Won't Connect With Bose Headphones via Bluetooth

Hi Stuart505,

Thanks for posting.  Apologies that your system is not performing as you expected.

Since this model was not tested specifically with the Bose QC 35 headphones, they would not be supported by Dell.

Have you run a systems diagnostics yet?  If not, please run Dell SupportAssist to check for a hardware issue on your computer.  Make a note of any error messages encountered and post back.  If there are none, have you tried using a bluetooth mouse, speaker, keyboard?  Are they able to connect?

Here is information from the Dell knowledge base you may find helpful:

Bluetooth Troubleshooting and Usage Guide

How to Troubleshoot Audio or Sound Playback Issues

Fix Bluetooth problems in Windows 10

If the system is under warranty, please contact me privately. Be sure to include your personal information (name, address, telephone, email) and your computer's service tag number in your message. Thanks.

If there is no warranty, then you could contact our Out of Warranty team to get a quote for a paid service call.

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@Stuart505 wrote:

My Bose QC 35 headphones work fine with other devices but not my Dell XPS 9350 laptop. When I go to "Bluetooth and Other Device Settings" - I can see my Bose headphones but I'm not able to either connect to them or remove them. When I go to manage devices, I can click remove my headphones but they don't get removed. I've tried updating all my drivers, my Bose firmware, etc., but no luck.

Any help appreciated!

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@Stuart505 have you tried clearing the paired devices from the headphone end rather than the laptop as per the following link - https://community.bose.com/t5/Headphones-Archive/QC35-II-can-not-connect-to-windows-10-bluetooth/m-p/126590#M23397

They recommend the following

To clear the pairing list:

• Turn the headset on
• Slide and hold the power switch to the right to the Bluetooth symbol for 10 seconds or until you hear "Bluetooth device list cleared"

Once done, please work through their recommend steps for pairing the headphones as per this article - https://community.bose.com/t5/Headphones-Archive/Computer-Related-Informational-Post/m-p/121144

I hope this helps.

Alan

Saying you cannot remove a Bluetooth device does not make sense.  But if you really can't, then uninstall your Bluetooth radio in the Bluetooth section of the Device Manager.  It should remove the devices already paired and let you start over.  In Device Manager, make sure and set the view to show hidden devices, there may be versions showing greyed out you could also uninstall.  If you still cannot remove the current listing, uninstall the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapters.

The Intel Bluetooth may reinstall by itself or you can have a driver ready to reinstall but do this offline so some driver doesn't sneak in from the Internet.  I just replaced my Wi-Fi card and am currently reinstalling the QC35.

I cleared the headset and got that message after holding the button to the right for about 10 seconds.  I was then able to select the device from the list and re-pair/connect normally.

I appreciate your help - thank you for responding. Unfortunately clearing the headphones did not work - I had seen that in other threads and tried that. It seems Apple built a product (my iPhone - an old one at that) that has no trouble connecting with Bose headphones, but Dell failed to build a product that could do that, and you can try a bunch of hail mary attempts as a work around, but in my case none of those work, and when I looked into Dell fixing it for me, the least expensive option is $139. I've spent hours on this issue with no luck. This experience just as made me want to buy a laptop from a company that has better compatibility with bluetooth devices. 

I just went through the cannot remove the device situation you seem to have.  I did go into the Device Manager and remove the Headphones but I noticed some other greyed out devices.  I removed them but I cannot guarantee you removing them might help.  There was a second RFCOMM device along with a couple of QC35 Avrcp transports and even a Qualcomm Bluetooth device which probably came from a Killer Wi-Fi adaptor I am running on this system.

Once I remove the extra devices, the QC 35 was gone from the Bluetooth devices and I was able to reconnect.

Hi Stuart, 

Thanks for getting back me. It's not a case of Dell failing to build a product that works, there are 3 separate components here, the wireless/bluetooth combo card, Windows, and the headphones themself that could be causing this and none of them are made by Dell. 

From my tech support experience, 95% of bluetooth issues are configuration based, i.e not seeing devices or syncing properly.

If this setup is not working for you, I would like to help figure out at what point the failure is occurring.

1. Did you try the steps in the second article from Bose guiding you through the steps for pairing the headphones with Windows 10 systems?
2. If you did, at what point of the process does it fail?
3. Have you had the headphones successfully pair with the laptop previously via bluetooth?
4. Do you have any other bluetooth devices that successfully pair with the laptop?

Alan

Hi Alan - I appreciate your time and the help.

I believe you're talking about this Bose article: https://community.bose.com/t5/Headphones-Archive/Computer-Related-Informational-Post/m-p/121144

After the troubleshooting header, it lists several things you can try to do. I've done them all (updated drivers, toggled bluetooth on and off, clearing list of paired devices, etc.). I've even bought a USB bluetooth adapter - no luck. 

