Re: how do you know if laptop has bluetooth

This is the first reply I've made since the original thread. 

Since then I've made a lot of progress, but my specific replies to these
posts might still be of interest. 

The basic problem for me is that Sounds / Playback either doesn't take
note of Bluetooth speakers and headphones, or it is disguised as
Speakers / High Definition Audio Device, an option that I'm sure was
there before the bluetooth headphones were anyhwhere in sight. 

To reduce confusion, I unplugged the Logictech USB speakers.  I had them
turned off but they still appear in the list. (I can't use them because
on vacation I'm renting a room and I don't want to bother my landlords,
who are in the next room, sleeping some of the time.) 

I unplugged the earbuds, which worked, but sound very poor, maybe
because they are cheap. The 3.5 mm jack on this laptop does not work --
maybe, although I know how to be careful, I broke it when I took the
entire bottom off to add RAM. 
    Since the jack doesn't work, I use a USB to 3.5mm adapter.  Since I
was't bringing my 6-inch amplified speakers with me on the is vacation,
as I was unplugging the laptop for the trip, I almost left the adapter
at home, but it's so small, the size of a postage stamp and a half-inch
thick, and get the one with both a speaker jack and a mike jack, only a
dollar or two more than with just the speaker jack.  They also make them
with short wire between the plug and the jack, so you will be sure to
have room for the usb plug next to it. I'm not using a hub now but I
have two. One barely has room for this thing, and the other doesn't
iirc. Anyhow, they are well under $10, and I'm so glad I brought it. 
    It works with the *amplified* speakers and also at adequate volume
with the earbuds, although just maybe that's why the fidelity of the
speakers so far seems low. 

So I don't know for sure what order I did things, but maybe it's because
there were no more speakers available... No, it's not that the bluetooth
hearphones are working. It's been the built-in speakers that are working
and the hearphones pick up and amplify their sound, all the ambient
sound including the tapping of the keyboard. 

So to turn off the built-in speakers I disabled them but no sound comes
from the bluetooth heear phones even thought yey are still listed as
paired although the phone also says that the hearphnes are paired with
it!!!  Can they be listed as paired but not commencted?  Can speakers or
earphnes be paired with two sound-producers like the pc and the phone at
the same time. 

And now I just got bu-dup bu-dap-dup in my ears and I don't kow who sent
it or what it means.  Nothing on the PC screen or the phone gives a
clue. I thought maybe the hearphones were turning off but they haven't. 

Currently the built in speakers are still listed -- I think they will
always be listed -- now listed as the default, and now that I got a
phone call, removed the hearphones (which turn themslves off if neither
ear has one.) I realize the sound coming from the hearphones is the
amplified sound** of the built in speakers, not the sound from the
bluetooth transmistion  

**That's what makes Hearphones*** different from earbuds with a yoke. 

***not for sale anymore but there is a ccompetitive product. 

Continued inline below. 

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 12 Feb 2022 13:31:48 +0000, "J. P.
Gilliver (John)" <[email protected]> wrote:

>On Sat, 12 Feb 2022 at 09:17:16, micky <[email protected]> wrote 
>(my responses usually follow points raised):
>>How do you know if laptop has bluetooth?
>>
>(Silly question, 

There are no silly questions. 

Only silly people!

>but anyway: does it have a light anywhere with a 
>Bluetooth symbol on/next to it?)

Answer follows my rambling**.

No.  Only battery charging/charged light, and power on light.  But you
reminded me it still has the original sticker/feature list on it. 
  Ultra-fast wirle3ss speed
  precision touchpad
  DVD-RW with M-Disc (tm) support.  Never noticed M-disc before.  Have
to look that up. 
  Acer Truharmony.  I have a tin ear so that's not too important
  Skype cerified. 
The it descibes the CPU, the graphics, the original memory and the
original HDD. 
>
>I don't _think_ anybody's made a laptop in the last few years that 
>_doesn't_ have BT,

I guess that's why they don't mention it. 

> but I may be wrong about that. What make/model is it?

An Acer E15 although its longer name is E5-573-35AQ and I can't decide
if it's an E5 or E15. 

David covered that in the next post.  I plan to soon reply to him there.
 
>(Have you tried to find out online if it has BT? [If you can't find a 

Yes, I posted conflicting descriptions, but I haven't tried your other
suggestions in this paragaph. 

>manual or similar, look for people selling that model on ebay; if it has 
>BT, I imagine most of them will mention it.])
>>
>>And if I have it, how to connect one of those horse-collar ear-bud
>>receivers that have no keypad, no screen?
>>
>Usually, the PC should recognise that a BT peripheral has nothing like 
>that, and either not require anything to be typed in, or accept 0000 or 
>1234. The instruction leaflet (usually printed in microscopic print on a 
>tiny piece of paper) for the collar will usually tell you what number to 
>use, and also what name the collar will appear as when you tell the PC 
>to do a scan. (you'll usually have to press a button on the collar to 
>put it into "pairing" mode.)

That I know, but I didn't know, it didn't occur to me that a bluetooth
device would be scanned during a scan!!! Or that the name would show up.
But you mean the name, not the 0000 or whatever pairing number is
rquired. 

Meanwhile,  the question has arisen, if my bluetooth Bose Hearphones**
is already paired to the phone, can it be paired to the laptop at the
same time?     Because of that thought, I stopped trying to pair with
the PC.  I thought that might be stopign it f rom connecting, and didn't
want to turn off the phone, and didn't want to unpair it f rom the phone
- because when I try to reverse things I normally want on, I often have
trouble getting them working again. 

**which both receive blutooth and amplify sounds your ears would hear. 
>
>[I say "usually": I have a BT speaker, that worked fine with my XP 
>machine; my 7 machine thinks it's a keyboard, and wants me to type 
>something on it!]

Try that.  Put your fingers on the speaker and type away. 

>[]
>>Device manager shows 6 lines but at least one I put in myself and I
>[]
>> Generic Bluetooth Adapter
>[]
>I _think_ that one means it has found it.

Good. 
>
>On a laptop, you can often turn it off, either to save battery power or 
>increase security. It's sometimes one of the function keys (sometimes in 
>combination with the Fn key, sometimes not);

Maybe I should read the manual again.  Or maybe it's not again.  I read
a laptop manual 5 years ago.  Maybe that's not enough. 

Well, there are 29 reference to bluetooth, so I guess it has it.  That's
what I should have done, look in the manual, before I posted here.  I
don't know why I didn't think of that, but I did learn quite a few other
things so this has not at all been a waste. 

> often combined with the 
>wifi control. It may cycle round all off, BT only, wifi only, both on - 
>not necessarily giving all four options, and not necessarily in that 
>order. If it's turned off via that route, I don't know if Windows can 
>find it. If there _is_ such a control, there'll often be a light (often 
>blue!) to show when it's on (and another one for the wifi if that is 
>switchable).

Now I remember that I had a laptop with a wifi switch and maybe a blue
light.  I don't think think this has either.  Because I definitely use
wifi for the net and I red what the two lights mean, and they don't mean
wifi.