Jawbone connected to Vista

I think people yacking on their bluetooth headsets in public places are rude. People also didn't care much for me calling them on my last  headset because half the time they couldn't understand what I was saying. With all of that I really didn't care much for replacing it after an unnamed member of my family washed it one day.

But not too long ago, Caleb was totally jazzed about his new Jawbone and I was once again getting fed up with wires tangling around me when I was making calls in the car. I also want to make Messenger voice calls when I'm in Spain next month for TechEd Europe to speak on WF, BizTalk and SharePoint. Since I wander while I make phone calls, I need a headset ... Reasons enough to once again try a bluetooth headset.

Amazon had the red one for less than $90 ... much better than the $139 Best But wanted.

 

Now getting it to work with Messenger was a little trickier that I thought it would be therefore and I wanted to save some other people the extra hassle. Here's how it goes:

  1. Pair the headset with your computer ... piece of cake in Vista
  2. You should also get notifications that a new Bluetooth device and a Hands-Free device were installed successfully.
  3. Make sure it shows up as connected under Bluetooth devices

    image
  4. Click on the Properties button.
  5. Make sure the Headset Service is checked for the device.
    image 
  6. Don't got to Messenger yet, because you're not done yet. You still have couple of steps to go and it took me a little bit to figure out what's going on.
  7. Switch to the Audio tab and make sure the headset is listed and shows as connected.
    image
  8. Exit the Bluetooth devices dialog.
  9. Now comes the counter intuitive part. The headset did not yet show up as a Sound device in Device Manager under Sound, video and game controller. The bluetooth drivers were loaded device, which I confirmed once I selected "Show Hidden Devices":
    clip_image002
  10. The missing part was the audio device driver that wasn't installed automatically.
  11. Running the Add Hardware Wizard I added the Broadcom Bluetooth Handsfree Sound driver
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  12. Now the headset shows up as a Sound device in the Control Panel on the Recording tab.
    image
    and you can use it as a microphone for Windows Messenger or Communicator.

And just to be complete. I did the ultimate Caleb test for the headset:

  1. Get in the car
  2. turn the fan on high
  3. lower the windows
  4. call you wife or you most vocal bluetooth headset critic and see if they complain.

The Jawbone does pass the test even without the noise cancelation!

28 Comments

  • Great post! You beat me by two days, I was writing this up just now!

  • Glad that it passed the "Caleb" test... but it should really be called the "wife" test. I love being able to call without having to turn down the A/C. I never thought of using this as a Messenger microphone. Great idea! Have fun in Europe!

  • Thanks for the post. Where do I find the broadcom driver? It doesn't appear to be included in my standard driver set.

  • I got this working - thanks! But one question - have you had blue screens of death while using this? I get it with Skype after about a minute or so of usage. :(

  • I tried the procedure above with my GG Telecom bluetooth headset but it doesn't work. The hidden bluettoh headset device is already using the broadcom drivers. But I followed your procedure to manually add it to the Sound, Game controller etc. I can do sound test and even see the sound bars going up and down but no sound through the bluetooth.

  • Can't find drivers for Vista !!!! Please help.

  • Great post....Worked like a magic !!

  • Couldn't have done this without you. Cheers

  • Where did you get the Broadcom driver from? The driver from the site is will not install unless it sees the device first. Which is what I am try to accomplish. Thanks

  • Hey, I don't know why it's giving me grief to get my Jawbone to work, but after pairing the headset with my laptop, the Jawbone won't actually connect, even though it shows up in my devices. It gives me a 'BtwApplExt' 'Parameter is incorrect' error. I have WIDCOMM 6 installed and tried installing 5 instead (cause I heard someone else say that worked) but it ended up making my computer freeze every time I booted. So back on WIDCOMM 6, it still will not connect. Any ideas would help a lot! Thanks!

  • Same comment as someone else: Thanks for the post. Where do I find the broadcom driver? It doesn't appear to be included in my standard driver set.

    Thanks in advance!

  • After working with the computer immediately, my Jawbone stopped pairing with other devices. I called customer support and learned that Jawbone is voiding warranties of people who call to say that they have connected the Jawbone to a computer. I am talking to a representative in this moment. As soon as a mentioned "computer" they said: "that is missuse, we have your information, your warranty has been voided". Are they crazy? As if pairing a deBluetooth device could damage it... that signals poor engineering, not missuse. ANYWAY... after several hours it started pairing again, and now it is working properly with my phone and my computer.

