How to setup Skype and a Bluetooth Headset

Posted by James Forman on July 17th, 2008 filed in Guides, Tech

I do this with my BlueAnt X3 Micro and many people have asked me how you do it. So I have compiled this short how to, walking you through it step by step as I do it on my PC with you.

First up what we want to do is install bluetooth on your PC. I believe for you to be able to use your headset you need to be using the WIDCOMM bluetooth stack Once you have WIDCOMM and your bluetooth device installed on your PC you want to make you can access “”My Bluetooth Places”" if you cant then try following this guide. If that worked then we want to pair your computer and your headset. Follow the instructions that came with both your devices. This is what I did to pair my BlueAnt X3 Micro with my PC:

Turn the headset on.
Put headset into pairing mode (X3: Hold the Volume Up (+) button for 3 seconds).
Open “”My Bluetooth Places”"
Open the “”Bluetooth Setup Wizard”"
Select “”I want to find a specific Bluetooth device and configure how this computer will use its services.”" and hit next
Let your computer search for devices, if your headset doesn’t show up, ensure it is still in pair mode and within range. You can always click “”Search Again”".
Once its done searching, select your device from the screen. Mine looked like this: Then click next.
Enter the passcode for your device and “”Initiate pairing”". The passcode should be supplied with your device and is usually simple. The X3 Micro’s is “”1234″”.
Select the services that you want to use on the device. Select whats available to you, I was presented with one choice.
Click Finish
Your Device should now appear in My Bluetooth Places.
Lets connect to your device now and test it out. Right Click your device and select “”Connect”"
At this time a window may appear saying “”connecting”". The X3 rings at this time, I push the”"answer”" buttong to complete connecting. Your device may be different.Also, I find my default sound / audio device to be set to “”Bluetooth Audio”" unless otherwise set. So any application you open will use the Headset for audio by default. Lets take this moment to setup Skype. For information on getting and installing Skype see Skype.com.
Open Skype and select the “”Tools”" menu. Then “”Options”".
Select “”Sound Devices”" from the left menu. Whats there now may be fine for some of you (defauly device) but if you want to only use Skype with your wireless headset like me, Change Audio In and Audio Out to use Bluetooth Audio. You can change “”ringing”" touse bluetoothas well however I prefer it to use my soundcard so that ringing noise can be heard loud.
Click Save to save your settings.
Lets make a test call, check your headset is still connected and then call the Skype Call Testing service (echo123). Follow what it says, everything should work fine, if it doesn’t then adjust your volume levels and try again.
Now as I mentioned before, Windows sets the default sound device to be Bluetooth when you install it. If that works for you then don’t follow this step. If you use another sound card like me then lets continue.Open up the Control Panel. Find and open “”Sounds and Audio Devices”" and move to the Audio tab.
Change all options set to Bluetooth Audio back to your prefered device. Skype is configured to use Bluetooth Audio. As long as the “”Use only default devices”" tickbox is NOT checked it should work. So lets leave that unticked.
Click “”Ok”".