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.
Ugh - same here! I found this out maybe 6 months ago. Several years ago, I put together a moderate gaming PC to use on the family room TV. My spouse and I wanted to play Stray on release and figured this was the best way to go. The bluetooth was so spotty with our Xbox Series controller we had to sit really close to the TV and near the computer in order to play this game. It wasn’t the best experience playing since sometimes the controller would disconnect, but it was a great game nonetheless!
What was interesting at the time was that my spouse had asked, isn’t there supposed to be an antenna for the wifi, maybe that’s why the bluetooth isn’t working well. And me being dumb and relying on old knowledge, told my spouse, “It’s just for the wifi, not bluetooth, so that won’t help us here.”
Flash forward to 6 months ago, and I was reading the manual for the Gigabyte motherboard and discovered I need to plug that antenna in. I made sure to talk to my spouse and tell them they were right, so they certainly rubbed it in that they were correct (playfully of course)! :)
Good reminder that it’s good to always read manuals because of things like this!