  • HELP!!! So when I download www.broadcom.com/.../bluetooth_update.php to update it tells me the device is not supported and doesn't let me install. SO I still have no driver for the Jawbone II. Technology sucks....especially vista! Heart surgery is more plug and play than Vista!

  • @Jeff:

    >> Technology sucks....especially vista! Heart surgery is more plug and play than Vista!

    Dude, Microsoft's didn't make the device. How is it MS's fault that you can't find a compatible driver?

  • I agree, why do people always blame MS for things they have no control over. That being said, I am having the same error stating that the driver does not support the device, (origional Jawbone)

  • I've gotten it to pair up correctly and it shows as an input device under sound and is selected as the default device, but when i try to record or use it in an app, no sound is recorded. I'm using vista 64

  • Has anyone got it to work on a Windows XP laptop? It pairs with the jawbone but will not stay connected. The screens look nothing like what is described in this post.

    HELP!!!

  • Thanks a lot for responding to the multiple questions of where you got the broadcom driver. Its not on the list of included Vista drivers. Maybe it was removed as part of SP1. If it was built in for your, a simple "it was on the list" would be nice.

    Thanks for a tutorial that doesn't work. So in other words... thanks for nothing!

  • Does anyone have the ASCII codes for the Jawbone functions. In other words, puching the button to take a call should equate to some ASCII code. Same with puching the power button to end a call. Also pushing the Noise Asassin button to not take a call. What are these codes. I am trying to setup an interface to Skype.

  • Thanks again. I'm using Windows 7 release 7048 64 bit and your instructions worked like a charm

  • Tom John You are the Greatest, I've been searching for drivers all day...Thanks for help...really appreciate

  • Mine says its connected under devices, but disconnected under audio. i just want to see the bars move!

  • I get an error when I try to run the broadcomm drivers - hangs on validating device. Any ideas?

  • OMFG!!! YES!! after an entire day of trying to figure this BS out so i can use it while playing online games, and stuff, i am happy to say that i installed the drivers posted by the wonderous TOM JOHN!!! all hail!! Works for World of warcraft, working on SKYPE called my Sister she said I was Crystal Clear.. and FInally I'd like to give thanks for this Post!! So happy now 3 hours later...

  • Wow, after days of trying to get my bluetooth to work this really helped. the things i had not done were remove my earpiece in bluetooth devices and re-add it then i also read in another forum if you're still having trouble to disable everything in Bluetooth radios in the device manager then re-enable them just to clear out the lines and then my bluetooth magically registered everywhere it was supposed to. I'm still having a problem though. I have sound coming through the earpiece but for some reason the mic still won't work in ventrilo but it works when i use it with my phone. Maybe i have some setting wrong? Also i was wondering, I've read that you can set it so the computer/game sounds come through the computer speakers and then only ventrilo comes through the bluetooth earpiece but when i set it that way all i get is loud feedback in the earpiece. Is this, yet again, some setting i need to change? Thanks :)

  • Today, I upgraded my Bluetooth stack using the current Broadcom bluetooth update software.
    After rebooting my machine I noticed that the Audio tab in the bluetooth settings dialog had disappeared and the context menu of my head-set device was extended by an entry to control the device using a WPF application (BTWUIExt.exe).
    I couldn't manage to establish a working connection to my head-set so I tried to figure out why the Audio tab didn't show up. Luckily I found a DWORD registry setting 'ShowAudioCplPage' under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Widcomm\BTConfig\General that allowed me to bring back the missing tab. The old way to connect to my head-set finally let me establish a working connection!

  • Yippee - glad I found this post. I was working with Windows 7 RTM and my jawbone, in this case the driver that did the trick was the Lenovo tablet PC drivers for Vista (worked without compatibility mode in Windows 7, by the way).

    I can now use it for Skype and Camtasia!

    PS: Phone calls from with the headset work great on the gogo wireless networks on airplanes (Delta and American anyway)! :) Once in a while I love technology.

    Thanks.

  • Great post!
    works perfectly even 3 years after it was published.

    Thanks a lot!

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