@I_Love_Me_Vol.I, did you ever figure out what the make & model of your adapter is?
If it’s one of these:
Then… good/bad news: These don’t have Bluetooth at all. They’re not dual-radio, they’re just WiFi.
As far as I can tell, MSI doesn’t seem to make any USB adapter that has both AX1800 and Bluetooth…? What does your actual box say?
This is what I was wondering, but didn’t want to ask in case it is a stupid question. I got a Bluetooth dongle for my desktop a while ago, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that I needed to put my headphones in pairing mode in order to get the whole setup to work.
Meh, it’s not your fault. Bluetooth just sucks! (link to another thread where I whine about this)
If you go all-Apple, their Bluetooth stuff works a LOT better – because Apple added custom chips to all their Bluetooth stuff that helps them pair & connect to each other better. Those chips have their own wireless communications (on top of Bluetooth) that can send signals to other nearby devices to help them locate and identify each other, which is traditionally a major part of the Bluetooth pain. There are some newer Bluetooth improvements (various “easy pair” modes) that are supposed to help with this eventually, but they’re still pretty fringe, and very few real-world devices have them, and very few computers support them.
If you’re stuck in the PC and/or Android worlds, Bluetooth is the worst wireless protocol we have. The non-Bluetooth options (in mice, headsets, remote controls, etc.) all work a LOT better than their BT equivalents.
In this case the OP has no realistic other option, but generally speaking, avoiding Bluetooth as much as possible will make life much easier and peripherals work a lot better.
I purchased one of these quite some time ago but never tried to install it. I can’t remember why I bought it, but this thread prompted me to find the dongle and try it.
I purchased the TP-Link UB500 Nano USB Adapter (currently $10 on Amazon).
I downloaded and installed the driver, restarted my Windows 11 computer, inserted the dongle in a USB port, and then paired a set of earbuds to the dongle.
Works perfectly.
I was a bit worried about interference from my wireless mouse/keyboard dongle, but no problem at all.
Yeah. Very silly of me. However, I do have an excuse for one of them… I bought it strictly as a WiFi adapter. But the other one-- 
--I have no idea how I mucked it up. In any event, I just ordered a Bluetooth adapter that hopefully will work (TP-Link UB500 Plus). If I still have issues with the Bluetooth Radio, etc., I’ll be back here pleading for more help. Thanks so much, @Reply.
Hah, no worries! Hopefully that solves the mystery. If not, well… you know where we post.
Well… I got my new Bluetooth USB adapter and as far as I can tell it works fine. But, unfortunately, it still won’t do what I want which is to broadcast any sounds (music, movies, etc.) from my computer directly into my Bluetooth hearing aids (sigh).
Now the hearing aids are already paired with my Android phone so all the sound from there (phone calls, music, etc) are played through the hearing aids but I want to do the same with my desktop computer audio, too, and I can’t.
I don’t see how to pair my hearing aids with BOTH the phone AND the computer. The hearing aid manufacturer (Oticon) sells some device that can put your TV into the hearing aids but it costs like $200. I figured I’d save the money and just do it with a cheap $10 Bluetooth adapter but that doesn’t seem to work. Did Oticon deliberately make it so you’d have to spend $200 to have your TV or computer play through the hearing aids? Is there no way to pair my aids with the computer via Bluetooth adapter?
ETA: can I do some backdoor thing where I somehow send the computer audio, via BT to my phone and then hear it in my hearing aids from the phone?
A few things:
Do your hearing aids support Bluetooth multipoint? That is the ability to be connected to multiple devices at once. If not, then you’ll have to disconnect from your phone in order to connect to the computer. Even if they do support multipoint, you might have to somehow manually tell them which device to play sounds from.
When the hearing aids are paired to the computer, do you have them set as the destination for audio output?
I can not pair them with my computer The computer doesn’t show up as “pairable”. I don’t know what “Multipoint” is or how to find it.
This is something you’ll have to consult the hearing aid documentation about. There should be instructions on pairing them with a new device. However, I don’t know much about hearing aids, so this might be something where they expect you to come in for a service appointment, or something frustrating.
You will also have to put your computer in pairing mode. That should be as easy as going to the add device screen, and instructions should be readily available, just a search away.
Multipoint is, for example, my earbuds, which can be paired to both my phone and tablet at the same time. The earbuds can only play sounds from one device at a time, but I don’t need to disconnect from one device before connecting to the other. Whichever device is playing sounds is what I’ll hear.
My old heaphones did not do multipoint. If I wanted to switch from my phone to my tablet, I had to disconnect the bluetooth between my phone and headphones, and then connect from my tablet. I didn’t have to unpair, but sometimes I’d have to turn off bluetooth on my phone to keep the headphones from must reconnecting.
Sorry this is all so confusing. Bluetooth is fine when it works well, but rarely works that well.
ETA: just in case it isn’t clear, “pairing” is when two Bluetooth devices are introduced to each other, so in the future they can “connect”, which is when they actually are currently communicating. For example, you might pair your phone with your car. They can talk to each other, and are still paired, even when you’re not in your car. They are only connected when you are in your car.
Based on my experiences with hearing aids, this is almost certainly the issue they’re dealing with now.
