Bluetooth speaker connects but doe not play audio

[claire716]

I have a bluetooth speaker that I have succesfully paired with and played through in the past yet am having issues with recently. They connect just fine, I get no error message, and they stay connected, but no audio comes out. If music is already playing in itunes, the music keeps playing but the audio cuts out immediately when the device is connected. Audio is restored instantly through the internal speakers when I disconnect the device. If I connect the speaker while the music is paused, the music will not play until the device is disconnected.

If I connect the device while watching a youtube video, the video will immediately stop to buffer regardless. Video playback ensues immediately when the device is disconnected. Video wont play if the device is already connected, just like with Itunes.

I've checked all volume levels twice. The speaker paired with a phone works perfectly. I've restarted my computer. I removed the speaker from the list of recognized devices and re-paired them. The charge is fine on both devices.

It may be relevent to know that I had to replace my notebooks's hard drive recently as it stopped working completely but this job was done through an HP accredited service provider.

[Dvortex]

Hello, @claire716 – Hope you are well 🙂

Thank you for becoming an HP Forum member. It is a great location to get help from the community, get suggestions and find what has worked for others!

I see that you are trying to use the Bluetooth speakers with your HP PC and is encountering issues. Appreciate all your efforts 😉

Let's try the steps listed below to try and fix the issue:

1. Make sure your Bluetooth speaker is turned on.
2. On the far right of the Windows taskbar, press and hold (right-click) Volume , and then select Playback devices.
3. On the Playback tab, select the Bluetooth speaker, press and hold (or right-click) it, and then select Connect.
4. Select your Bluetooth speaker, and then select Set default. Music should play on your Bluetooth speaker now.

If the issue persists, try updating the Bluetooth drivers on your PC. Here are the steps:

1. In the search box on the taskbar, type Device Manager, select it from the list of results, and then expand Bluetooth in Device Manager.
2. Press and hold (or right-click) the Bluetooth radio, then select Update driver > Search automatically for updated driver software.
3. If no updates are found, simply right-click and uninstall the Bluetooth drivers. Restart the PC once done, so that the Windows will reinstall the generic Bluetooth drivers. Now, try pairing the speaker again.
    

Please let me know if this resolves the issue, or if you require further assistance.

Good luck 🙂

Please click "Accepted Solution" on the post that solves your issue to help others find the solution. To show appreciation for my help, please click the "Thumbs Up Icon" below!

[claire716]

Hi thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately I had already tried the first soltion and had ensured that the speaker was the default playback device and that the sound was all the way up on both the speaker and the computer. This wouldnt explain why my issue actually stops youtube and music from playing altogether.

Secondly, I have updated some bluetooth drivers. Im just confused as when I expand the bluetooth icon in device manager, my options are: Mediatek Bluetooth Adaptor, MIcrosoft Bluetooth Enumerator and my bluetooth speaker. I dont see a radio like you described. 

[Dvortex]

Hello, @claire716

Update the Mediatek Bluetooth adapter. That is your Bluetooth adapter. Update the drivers and restart the Pc and check. If no updates are available, simply uninstall and restart the PC.

Also, check Microsoft article discussing similar Bluetooth related issues: Fix Bluetooth problems in Windows - Microsoft Support

Hope that helps! Let me know!

Cheers 🙂

Please click "Accepted Solution" on the post that solves your issue to help others find the solution. To show appreciation for my help, please click the "Thumbs Up Icon" below!

[CkumarMehta]

I am also facing same problem with my hp 400 Blutooth speeker. What to do?

[EdReichenbach]

I've encountered the same problem, recently trying to connect via bluetooth my HP Pavilion Notebook - 17-g021nf to my stereo system Panasonic SC-PMX70. I had a hard time getting it to function, but eventually it worked - very suddenly and unexpectedly, after connecting it to my son's Espresso speaker, to try and understand if it may have been a problem with the Panasonic system. The Espresso speaker worked, so okay that seemed a clear indication, so we disconnecte the Espresso and all of a sudden the sound came out of my Panasonic system! go figure...

Two things were clear: 1. ability to get the sound from laptop onto your bluetooth speakers has to do with the **bleep** thing not just paired and connected, but "connected music". There's also a "connected voice" (which doesn't transmit music), and the use of that, I don't know. How to force it to connect as "Music", I still don't know. It seems to happen upon a whim. 2. Playing my music from the iTunes software, in order to get that music onto the bluetooth speakers requires to go to iTunes Edit tab, then Preferences, then tab Display, and then choose "Play audio using Direct Sound". By default it seems set on "Windows Audio Session", and that doesn't work.

But then, problem was and remains that I had no clue why suddenly it worked, when all my previous attemps had failed, and still have none as to why often I can"t connect, and sometimes, all of a sudden, shazam! sound comes out of the stereo system. Now, for whoever's interest, just now, after a number of failed attemps, I got it to work after following advice given by previous poster, going to Task Manager, selecting "Broadcom 43142 Bluetooth 4.0 adapter", and updating the driver. And suddenly, it worked...

