I was troubleshooting Bluetooth connection today and I thought that this is somehow related to software (PipeWire, bluez, bluetoothd and all that stuff). But no. Apparently Bluetooth barely works when WiFi antenna is disconnected from my ASUS motherboard.
Anyway, this might save a lot of time for someone, so I’m posting it here.
Wifi and bluetooth are often on the same chipset and share the antenna. You’ll see this on embedded devices as well.
Most of the time Bluetooth and Wifi are provided by the same chip. Bluetooth runs on 2.4GHz, like WiFi up to N-band.
Edit: I’m too slow, looks like!
I had the same problem. Thought I was going crazy. The antenna is so ugly.
You can probably stick the antenna on the back of the base so it’s not easily visible. Or get a separate one that’s a lot smaller.
I had the same problem too, I ended up buying a USB Bluetooth transmitter. I figured the board was bad until I replaced it and had the same problem with the new one
Helpful post, thanks.
Having knowledge in electromagnetism it would seem pretty obvious to me that you need antennas to do the wireless-ing, but IDK what the average person knows.
Did that knowledge indicate how cell phones, which are much smaller than a desktop PC, obviously don’t require visible external antennas to get WiFi and Bluetooth?
It would be a waste to give them separate antenna, they both operate on the same frequency (and often with the same radio, although the BT side of an m.2 card is often supported by usb instead of pcie)
