Bluetooth Issues Since Surface Updates - 5 August 2021

I also did this (mentioned it a few pages back in this thread). I picked up the ASUS USB-BT500 adapter. Everything worked fine; served to verify it seems to be specifically a Marvell/ Windows compatibility issue. Quite annoyed about losing the only usb port available though. Adapter was plug-and-play with self-installed drivers, no disc or download needed and seems to be readily available in most stores (I'm in Canada where Staples, Best Buy and Amazon all had it).

Anyhow, I get to do a proper clean-up and reinstall as now my wifi seems to be cutting out regularly as well. Also a Marvell adapter. Not sure that it's related, but that along with it consistently shutting down randomly means at this point, a reinstall and fresh files is the way to go. See how long I can keep this machine running since judging by what's in store with Windows 11, I'm thinking once this machine dies, I'll be going back to Apple. Never had to deal with any of this **** when I used a macbook pro. But I really liked the surface form factor, you know? Ironically, I'm stuck using a old 11" ASUS zenbook from 2013 right now since the surface has been so problematic. Updated the darn thing to windows 10 from 8.1 this week and it's running smooth as can be, working like a dream with all my peripherals, am thoroughly impressed. Meanwhile, my surface is from 2017 and I'm ready to use it as a frisbee. Smh. Needless to say, if I do buy another windows machine in the future, it'll probably be an ASUS.

Hi dave1013,
I bought the device from a local computer store in Jerusalem. I was surprised that it was so easily available.

I downloaded the driver for the ORICO-BTA403 from their website, which was fairly simple. Once you reboot, you have an alternative Bluetooth button installed available next to Surface's BT button. You basically connect your devices from this secondary BT button.

I removed the problematic devices from the original BT and connected to the secondary BT (called CSR Bluetooth). The device is very cheap ~$6. It's BT 4.0 (5.0 would be better and faster though)

I hope you can find a vendor that delivers it to you. I guess Amazon would be the best bet? Good luck in finding it.

Glad this is working for you, thank you for sharing. I looked at the reviews on Amazon and there were some issues expressed regarding the driver - like they came on a CD and could not be downloaded from the vendor's web site. Did you have this issue, and if so - how did you deal with it? Also, where did you buy it from? I live in Alaska so our options are limited, and my understanding is this product ships from China, which can take forever. Afraid if I bought one, MS would have this fixed by the time the device arrived. TIA

Hi,

For my temporary solution, I bought a USB Bluetooth Adapter (ORICO BTA-403, whichever, doesn't really matter). I connected to this Adapter all the BT devices that were tripping. The rest remained connected to my Surface's BT. Even though, it has taken up the only usb slot, I am able to work using all my BT devices without being bothered by the issue annoying us all.

Until Microsoft fixes it (and hopefully it will), this has been working for me.

I have my Android smartphone with bluetooth on even if it's not connected with the Surface.

To mitigate the problem I have switched off the bluetooth of my smartphone that I typically have very close to the Surface. This seems to be correlated with the issue because yesterday, a full day of work, the Surface bluetooth connection worked nice.

I will continue today, with the same configuration, with the hope to continue to see the connection on.

If everything works as expected I will turn the bluetooth on the smartphone to see if the Surface issue returns back.

I'll keep you posted on the progress.