Bootcamp + Bluetooth + Broadcom = world of pain

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Level 1

7 points

Bootcamp + Bluetooth + Broadcom = world of pain

Hello, I use a late model-13-inch MBP. Upgraded to Mojave just long enough to find out it doesn't work with half of the programs I need so I rolled back on that side. Running Win10 on the PC side.

Bluetooth audio on the Win10 side always, invariably, sounds like it's going through a paper shredder, unless I turn off wifi. Today I learned this is because my Broadcom 802.11ac driver (v7.77.110.0) is a combo wifi and bluetooth driver. I tried all fixes I could find online 1) enable Bluetooth Collaboration 2) disable Handsfree Telephony 3) disable Allow Device To Turn Off Bluetooth To Save Power. The paper shredder effect persists.

Looking at the reams of threads on this issue, it seems I'm not alone in this quest to use both Wifi and Bluetooth simultaneously. Is this a fool's errand? Should I just accept that 2020 isn't ready for this yet? Or does anyone have a real fix?

MacBook Pro 13", OS X 10.11

Posted on Jan 11, 2020 9:14 PM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 points

Jan 12, 2020 9:25 AM in response to mrmalkovich

Older 7.35 drivers allow better control over BT/WiFi coexistence. If you have an option to rollback, you should test.

BT LE adds it's own challenges.

In same RF-loaded environment, using the same hardware, macOS seems to be a lot better than Windows, primarily due to driver issues.

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Answer 2

mrmalkovich Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 14, 2020 6:21 AM in response to Loner T

Thank you.

I rolled back. It did not help the bluetooth paper shredder problem. But it did kick Windows 10 into permanent Airplane Mode, where Wifi becomes completely unavailable - the 'much, much bigger problem' I was fearing earlier in this thread, only much, MUCH bigger a problem than I anticipated even then.

I mucked around with a few settings per https://windowsreport.com/airplane-mode-errors-windows-10/ and managed to get wifi working, even though a) the Airplane Mode toggle button was and remains greyed out and b) the wifi icon in the task tray is the airplane mode icon even when I am successfully online.

But a couple of hours ago wifi again became completely unavailable and I had to go through a bunch of restarts, etc to get back online. I'm still not sure exactly what (temporarily) fixes the problem.

So now I have two problems.

1) Bluetooth sound quality.

2) intermittent wifi connectivity.

Please advise.

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