I bought 2 of these looking at the price being so good but shipping costs brought 2 of these up to over 10$ but i bought them anyways after seeing peoples sucsess storys. Bad choice. This bluetooth adapter would work great if it wasnt tied to Bluesiols Drivers. You can get this dongle to work for standard bluetooth devices like file transfers without installing the software but anything involving sound coming out through the bluetooth adapter into your bluetooth headset forget it. This device manufacture using bluesiol was a big mistake. I tried installing the bluesiol software on the disc on my brand spanking new 1500$ computer with windows 7 and it crashed my computer with the blue screen of death! You can imagine my anger after having this happen. I uninstalled the bluesiol software and did a system restore to fix the blue screen problem. then i went to bluesiols website and tried to install the newest software, With support for windows 7. It recognized the dongle after a restart and i was finally able to use my bluetooth headset after 4 hours of troubleshooting!(Or so i thought,) I started talking to my friends on skype and 2 minutes later the headset disconnected from the dongle. Going into bluesiol and telling it to reconnect gave me various messages, like there is no bluetooth dongle installed, and the bluetooth service isnt running, and the headset isnt responding. My headset is fine as it connects to my Macbook. So it is the hardware and software, after more troubleshooting(1 hour later) I was able to connect again and hear and speak to my friends. YAY!(or so i thought) Once again 2 minutes later the dongle just wasnt installed or recognized. figures. I have yet to try this on linux, or on my imac that doesnt have bluetooth. I will edit this review once ive tested it.(EVEN THOUGH I BOUGHT THE DONGLE TO USE ON WINDOWS TO PLAY GAMES AND TALK TO FRIENDS!) Well if i could of there would probably be a lot of profanity in this review to the seller and the manufacture. Just to let them know that. Bottom Line: If your using it for data transfer and thats it dont install the software and wala it works. If you are using it for connecting a bluetooth headset steer away from this device. It doesnt even serve as a good paperweight. It cannot do anything right.
EDIT: It is not recognized on a mac. Figures. Smallest Bluetooth 2.0 Adapter Dongle (Vista/Windows XP Compatible)
I've had this for some time now, and had no trouble at all using it to connect to a GPS receiver and my mouse - completely plug-and-play. However, the device does not seem to support A2DP, which means that while my stereo headset connects without a problem, I'm not able to pass audio to it. I'm planning on purchasing a slightly more expensive Broadcom-based model that fits about the same form factor (and expressly indicates that it supports A2DP).
Note that it's also possible that the issue I'm experiencing is a software rather than a hardware issue, but given that I'm unable to install the necessary drivers for support of my device, I assume it's a hardware incompatibility.
Edit 12/29/09: I received my new adapter and confirmed that the problems I was experiencing were hardware related - this device either does not support A2DP, or simply doesn't support audio devices at all. Audio devices you pair with your computer will appear as installed devices, but will not be available to Windows as playback devices, so you won't get any sound from them.
The hardware is cheap feeling.
However the REAL con is the SOFTWARE. No driver support outside of bluesoleil. Ever heard of it? I hope not because god its a headache. Not only is it NOT FREE (yeah seriously, essentially a TRIAL edition driver...) but it's awful clunky and doesn't let you fully utilize your device. So in the end, you'll end up paying more for the crappy software, crappy support, and weak hardware.
Save your money and buy a linksys etc. Not to mention this device's bluetooth class is the short choppy range type. You could step up a class in the 20 dollar range and have something that has 3-5 times the range.
DO NOT BOTHER WITH THIS PIECE OF ... HARDWARE.
I hope Bluesoleil honestly goes out of business for the gimmick scam. It's disenfranchising the wonderful thing bluetooth could be. I'll be doing my best to get a return. Wish me luck.
No drivers with mine - supposed to use the generic drivers according to the sales folks - and they know nothing beyond plug and play... here is how to make it work on XP SP3 and Microsoft BT mouse.
Uninstall any other bluetooth drivers and installations if you have had any other devices installed. Then plug this little flea in and once it says it is up and running - you have to then change some service settings. FUN!!!!
press WIN+R - type "services.msc
scroll to "Bluetooth Support Service" and double click
Make sure it is set to Automatic on the first tab - then click on the "Log On" tab.
Select "Local System account" and also the check box below that (Allow service....)
Restart the service by going back to the first tab and clicking stop, then start.
Remove and reinsert the dongle (in a different port will sometimes help) then try to pair again using 0000 as the vendor provided pass code (if you are using a microsoft BT mouse or something similar)
That should work... I got the info here -- [...] - Bluetooth Adapter - Bluetooth - Bluetooth Usb - Usb'
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