The OP’s aids are (very probably) not multipoint compatible and will need to be both disconnected and unpaired from their phone then paired to the PC then connected to the PC in order to listen to the PC. And that whole procedure will need to be reversed to use the aids with the phone again.
IMO the issue isn’t really Bluetooth limitations. It’s lazy device manufacturers that are happy when their feature just barely works and can do barely 10% of what the Bluetooth infrastructure provides. But that’s enough to put “Bluetooth compatible” on the package & marketing brochure and that’s all that matters to management: sell a few more boxes.
Or in this case, they also want to sell their $250 black boxes (Oticon Streamer Pro [$50] and ConnectLine [$200]) which appear to add Bluetooth capability with other devices such as a TV and/or computer.
Seems to me they could have just added Multipoint capability and I’d be set. Hay-sous, this is a friggin’ headache. Bastardes.
Now I’m looking at applications that let you send PC desktop audio to your phone. That could perhaps work but it adds a step and potential extra headaches.
Before you spend money on more devices, or more time trying to send your audio to your phone, I honestly think you’re better off just figuring out how to put your hearing aids into pairing mode.
Normally you just hold down the button (like if there’s a Bluetooth or connect button) for like 5 seconds and then it’ll show up in your list of devices on the PC. You do NOT normally need to put the PC into pairing mode (it’s considered the “host”, and your hearing aids are the device that need to be paired).
The whole process only takes a few extra seconds, and if you do it every time you switch from your phone to your computer, you never have to worry about multipoint or anything like that.
I have Bluetooth Airpods that I share between my phone, two laptops, and iPad, and a TV. I just manually put them into pairing mode for every device I want to switch to so I don’t have to remember what it was last connected to or worry about multipoint. Manually pairing every time works far far more reliably than when it tries to guess what I want to connect to.
Most all Bluetooth devices work similarly. When in doubt, just pair it again. It should only take a few seconds. Check your hearing aid manual, and once you figure it out the first time, it should be easy going forward.
I heartily endorse this advice. It worked great for the decade almost no devices were multipoint.I
Well, I tried pairing them pretty early on. There is nothing I can pair. The computer doesn’t see the hearing aids and the hearing aids (via the Android app which is my only interface with them) don’t see the computer. I have read up a great deal on this. There is some conflicting information and the manufacturer’s online info is worse than useless–it’s actively muddying the waters and doesn’t explain the capabilities/needs of the hearing aids. I generally try not to ask “Googleable” questions here. If I’m asking about something here, I’ve reached the end of the road after hours on Google.
But it looks to me, so far, like an Android user (and Windows user) like me has to buy one, or maybe two pieces of Oticon (hearing aid manu.) equipment (~$250) to enable my desktop’s audio to be played through my hearing aids. But, they are licensed to interact with iPhones and Apple products much more easily than Android and PC. I think iPhone/MacBook etc. would easily interact with with my hearing aids.
I have Beltone, not Oticon. But they did Apple about 2 generations before they did Android. Whether Apple is technologically easier or they’re just aiming at what was (is?) perceived as the premium customer market I cannot say.
I just want to add an addendum (is that repetitively redundant?) to my post above: I said I had spent hours Googling for info about this but there’s more to that–I started this thread moaning about my Bluetooth issues on my computer but I had idiotically purchased the wrong device (WiFi, not even Bluetooth!) and that was a “me problem”. Once I had a proper Bluetooth adapter my computer had BT, no problem.
But then this conversation morphed into “I gots Bluetooth now, why can’t I hook it up to my dang hearing aids?” And that issue is what I was talking about Googling in my last post.
My guess is that Apple paid Oticon (the manufacturer) to make it an exclusive deal. No Android for you, prospective Oticon customer! I’m sure Apple sold a few phones that way. I have to admit, after this whole shitfest I started thinking about maybe getting an MacBook myself even though I really don’t care for Apple computers.
What model is the hearing aid? There shouldn’t be an Apple-only wireless protocol (that I know of, at least) that would work with third party devices.
(Edit: Only if you’d like a second pair of fresh eyes to look into the situation, that is! I work in tech support so spend a lot of time looking up stuff like this.)
You know, I was looking for the model name earlier but I don’t know it offhand and don’t know how to find it.
When I said “exclusive” I meant hearing aids that work with Apple products right out of the box whereas with Android you’ve got to do workarounds that involve spending more money on additional devices. The hearing aids work with Android but not as easily or cheaply. This handout explains it (sort of). It makes it look like they work just peachy with (some) Android phones but if you do, you don’t have all the options and bells and whistles you get with Apple/iPhone, as I have been finding out. But the aids pair up with my Android phone fine and I hear phone calls and music (from my phone) directly through my hearing aids.
ETA: I think there are some big discussions about this on various hearing aid message boards (because if you’re old enough to still use message boards, you’re old enough for hearing aids!)
Edited AGIN to add:
I would love help with this. I believe you’re the one who first set me straight on the (obvious) fact that I had purchase the wrong device instead of a Bluetooth adapter!
If you really want to help–I think I’ve about exhausted all ideas of doing this straight up so now I’m trying to figure out how to get audio from my desktop PC to go into my phone and thus (hopefully) play through my hearing aids. I heard of something called AudioPlaybackConnector and another one called AudioShare.
Incidently, I think my hearing aids may be some flavor of Oticon Real. My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S10. My PC is running Windows 10 Professional.