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Saturday, July 27, 2013

Bluetooth USB dongle Windows 8 Compatibility Issue

My wife Karen wants to stream music from her new $300 Windows 8 laptop, purchased from Walmart, to a $50 Soundfreaq bluetooth speaker she purchased from Radio Shack. Today, I have been on the hunt for a bluetooth USB dongle that will allow a Windows 8 laptop to connect to a bluetooth speaker. Before today, I thought it would be easy to use bluetooth to connect a speaker wirelessly to a laptop. No such luck!

First, the ASUS BT211 bluetooth USB dongles that I ordered from Walmart two weeks ago were delayed. No problem, I thought, I could simply drive over to Micro Center on Nutley Street in Fairfax and cancel the ones on order from Walmart. Problem solved, or so I thought.

Second, when I tried to pair the speaker with the laptop, I found that the ASUS BT211 bluetooth dongle did not work, even though the device seemed to be recognized as a device in Windows 8. Then, Karen handed me the installation mini CD -- I hung my head, since I had never read the directions. After waiting forever while the cd drive made an unhappy sound, nothing seemed to be loading so I gave up. When I searched on the net, there were no Windows 8 drivers available for the device. I could not find a single example of the ASUS BT211 bluetooth dongle working with Windows 8. Every review I found indicated that the ASUS BT211 is incompatible with Windows 8. Apparently, Windows 8 is not supported -- it is not listed on the package, nor is it listed anywhere on the website. Micro Center, please take it back!

What to do?

After considerable searching for a bluetooth dongle that is Windows 8 compatible, I came across Kinivo BTD-400 Bluetooth 4.0 USB Adapter - For Windows 8 / Windows 7 / Vista - Compatible with Bluetooth stereo headphones and other Bluetooth peripherals. I purchased directly from Kinovo and ordered two dongles to arrive Standard Shipping. If the Kinovo BTD-400 4.0 USB Adapter works with a Windows 8 laptop -- on sale, 2 for $30 with no shipping / handling fee.



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3 comments:

  1. Mr. HenkkaAugust 21, 2013 at 7:55 AM

    Try this. It worked for me. Also 64 bit driver available.

    Drivers for Atheros AR3011 and Windows 8

    http://www.atheros.cz/atheros-wireless-download.php?chipset=57&system=7

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  2. Daniel KurlandAugust 21, 2013 at 5:27 PM

    Praying that I don't get a virus. Even though the Kinovo works just fine (30 ft limitation, I'm willing to see whether a better range is possible and download drivers from a Czech unofficial Atheros website. Love the risk, hope this one doesn't bite me in the you know what!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Daniel KurlandSeptember 21, 2013 at 6:37 PM

    Tried Mr. Henkka's suggestion. Mr. Henkka's solution seemed to work on my Acer, initially, but unfortunately the motherboard and USB ports on this computer may be inadequate for the the task of Bluetooth transmissions. It sounded as if the transmission was missing a channel of sound.

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