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Dell Latitude D600 - Redirecting Audio Output - Using USB Bluetooth Dongle
I've got a Dell Latitude D600, running Windows XP Professional, and I've been having trouble adding a Bluetooth device I received for Christmas. This is excrutiatingly frustrating, because while this is my first experience working with a Bluetooth device, this whole process seems very straight-forward, and I'm by no means a computer novice (except perhaps on this topic . . . ).
Here's what I've done. This Dell laptop has Bluetooth as an optional installation, so I purchased a Bluetooth 4.0 dongle - which the operating system appeared to recognize and added as a new hardware device almost immediately, evidenced by the device manager list,
,
and the Bluetooth symbol which also showed up in the Icon Tray.
So, I'm trying to install a wireless speaker, specifically a JAM Classic. The speaker's battery is charged, I know the speaker works (I've tried the auxiliary wire connection), all the speaker's controls appear to work correctly. Also, the Bluetooth transmitter (conveniently, a flashing blue light) are all visible, so seemingly are working fine.
However, when I run the Add Bluetooth Device Wizard, the JAM Classic speaker is detected as a Bluetooth device, which I highlight to install, and apparently successfully complete the installation - but then speaker never seems to generate any sound output (and yes, I do generate audio from the laptop from a variety of sources . . . ), but only the internal laptop speakers generate any audio. The JAM Classic appears not to need (nor will it accept) any kind of "passkey" to complete the installation - as the installation completes when you select the No Passkey needed for this device, option.
I guess this might be as simple as redirecting my audio output to the wireless device (speaker), but under the Sounds options on the Control Panel, I don't ever see anything to suggest where that audio output should be routed. As a result, it is only routed through the laptop speakers. Since this is my first attempt at working with any kind of Bluetooth device, I just may not know what I'm looking for, or need to do - and I may just need a gentle "nudge" in the right direction.
What's the inevitably simple step that I'm missing that thwarting me on this installation? Thanks!
CGDobyns
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August 15th, 2014 19:00
Okay, turns out that the JAM Classic is (for some reason) incompatible with Windows XP or a Dell Latitude D600 (or maybe both). I managed to sell the JAM Classic and purchased a Roker Sound Cube, but also encountered problems with that wireless speaker also. Fortunately, I managed to tease out the answer to this one myself.
Just to recap, this was a situation where I wanted to install Bluetooth capability on an older laptop running Windows XP Professional, but which lacked a Bluetooth OEM card module.
After my bad initial experience, I took a chance on a Roker Sound Cube, with a compatible Roker USB Bluetooth 4.0 dongle. Since virtually all Bluetooth devices run the proprietary CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) protocol, I found it was advisable to make sure to purchase a Bluetooth dongle which included the mini-CD installation disk, since there are so many darned Bluetooth device drivers available, it’s hard to know which one is right and compatible with your particular USB hardware.
For me, the software installation was pretty straight forward, as was plugging in the USB dongle (you just plug it in, of course . . .). From what I could see, the Bluetooth Settings and Bluetooth Devices icons were both successfully added to the Control Panel.
The configuration of the Bluetooth Settings interface also all looked right (especially important is to toggle the Bluetooth radio checkbox).
I also noted that on the Control Panel, under Sounds and Audio devices, that the Bluetooth software had automatically installed the Bluetooth Stereo Audio, and set that as the default device.
From the Bluetooth Devices interface, I had no trouble detecting and then adding my device, the Roker Sound Cube.
From there I had a little trouble establishing actual Bluetooth connection, as both the Bluetooth dongle and the Sound Cube itself came with little or any really helpful instructions (guess it was all supposed to be intuitively straight-forward). It wasn’t.
After adding the device, you need to right-click (or double-click) on the device to review the available services.
From that interface you can select and open your services by double-clicking, which will typically establish the connections via the Bluetooth radio, automatically.
Likewise, you can disconnect by right-clicking, and selecting Disconnect, and you can Remove the devices from the Device interface by right-clicking also. At that point you should be able to detect sound from the device. I noticed that audio output from my Internet browsers, plus most of my multi-media devices (Window Media Player, VLC Media Player, etc.) all seemed to work fine, although output from my Audacity application, couldn’t be coaxed to direct audio output to the Roker Sound Cube. Not sure what the story was with that, but if others have a suggestion on that score specifically, I’d be interested in hearing it.
Well, hopefully this will be of some help to others.