What happens is I go to Bluetooth, and click "Add Bluetooth or other device" then click "Bluetooth" - the first option at the top. My Bose headset shows up as discoverable, I click on it, and it says it pairs. (But the sound does not play out of my headsets at this point). I now see my Bose headset listed in the Bluetooth section under "Audio" and it says paired. I can click "connect" or "remove device". When I click Connect, I get the same error message "That didn't work. Make sure your bluetooth device is still discoverable, then try again." I of course have tried making the headset discoverable during this time, but it still won't connect, even though it connects to other devices like my iPhone, so it's not that the headset won't show up as discoverable. 

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@Stuart505 wrote:

Hi Alan - I appreciate your time and the help.

I believe you're talking about this Bose article: https://community.bose.com/t5/Headphones-Archive/Computer-Related-Informational-Post/m-p/121144

After the troubleshooting header, it lists several things you can try to do. I've done them all (updated drivers, toggled bluetooth on and off, clearing list of paired devices, etc.). I've even bought a USB bluetooth adapter - no luck. 

What happens is I go to Bluetooth, and click "Add Bluetooth or other device" then click "Bluetooth" - the first option at the top. My Bose headset shows up as discoverable, I click on it, and it says it pairs. (But the sound does not play out of my headsets at this point). I now see my Bose headset listed in the Bluetooth section under "Audio" and it says paired. I can click "connect" or "remove device". When I click Connect, I get the same error message "That didn't work. Make sure your bluetooth device is still discoverable, then try again." I of course have tried making the headset discoverable during this time, but it still won't connect, even though it connects to other devices like my iPhone, so it's not that the headset won't show up as discoverable. 

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Hi Stuart, can you try the following steps outlined in this third party Youtube video for enabling audio playback via bluetooth device - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lNBBd7fVg8 and let me know if that works.

Alan

The video's instructions did not help. On the video, the headset in the Bluetooth menu said "Connected" - mine says "Paired" and when I click "Connect" it provides the error message I mentioned in my previous reply. I still went to Control Panel and Audio Devices as the video suggests, but instead of showing multiple audio devices and changing it to the headphones as a default like in the video, I only have one audio device (called Speakers / Headphones) and it  already is the default device since it's the only audio device.

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@Stuart505 wrote:

The video's instructions did not help. On the video, the headset in the Bluetooth menu said "Connected" - mine says "Paired" and when I click "Connect" it provides the error message I mentioned in my previous reply. I still went to Control Panel and Audio Devices as the video suggests, but instead of showing multiple audio devices and changing it to the headphones as a default like in the video, I only have one audio device (called Speakers / Headphones) and it  already is the default device since it's the only audio device.

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@Stuart505 as it is pairing but not connecting, it could be the Bluetooth driver script that is not working. This is Bose's recommendation for this exact issue - https://community.bose.com/t5/Headphones-Archive/Windows-10-Problems/td-p/125798

Alternatively you could try the steps outlined in this 3rd party article for restarting the Bluetooth service - https://www.ybierling.com/en/blog-various-bluetoothpairedbutnotconnected

ALan

The first article you linked to shows this as the solution: 

"I searched for new drivers and tried one for my Broadcom 20702 dongle on the Lenovo site. Those drivers installed, overwriting the "latest" drivers from the Windows Update site. It worked. The phone acknowledged the connection. The problem was the driver from the Windows site. Go figure."

I don't have a Broadcom 20702 dongle, nor do I have any Lenovo products. So I'm not really sure what the solution is for me. I've tried downloading bluetooth drivers from Dell and Intel, but no luck.

I took the steps in the second article and restarted the Bluetooth Service, and it also didn't change anything.

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@Stuart505 wrote:

The first article you linked to shows this as the solution: 

"I searched for new drivers and tried one for my Broadcom 20702 dongle on the Lenovo site. Those drivers installed, overwriting the "latest" drivers from the Windows Update site. It worked. The phone acknowledged the connection. The problem was the driver from the Windows site. Go figure."

I don't have a Broadcom 20702 dongle, nor do I have any Lenovo products. So I'm not really sure what the solution is for me. I've tried downloading bluetooth drivers from Dell and Intel, but no luck.

I took the steps in the second article and restarted the Bluetooth Service, and it also didn't change anything.

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@Stuart505 reading through the full thread, ignoring the Lenovo parts as I know you have neither a Lenovo or a Broadcom card, there are various pieces of helpful information regarding removing devices, pairing them and configuring them for use. 

Here is a link, from the Bose support representative's post, to Microsoft's guide to pairing bluetooth devices. I have highlighted the important part of device being paired but not connected in blue -