Attention Widcomm & A2DP-users: a new, GREAT hack for all A2DP (Hi-Fi stereo headset) users has been found!

[Menneisyys]

Many Dell Axim x50(v) (those that upgraded to WM5) and x51(v) users have noticed the device’s using the Microsoft Bluetooth stack, with all its problems and shortcomings. The situation wasn’t changed much by the AKU2.3-based ROM upgrades, which were only released for the x51(v) series – it only added non-full (for example, it just refuses to work with the Plantronics Pulsar 590A – this has also been reported by Solsie) A2DP support.

The lack of proper, compatible-with-all-headphones A2DP support in the new ROM versions made a lot of Dell Axim users stick with the well-known Widcomm hack to use their stereo BT headphones with their PDA's.

In June, mikelspikel and beemer, the main leaders of the Widcomm project, have released BTSpeedSwitcher, which fixed the problem of the stalling sound transfer between the PDA and the headphones. (For geeks / hackers, here are the Registry values this utility modifies.)

Up to now, it was the only solution for the problem plaguing almost all WM2003(SE) devices (and the WM5 Dells with the Widcomm hack): the sound would just stop after some dozen minutes, which can only be fixed by reconnecting the headset from Bluetooth Manager, after restarting the Bluetooth unit.

Now, mikelspikel has just come up with a much easier and, what is more important, generic hack that seems to be compatible with more models than the speed switcher hack (more on this later):

All you need to do is setting the DWORD Registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\Widcomm \BtConfig\ SerialTransport\ FlowControl to 0 (from the default 1). (You can, alternatively, import this registry file if you prefer importing pre-made registry files instead of manually editing the Registry.)

This hack, so far, has proved to be, generally, considerably better on two of my test devices (my old iPAQ h2210 with the HP 1.6 upgrade and the Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 720 with the PDA2k BT upgrade – please see this article for more info on these upgrades) than the BT speed hack (which doesn’t do anything on these two models, it seems).

Also, I’ve thoroughly tested the new hack with my Dell Axim x51v and found it to be perfect.

Make sure you give it a try! Also, if you have a different model, let the others know how it works.

Note that the hack (as with BTSpeedSwitcher) only works with Widcomm BT stacks. There is no point in trying to apply it on MS BT-stack based devices (to, for example, fix the Pulsar 590 problem).

A chart showing all the results of my tests can be found here


Note that, with the iPAQ h2210, you'll still need to reconnect in about every half an hour (after that time, it just starts to awfully skip). Still, it's much better than the default, hack-less, completely useless case.

Also note that I’ve also elaborated on the HP iPAQ hx4700 + Motorola HT820 combo in the chart as well (which don’t seem to like each other) in the last row.

[Menneisyys]

Many Dell Axim x50(v) (those that upgraded to WM5) and x51(v) users have noticed the device’s using the Microsoft Bluetooth stack, with all its problems and shortcomings. The situation wasn’t changed much by the AKU2.3-based ROM upgrades, which were only released for the x51(v) series – it only added non-full (for example, it just refuses to work with the Plantronics Pulsar 590A – this has also been reported by Solsie) A2DP support.

The lack of proper, compatible-with-all-headphones A2DP support in the new ROM versions made a lot of Dell Axim users stick with the well-known Widcomm hack to use their stereo BT headphones with their PDA's.

In June, mikelspikel and beemer, the main leaders of the Widcomm project, have released BTSpeedSwitcher, which fixed the problem of the stalling sound transfer between the PDA and the headphones. (For geeks / hackers, here are the Registry values this utility modifies.)

Up to now, it was the only solution for the problem plaguing almost all WM2003(SE) devices (and the WM5 Dells with the Widcomm hack): the sound would just stop after some dozen minutes, which can only be fixed by reconnecting the headset from Bluetooth Manager, after restarting the Bluetooth unit.

Now, mikelspikel has just come up with a much easier and, what is more important, generic hack that seems to be compatible with more models than the speed switcher hack (more on this later):

All you need to do is setting the DWORD Registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\Widcomm \BtConfig\ SerialTransport\ FlowControl to 0 (from the default 1). (You can, alternatively, import this registry file if you prefer importing pre-made registry files instead of manually editing the Registry.)

This hack, so far, has proved to be, generally, considerably better on two of my test devices (my old iPAQ h2210 with the HP 1.6 upgrade and the Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 720 with the PDA2k BT upgrade – please see this article for more info on these upgrades) than the BT speed hack (which doesn’t do anything on these two models, it seems).

Also, I’ve thoroughly tested the new hack with my Dell Axim x51v and found it to be perfect.

Make sure you give it a try! Also, if you have a different model, let the others know how it works.

Note that the hack (as with BTSpeedSwitcher) only works with Widcomm BT stacks. There is no point in trying to apply it on MS BT-stack based devices (to, for example, fix the Pulsar 590 problem).

A chart showing all the results of my tests can be found here


Note that, with the iPAQ h2210, you'll still need to reconnect in about every half an hour (after that time, it just starts to awfully skip). Still, it's much better than the default, hack-less, completely useless case.

Also note that I’ve also elaborated on the HP iPAQ hx4700 + Motorola HT820 combo in the chart as well (which don’t seem to like each other) in the last row.