Bluetooth in Bootcamp

Question

Bluetooth in Bootcamp

Bluetooth in Bootcamp is not functional. It does not allow for more than one wireless controller to connect at a time and, when using wireless headphones, audio cuts in an out the moment a second Bluetooth device is connected.

In device manager, I do not have anything titled "Apple Broadcom Built-in Bluetooth" nor do I have an option for bluetooth collaboration under advanced settings for Broadcom Network Adapter. I have tried using version .3 and .4 of broadcom driver to no avail. Below are screenshots from device manager.

I was on the phone with Apple Support and they say that they are not responsible for fixing this, and that I should talk to Microsoft. Microsoft was also unable to help me. I have tried updating windows, updating Bootcamp, reinstalling Bootcamp drivers from usb, and fresh install of Windows. Nothing's worked.

Any help would be appreciated.

Background info:

MacBook Pro 16": Core-i9 2.3GHz, 32GB Memory, Radeon Pro 5500M 8GB

MacBook Pro 16", macOS 10.15

Posted on May 6, 2020 7:28 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 7, 2020 4:36 AM in response to Thomas1Stuart

BT dongles can cause the built-in BT hardware to fail, hence my question. This requires a trip to Apple and a Logic Board replacement.

On a 2019 or later Mac, I do not recommend using an external BT dongle.

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 6, 2020 9:09 PM in response to Thomas1Stuart

On the 2019 and later 16-in MBPs, there are known BT issues. Have you connected an external BT dongle to your Mac in the past?

BT Collaboration was removed from the 7.77.x.x and 100.x/101.x drivers. It is supposed to be automatic.

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Answer 3

May 7, 2020 5:26 AM in response to Loner T

In that case bluetooth would stop working on mac as well, correct? That's not the case. Would that sort of hardware failure show up on the built-in apple diagnostics utility (holding d on boot)? It said there was nothing wrong.

Also, could you please share a link with more information about that?

Again, thanks for helping.

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Answer 4

May 7, 2020 8:43 AM in response to Loner T

Update:

You were totally right, BT is now fried in Windows AND MacOS. What an unacceptable glitch.

Out of curiosity, any thoughts on why this is happening on newer Macs (e.g. new airport card, or something software based)?

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 7, 2020 6:42 PM in response to Thomas1Stuart

See Microphone from QC35 (bluetooth headset) … - Apple Community for reference. The external BT dongle causes power overload on the internal card, causing it to fail.

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Answer 6

May 6, 2020 10:54 PM in response to Loner T

I wasn't aware BT Collaboration was removed, thank you for clarifying.

I bought a BT 4.0 dongle but the same issues persist. Here's what device manager looks like w/ dongle.

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Bluetooth in Bootcamp

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