warning.
  • Finally, go to start menu > Toshiba > Bluetooth > Bluetooth settings. Drivers should install.
  • Enjoy bluetooth stack with HSP/HFP & A2DP profiles!
1

As a supplement to Sanya_Zol's answer:

Here is a solution to any issues with the evaluation version of the Toshiba Bluetooth stack, taken from Dell (Toshiba) Bluetooth 350 and Windows 7- FIXED:

  • Edit the Registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Toshiba\BluetoothStack\V1.0\Mng
  • Add a new DWORD key called TestVersion
  • Set it equal to 1
0

Here are my findings after dealing with the same issue with my Lenovo laptop:

  • The default Bluetooth drivers Windows installed (Broadcom) just do not work.
  • I have tried the Toshiba Bluetooth Stack drivers and they work but have issues and are very old.
  • BlueSoleil drivers work but are too expensive.

TL;DR

  • In the end I am using the CSR Harmony drivers that came with my Bluemate4 USB Bluetooth dongle, and they work fine.
0

Btw: using CSR Harmony ended - at least on my mashine - in an endless trip.....

On a Toughbook CF-31 mk1, i installed: Windows XP Professional SP3 Windows 7 Professional SP1 Windows 10 1809 Professional

Because, i don't have bluetooth on board, but had the toshiba software from panasonic, (maybe downloaded the wrong package from panasonic)

I finally tried to instal them - on all OS. Normally, can't do that, because teh installer say: "This mashine does not support".

So, i extracted the installer and just run:

"pinstall.bat"

Now everything is fine - on all OS. Even, on Windows 10 - i used the drivers for Win 7.

Allso, the "30 days Demo periode" is gone, because, of the registry hack.

Everything is fine now.

P.S. with CSR Harmony, i had to connect every Bluetooth Hardware over and over again - and did not run / connect every hardware perfect.

You must log in to answer this question.

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