Suddenly can't connect via bluetooth

[The Grumbleskull]

If I hold X, Y or B while starting the controller it beeps once and then turns itself off. The normal dongle mode seems to work just fine if I hold A.
Other bluetooth devices are working. Controller was working like 15 minutes before the issues began too. Just won't do anything beyond what I've described now. Any idea what's up with it?
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I noticed that each button produces a different tone, and if I wait a few seconds I can get the blinking/connecting mode to supposedly turn on. I say supposedly because the steamcontroller devices under windows that are already there don't get connected, and while I can detect it with a mouse icon under add devices it won't actually let me connect to it.

[Snow]

fresh batteries? Sounds like the kind of thing that can happen when a device tries to use more peak power than the batteries can supply.

Have you tried making windows' bluetooth interface forget the controller before pairing again? Windows has some terrible quirks around bluetooth that need some basic troubleshooting methods every time just to provide normal functionality.

[The Grumbleskull]

Originally posted by Snowy:

fresh batteries? Sounds like the kind of thing that can happen when a device tries to use more peak power than the batteries can supply.

Have you tried making windows' bluetooth interface forget the controller before pairing again? Windows has some terrible quirks around bluetooth that need some basic troubleshooting methods every time just to provide normal functionality.

Making it forget the device did in fact make it reconnect to it, but upon trying to turn it back on the issue persisted.
That being said it was batteries. I took them out and put them in my mouse and logitech said they were below 10%. From the looks of it, bluetooth mode as well as the pairing modes seem to draw considerably more power to the degree the controller wouldn't turn on. Sort of weird, but it led me down a little side tangent of finding out what the bluetooth is even different at and from what I read it not only has more input lag than the dongle but also from this scenario seems to drain the battery faster. So the entire thing has been a learning experience.

Guess from hereon out it'll be a fresh set of batteries and the dongle. There doesn't seem to be a benefit to the bluetooth at this point, except for maybe freeing a usb port.

[Snow]

Glad you've got it sorted! Get yourself some rechargeable batteries and a charger if you haven't already. Even with the excellent battery life of an SC with a dongle it's worth it.

As far as I'm concerned the use case for bluetooth is if a) you're unfortunate enough to have lost the dongle or b) you use it with a second PC every now and then. It's really handy with the media PC.