Bose QuietComfort 35 not working on Windows 7 (64bit Professional)

I wrote this guide (bose_win7_workaround_update1.pdf). I have a much easier solution to the issue for most Broadcom-based adapters available for this now at http://plugable.com/2017/02/07/bluetooth-audio-problems-cant-get-your-bose-quietcomfort-35-connected-check-here-first/

In the article I also explain why these issues are happening. If you have questions or feedback, please share it as a response to the article at Plugable.com

Thank you.

I had the same problem for months. I finally solved it. There can be several reasons why you are not able to use your Bose qc35 headphones on Windows 7. I have personal experience with two cases:

First Case (simplest): You have not yet enabled your system to use the headphones

Solution: You can search the community on more details on how to fix this, but briefly...

• Go to Devices and Printers
• Right click the Bose qc35 icon (assuming you paired it successfully)
• click on "services"
• Enable "Listen to Music" . There should be a green checkmark once this is complete.
• Try playing music. If it works, you are done.

If not you may need to go to control panel, hardware and sound, manage audio devices (under sound tab), click on headset and set it as the default device.

Second Case:  Bose qc35 paired successfully but clicking on "services" from the step above does not open a new window, in other words, the services are unavailable. 

Solution:

For me, this was because of a problem with the Bluetooth driver on my laptop. 

• First, try to repair the Bluetooth driver/software
• Go to control panel
• Uninstall a program
• Find the Bluetooth driver/software from the list (Mine was Intel Wireless Bluetooth)
• Click on it
• Click "repair 
• You may have to restart after this step. Try playing music. May have to follow instruction under the first case above.

If it still does not work

• Or, try searching online and installing the latest version of your Bluetooth driver software

Note: I was tipped by another post on the forum. Do look online for the latest version. The windows device manager is not always accurate at troubleshooting this problem. I hope this helps.

reference: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows\_vista-hardware/bluetooth-services-not-listed/0ea873cc-c7ff-4884-bb6c-2cafb0eda32b

I have carried out all the instructions above without success. The nearest I got is for the headphones to show in Bluetooth Devices and for them to appear in Device Manager or when I right the Volume control icon and select properties, the headphones show up with the other audio devices(speakers ect) but with a red  arrow or mark beside it. When I click on the headphone icon I get the message "Headphones could not be initialised" meaning they do not work.

Could MS not get a pair of BT headphones and work on giving win 7 users a working driver, or not modify the Win 10 driver which seems to work with the Q35's to work with Win 7.

Addittional  Info:

I have Win 7 U installed on another disk on the same PC and when I booted into this OS(same as my Normal on, Win 7 U) I got the headphones working. I cannot really explain why as I did nothing different. The only difference as I can see was I already had drivers installed on this OS for the Bose AE2W BT headphones that are not being used as I lost the Bluetooth dongle that came with them so I can no longer use them as Bluetooth headphones. Now I need to transfer this to my other installation of Win 7 which may not be possible as I cant add the AE2W to that system. I will upload a few pics to show the drivers being used.

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Addittional Info:

Success on my normal Win 7 system. The drivers are correct and it had nothing to do with already having the AW2E headphone drivers installed although they are the same drivers. What got it working for me was disabling "PIM Interface" in the Bluetooth settings, once I had unticked this I was able to access the control on the QC 35 headphones and connect. To bring up these Bluetooth settings, right click the Bluetooth icon on the taskbar and select "Open Settings", you will now see a tab(last one on the right) "Pim Interface". Click on this and if "Allow Bluetooth Devices to send you PIM items such as ect, ect" is ticked, untick it and hit apply. This did it for me although I still had one issue in that when I(sometimes) open the "Show Bluetooth Devices" menu, right clicked the Headphones image and selected "Control" the menu appeared for a second and closed again not enough time for me to select connect, but I can right click the volume control icon and select "Playback Devices" and by selecting the headphones in this list I can connect. It should not be this hard to pair a pair of headphones but at least I can now use them with my PC.

SOLVED. 

I had the same problem. 

Lenovo X1 Carbon

Windows 7 64 bit

Bose QC35

1. Downloaded the drivers from https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/26311/Intel-Wireless-Bluetooth-Software-for-Windows-7-?v=t
2. Install the driver
3. Restart the machine
4. Pair the headphones, works like a charm

Regards.

Hello. I tried your solution Nelish but it does not work with my HP ZBOOK 15. Neither does HP Bluetooth drivers work. Thanks anyway!

Hello Tórfinn,

You can skip that part and install the device driver instead.

Refer to Bose Product Support site to download the official driver for your Bose QC35.

Thanks.