Score:0

Bluetooth signal poor using RTL8723BE

az flag

I'm having a problem with bluetooth using RTL8723BE. I can connect to my wireless earphones, but when I play any media, the audio quality keeps fluctuating. If I move a bit, the quality degrades and sometimes even stops for few seconds.

Audio Configuration in Sound is High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink)

Things I tried:

  • I tried the solutions mentioned in this post but while compiling, make throws 2 errors and I am unable to install.
  • I tried re-installing Bluez but no difference.
  • I tried installing Blueman which didn't work either.

Also, in Blueman, I get this when keeping my earphones next to my laptop:

Received Signal Strength: 30% (Sub-optimal)
Link Quality: 10%
Transmit Power Level: 50%

Bluetooth signal when earphones kept next to my laptop:

Bluetooth signal when earphones kept next to my laptop

In Blueman, if I put the earphones 100-200 cm away from my laptop, I get this:

[Received Signal Strength: 28% (Poor)
Link Quality: 10%
Transmit Power Level: 50%]

Bluetooth signal when earphones are kept 100-200 cm away from my laptop:

Bluetooth signal when earphones are kept 100-200 cm away from my laptop

lsusb:

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04f2:b56c Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd HP TrueVision HD
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:b008 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Bluetooth Radio 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 2357:011e TP-Link AC600 wireless Realtek RTL8811AU [Archer T2U Nano]
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 08)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] (rev 07)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 08)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 21)
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Thermal subsystem (rev 21)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI #1 (rev 21)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 21)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f1)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f1)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #6 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP LPC Controller (rev 21)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC (rev 21)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio (rev 21)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus (rev 21)
01:00.0 Display controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Sun XT [Radeon HD 8670A/8670M/8690M / R5 M330 / M430 / Radeon 520 Mobile] (rev 83)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 07)
03:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter

How do I fix this?

in flag
Just to confirm, the WiFi and Bluetooth devices are both *internal*, yes? Which band is the WiFi transmitter using? Is there anything around the computer that might create radio interference?
Slayer13 avatar
az flag
Hi matigo, the WiFi device is internal but I have also added a USB WiFi adapter. The bluetooth device is internal. I tried removing the USB WiFi drivers and the device as well and checked the audio quality yesterday. But, there was no difference in that as well.
in flag
Reason I asked was because this sort of thing generally happens when *something* is interfering with the Bluetooth transmitter, which is a heck of a lot weaker than the WiFi transmitter. You *may* be able to resolve this by changing the antenna that the WiFi device is using: `sudo modprobe -r rtl8811au; sleep 2; sudo modprobe rtl8811au ant_sel=2`. If `ant_sel=2` does not resolve the issue, you can try `1` as well. Note that a reboot will return the original settings, so if things "break" while testing, just reboot.
Slayer13 avatar
az flag
Hi matigo, sorry for the late reply. I tried antennas 1 and 2 but there was no difference in bluetooth connectivity. Do you have any idea what else could be causing this?
Score:0
az flag

I have figured it out myself using this post. Changing the parameters for power saving fixed it for me!

In /etc/modprobe.d/, I created a file rtl8723be.conf and added the below mentioned lines using nano:

options rtl8723be fwlps=N
options rtl8723be ips=N
options rtl8723be msi=N
options rtl8723be swlps=N

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

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