Yet I'm in no doubt that tomorrow, I'll encounter problems again, and solutions of yesterday won't work, and I'll have to find a new trick. I don't know, there's either a miniscule invisible Genie in these devices, that has his whims, days off and days on, or its pure magic, shazam! Technology has brought us back to the age of superstitions and "mana"...

[Giarc61]

I am also having the same issue with my ENVY x360 Convertible. it is quite irritating and I am sure it is not the speaker because all other devices work fine with it. It will start out fine and then just stop playing. no errors, windows seems happy as a clam to be playing my songs, BUT I DON'T HEAR THEM. I can temporarily fix the issue by rebooting the PC and reconnecting. Then the SAME THING HAPPENS. I am using the latest version of the BlueTooth Driver. Are you guys really telling me there is STILL NO FIX for this issue which seems to plague HP Consumer Laptops?? Please do let us know if there is a fix.  

[EdReichenbach]

Sorry I can't help, I'm just a normal Joe, with no particular expertise in laptops, and I truly hate it when HP, or Windows, or gmail, decide in my place what my computer is going to do... or not. Just wanted to jump in to say that

1. I've experienced SO MANY problems with my HP Pavilion since I've had it, with touchpad and its driver (Synaptics! Good grief! So sophisticated that it does all sorts of things you don't want it to do, but not the simple things you want it to do), keyboard (I'm a very good typist, but some keys, like arrows or enter, are placed so ineptly, that after years of usage I'm still mistriking, and it's infuriating), power plug (ugh! Never seen that with any other computer! there's nothing to keep it connected, it will just slide out of its socket just like that, I had to hard-scotch tape it to the laptop to keep it from disconnecting), battery (it's now dead, although I hardly ever use it together with the power chord, in order not to overload it and extend its duration), CD/DVD player (all of a sudden, one day, after a couple of months of non-use, it was disfunctionning, I had to buy an external CD/DVD player), DVD software (Cyberlink Power Media ! hugh.... That too, all of a sudden, ceased playing my DVDs). Difficulties in bluetooth connexion are only one of those many problems with my HP laptop. My impression is that HP lost its act, and doesn't know how to manufacture computers anymore. Or maybe it's because computers have become SO sophisticated now, that there's alwasy gonna be some glitches, somewhere. Out of thrift I'll exhaust the life of this one, but I won't be buying another HP. That said, I don't know that any other brand is any better.

2. Re Bluetooth, when the disconnections happen, have you checked in your Windows Setting / Devices / Bluetooth & Other Devices that your bluetooth speaker was still "connected music", rather than just "connected" or "connected voice", or simply "paired"? If not, maybe try re-connecting. In my experience, it doesn't always happen on first try. Just whim, shazam!, magic...

What you can try also is remove the device and then re-install it, see if that works. I did it once, early on. Not that it significantly improved things...

Also, have you tried going to the device manager / Bluetooth and checked that your Bluetooth device and its Avrcp Transport (whatever that is) were still listed there? Maybe try and update/reinstall drivers? I also have a listing for "Broadcom 4342 Bluetooth 4.0. adapter", and it's when I reinstalled the driver for that, that suddenly things worked (I haven't yet tried it today, though, so there's no tellling... 

There may be also an issue with how far your laptop is from your speakers, or with interference from some physical body. I do notice, when mine are playing, that there are, sometimes, micro-disconnections. These airwaves or whatever they are (magic!), you know, they have their whims...

When Isaac Newton came out with his theory of gravitation - just establishing the mathematical relation between distance and mass, giving no explanation as to WHY these relations existed - , the disciples of René Descartes, the famous French scientist and philosopher ("I think, therefore I am") vehemently rejected it, because the notion that a body could influence another from a distance, without any physical contact, well - that was magic, not science.

And there we are...

Good luck !

[EdReichenbach]

An addendum. Not that I'm sure it has any relevance, but all clues deserve to be mentioned. Yesterday, couldn't get my Bluetooth speakers to work: they were paired and connected indeed, but not "connected music" (the Espresso speaker would play music, though). Why did it not work, unlike the day before? No clue, except that there was a new Windows 10 update that night. Maybe I should have rebooted the computer, but I didn't want to waste my working time.

Today, I turned on my speakers simultaneously with my computer (until now I'd always done so after), hence BEFORE Windows had loaded. And guess what ? Sound came automatically out of speakers, without my needing to connect anything.

Go figure. shazam once again. 

[EdReichenbach]

okay, a new clue, for whoever can figure it out. This morning couldn't connect to my Panasonic system. So - with the Panasonic still turned on - I turned on the little Espresso speaker that I set just at the side of the laptop, just to try and figure out if it may have been a problem of distance with Panasonicspeakers (although they're only a few feet away...), or some malfunction with them...

And when I turned on the Espresso speaker and clicked on "connect" to Espresso in the Bluetooth settings.... the music started playing out of the Panasonic speakers. 

Can anybody figure it out ?