Windows Vista, VoIP, and the Toshiba Bluetooth stack

For those of you who, like me, occasionally obsess about having things work just right, I am posting this success story. I was trying to make my new Sony VIAO laptop work with a Bluetooth headset while talking on Skype. The laptop does not have bluetooth built-in, so I got a cheap USB dongle. The generic sort of device that doesn't come with drivers (at least not for Vista) and doesn't really have the name of a manufacturer. Only hints were the P/N on the bottom (MBD-C4.20-1) and the words "Cambridge Silicon Radio" when you look at the details in Windows Device Manager.

There were problems. Everytime I plugged it into the laptop, Vista would complain about not having the drivers to make it work correctly. Although, it still basically worked: I could sync my Nokia phone with Nokia PC Suite, and when I turned on my Bluetooth headset, Windows would recognize it as an audio device. Occasionally I could even make a Skype call with it. But most of the time it would not allow me to hear the other person, or I would be muted so the other person couldn't hear me. Even though the settings in Skype were correctly set to Bluetooth audio device.

So after the usual web searches, including a blurb in Wikipedia I became slowly convinced to try the Toshiba Bluetooth Stack, which I downloaded from this Toshiba server in Germany. I crossed my fingers, installed the package, and was rather shocked that it works. Perfectly. The Headset now has full VoIP functionality with Skype.

What surprises me mostly about this is that nothing I own is manufactured by Toshiba. But somehow they have produced a better set of Bluetooth drivers than Microsoft!