Bluetooth driver not installing on Vostro 1400

I just bought a new Vostro 1400 with Vista Home Basic pre-installed on it. Bluetooth was running just fine on it in the beginning. Then I upgraded my copy of Windows to Vista Business. All the device drivers were intact as expected but surprizing Bluetooth stopped working on my laptop since then. The LED also doesn't light up nor can I find any bluetooth icon in Control Panel. However, Bluetooth was shown to be installed in Add/Remove Programs. Intitutively, I uninstalled the drivers from Control Panel and then tried to re-install them. To my shock, I started getting this weird error message: " Press Fn+F2 or use the radio switch to activate Bluetooth". My radio switch is always on and there is no function associated with the F2 key! And now the driver doesn't install at all!! I contact Dell technical support and they told me to physically unplug the Bluetooth module located at the bottom of the notebook and plug it in again. I did that too but all in vain!

Does any one have any idea as to what's wrong here? Is it a bug in the Vista upgrade procedure or something wrong with the Bluetooth module or is it a defect in the design of Vostro?

Please Help!

--
Nikhil

 

I had the same exact problem for over a week and Dell was no help. I spent 3 hours on the phone and got nowhere. The problem is that the software will not install because the hardware is not turned on, and the hardware will not turn on because there is no software installed. Classic chicken or egg problem. And Fn+F2 does nothing. I looked in the bios and it clearly said bluetooth was installed, so I knew it was working correctly.

So what's the solution? Find a 3rd party driver that places the Bluetooth icon in your system tray so that you can enable (turn on) the bluetooth module. You can always uninstall it later when you're done. I used the Belkin software that came with my USB bluetooth module, but I never plugged in the USB module. You can also download it here:

http://www.belkin.com/support/artic...id=5239&scid=228&fid=2374&fn=F8T003_v2.11.exe

During install, you will get an error message saying "no bluetooth device found" Just click Cancel and it will continue to install the software. After you install this software, simply right click on the bluetooth icon in the system tray (next to the clock) and choose Turn on Bluetooth. Wallah! Your bluetooth light should come on in the front now.

Now you can proceed with the driver install from Dell. Hope this helps.

John Li

 

It's FN-F5 or FN-F7 I believe to turn wireless/bluetooth on and off...

 

No it is not on vostro 1400.

 

I have the exact same problem as the OP, and have tried the Belkin solution detailed above but no luck. I have the bluetooth icon in the system tray now but it it says device not found, but when i click start using Bluetooth it gives me the error "your bluetooth software license does not include use with this bluetooth device"

Does anybody have any other suggestions

 

NM I solved the problem based on some suggestions found on the dell forum.

What I did was simply uninstall all BT software.
then from the Dell Files I extracted earlier I went directly to Inst.exe
"C:\DELL\drivers\R140135\3100_216\Win32\Inst.exe" in my case.

This installer is slightly different than what you get when you just click setup.exe

it still asks you to activate your BT by pressing FN+F2 but this time clicking cancel continues the installation

Then simply right click the BT icon and turn on BT

 

Same problem on M1330. Thanks for the fix!

 

i just found tht there is a patch for this problem...
search for "R159805.exe" download it from dell... this ll sort out all problems.... then install yur bluetooth driver which ll detect the bt device
hope this helps all BT probs in vostro 1400

 

Bluetooth got disabled on my Vostro 1500 when I downgraded to XP... I was able to solve it by disabling and reenabling it in the BIOS. Worth a shot, and it's pretty easy.

 

Hi, this method enabled BT on my Vostro 1500. The Inst.exe method installed the driver, but failed to enable bluetooth.

Thanks for the help,

 

This helped...thanx !!

 

"Press Fn+F2 or use the radio switch to activate Bluetooth."

It simply means your bluetooth is off. The "Fn+F2" part in the installer is outdated, you can switch it on via the WiFi switch.

 

Hi, I followed the guide here on how to setup the 1400 with windows xp.

Everything is absolutely perfect, except bluetooth. It's frustrating me, knowing that it's not working, and i don't want to buy a usb dongle when it's already integrated.

So I've tried installing the bluetooth driver software, I got the "btw_on.exe" fix, and i'm still having no luck. I just turned my laptop off and back on to play with bios settings, I switched bluetooth off, and then back on.



Does anyone have another suggestion? Should I try turning bluetooth off in bios, booting to windows, shutting down, and then re-enabling it in bios?

I've already tried uninstalling the software. Should I remove it manually using regedit?

Thanks in advance

-johnney5

 

Ya I am not sure if that was such a good idea anymore. I was having trouble with my computer freezing on shutdown sometimes. I decided to uninstall all bluetooth drivers. And it stopped the freezing. If your computer crashes on shut down this may be the cause.

 

Just wanted to confirm myself to get Bluetooth working on my Vostro 1500 (has same problem as 1400) which came with Vista basic from factory, which was later downgraded to Windows XP by me.

I ran the R159805.exe patch first. Didn't show any steps just a quick cmd prompt window flashed. Missing drivers popped up in the taskbar which you ignore.

Then go to your bluetooth driver folder in C drive. (Or download again for Vostro 1500: R161378.EXE) and find this driver folder. Run the setup.exe. This should get you your bluetooth software and drivers again.

Everything should go fine now.

 

Maybe R159805.exe patch works for 1500, but unfortunatelly not for 1400:-(
Does anyone fixed it on Vostro 1400??

 

I can confirm the above patch worked for my M1330. I received the notebook yesterday and turned off BT in Vista 32 bit. Today I formatted and did a clean install of Vista, only realising there was no bluetooth function a few minutes ago. The device was not even listed in the device mgr. The BT light on the notebook was even off, and no functions (BIOS, toggle switch or FN+F2) worked. I used the R159805.exe patch:

ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R159805.EXE

I then installed the driver from the restore disc, which was now present for 'My System' as my BT was activated again.

I'll remember this for the future as I am likely to disable it again.

 

Hi, I just recently decided that I really want the bluetooth feature on my laptop, yet I STILL can't get it to recognize the BT device. (Refer to the pic I posted above)

I'd like to try to physically remove the BT and put it back in, but i'm not quite sure where it's located.

Anyone have any advice? Should I call dell?

Thanks in advance.