Thinkpads Forum

FIRST WORLD PROBLEM ALERT! No idea if this might be true of all Windows computers. This is a new setup for me so I'm clueless. I have 2 headsets, one is a wired 3.5 plug and one is a wireless bluetooth to connect with home theater and charged by USB. I leave the 3.5 plugged in all the time, but only plug the USB set when it needs charging. When the USB set in charging I lose 95% of sound on the 3.5, Windows or Lenovo must see the USB as the priority.

It didn't occur to me that I could listen to the Thinkpad over the USB, until I tried it, works fine. But most often I already have the 3.5 on my head, so I'm forced to switch sets.

Are you able to go to the Sound settings and then change your Playback default to your 3.5? Windows sometimes gets confused with multiple speakers. When in my docking station, I have a soundbar that should take priority, but it sometimes reverts back to the laptop speakers.

Just a word of caution, keep the volume on mute and don't put your headphones on until you adjust the volume down because sometimes when switching it will go up to the MAX 50 and then my ears are bleeding.

Hi, I imagine you could charge your wireless headphones via some phone charger instead of plugging it into Thinkpad to avoid the issue entirely. For example my Samsung Note 3 charger allows you to plug in any USB cable you like, so I imagine you could plug your earphones directly into it. There must be lots of other phone chargers that have a normal USB socket just like on the thinkpad to plug a cable in.

AudioSwitch, as its name suggests, allows you to switch between multiple playback devices, but it also enables you to select the recording device you wish to use if more than one is available.
Download AudioSwitch 2.2.2.0
https://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedi ... itch.shtml

This solved the problem. Very handy tray popper. Thanks for the ideas. Yes a phone charger would likely work, but they are in other rooms due to no nearby open and easy to reach outlets.

Does it happen to all Windows computers? Do they work well with Bluetooth devices at all?

Well, you don’t have to charge Bluetooth headphones through a UBS port of your PC. You could just use a charging device from your phone or something. It usually works well for me because charging from a PC usually doesn’t work well at all.
I have a laptop, and it doesn’t charge any devices through USB unless connected to the grid. And even when it’s connected, the charging process is way slower than in the case of any charging device. It doesn’t bother me most of the time, but sometimes I still want to charge my phone in a public place from my laptop and have to wait for an hour to get that 20%. But about headphones, I use https://productz.com/en/logitech-g430/p/m0zе, and they’re totally fine for me. I use them for work mainly because I need to make calls.