Aurora R10, ongoing Bluetooth woes

Question

Hi everyone! So, this one is going to be a bit tricky. About 3 weeks after my R10 arrived, Bluetooth stopped working, the Bluetooth icon disappeared from Device Manager, and any Windows Bluetooth settings also disappeared. This was resolved temporarily by uninstalling an Unknown USB device in the Device Manager. About a month later it happened again with greater frequency, and uninstalling the unknown USB device did not always resolve the issue. In some cases, I had to unplug the desktop, hold in the power button for 60 seconds, and then plug it back in and turn it back on. That worked well for a while. Then Bluetooth started disappearing daily and a black cursor screen would appear for about 10 seconds before the Alienware splashscreen would load on every boot. I became a little annoyed at having to unplug the machine every day to resolve this. Then one day, all of the above tricks did not even resolve the issue. Disconnecting the CMOS battery and resetting the CMOS jumper resolved it that time for a day. But then the Bluetooth disappeared 2 days later. I tried with a clean install of Windows - same problem. I tried restoring a known good image from the system - surprisingly the problem still appeared. Happens on Windows 10 2004 and Windows 10 2009. Happens on BIOS 1.06, 1.07, and 1.08. BIOS SATA mode is in AHCI mode. My only other choice is RAID On, which I don't use. I once reloaded the Chipset driver and that made Bluetooth reappear, but then the problem came back the next day). I reseated the wireless/Bluetooth card, RAM, graphics card, CMOS battery, PSU cable. The Bluetooth came back when I reseated components, but disappeared the next day. I found one condition where the Bluetooth would not disappear: if I unplug any SATA hard drives that I have, and use only the NVMe m.2 drive, the problem never occurs. This happens whether I use the original SATA cable that came with machine, or a 3rd-party SATA cable. So not tied to any particular SATA cable. If anyone knows anything else I can try, I am all ears. Even though the m.2 drive is my primary drive, I would prefer to use my computer with my other SATA SSD's attached (I have 3 SATA SSD's - 1 for a backup image, 1 for Linux, and 1 for storing large video files; it doesn't matter which drive or which SATA cable or which SATA port I use, the problem will resurface if I have ANY SATA drive connected). I now have 3 Bluetooth devices connected (2 on every boot, as permitted), but the problem first appeared when I had only 1 occasional Bluetooth device connected. Edit: One further detail, just so you know it is not a Windows/software problem. When Bluetooth disappears, and the black cursor screen appears on reboot, the keyboard and mouse are unresponsive for about 15 seconds on the Windows login screen. This same keyboard/mouse lag and Bluetooth not appearing happens if I boot to a second Linux drive instead. So, it happens on Windows and Linux.

cknoettg420 · Accepted Answer

So, this one has a happier ending than I thought. But, I hesitated to post the solution, because it just seems somehow non-replicable.

So, after testing the system with SATA drives only for a few days, and not seeing the Bluetooth/black cursor problem resurface, I decided to reconnect the m.2 drive just to experiment around.

I restored a known good image from this same machine using Macrium Reflect onto the m.2 drive, and re-established it as the primary boot drive running Windows.

Then erased/formattted the SATA SSD drive that I had temporarily been using as the primary, and made it a secondary storage drive.

So, I now have the m.2 drive as primary, and 3 SATA SSD's attached, and have not had a recurrence of the Bluetooth/black cursor problem. One of the 3 SATA SSD's is a Linux boot drive, and the system loads a Grub bootloader on system start by default now. The BIOS boot order contains both the Grub entry and the Windows Boot Manager. This took some doing. Secure Boot is not turned off per se, but I placed it in Audit Mode (the only way you can successfully load recent Linux on this model).

It couldn't have been a simple reseating problem with the m.2 drive, because I had the entire board replaced and thus it was clearly "reseated."

But my running theory is that attaching the SATA SSD's first, then re-attaching the m.2 drive later might have played some role. Just a theory.

GoutyPain · Accepted Answer

I was having the same issue. I have made this small change and it appears to work. I bought a stock Ryzen 10 Alienware machine and was flabbergasted by this issue. I have had to do all the above in all these threads to get the Bluetooth to show again. It seems to occur more after the machine goes to sleep. I also noticed that it would take several touches on my USB keyboard to get it to wake up and that it never would wake up with the Bluetooth mouse. So I tried this setting and it may help you =

* Open Control Panel--> Hardware and Sound--> Power Options--> Edit Plan Settings
* Select the "Change advanced power settings" link
* Select USB Settings and set USB Selective Suspend to Disabled

cknoettg420 · Answer

Well, this is disappointing.

Even after motherboard and Bluetooth/wireless card were replaced by Dell, the problem of the disappearing Bluetooth just came back.

Happens on BIOS 1.0.4 to 1.0.8

Happens on Windows or Linux

Only time problem doesn't occur is if you use either NVMe drive only, or a SATA drive only.

As soon as you try to use both, the problem recurs

I guess this is one of those issues that will be fixed by a future BIOS update (hopefully)

In the meantime, I can fix for about 24 hours at a time by shutting down system completely and unplugging it. Then replugging and rebooting.

cknoettg420 · Answer

Here is the latest. Since it happened on all Operating Systems, I finally had to break down and have Dell dispatch a technician. They replaced the motherboard and Bluetooth/wireless card. The technician was great. Will let you know if problem resurfaces.

Tesla1856 · Answer

What are the exact details for this WiFi/Bluetooth PCIe-mini-card?

Name:
Make:
Model:
Chipset:

Sounds like it might need a firmware update. Sometimes, that can happen (once, the first time) when you install latest driver.

Be sure to try the (leaner) Windows-10 supplied 64bit driver (from Windows Update).

Otherwise, you might have to switch to a different make/model. Not a big deal as they are cheap. Be sure to get one with similar technology so it will work with existing antennas.

cknoettg420 · Answer

It is the Qualcomm QCA9377. And it was just replaced today with another one when the Dell technician came out.

I can uninstall the driver, reboot and let Windows load a driver - does not restore the Bluetooth.

I can load the latest version from Dell website - does not restore Bluetooth.

I know what the general Chipset driver that I have is, but is there a Chipset specific to the Bluetooth card? I've never thought about it before. Once in a blue moon, reloading the general Chipset driver from Dell website makes the Bluetooth come back, but not consistently (didn't work tonight).

I used to uninstall unknown USB device that appears when problem surfaces, but that no longer consistently fixes the problem. Plus it is not really a USB device that causes problem, because I can open Device Manager, unplug everything from computer and just wait, and the Bluetooth will magically disappear after a few hours with nothing plugged in.

I could honestly write a book on everything I tried the last 3 months.

cknoettg420 · Answer

So, this story has a weird ending.

Basically, I will just have to hope that the issue will be resolved with a future BIOS update or something of that nature.

If I only use an m.2 drive, I never have the Bluetooth/black cursor problem.

If I only use SATA drives, I never have the Bluetooth/black cursor problem.

As soon as I mix the two, the problem comes back. No software or hardware fix other than a BIOS update will resolve the problem.

I could buy a Bluetooth USB adapter, and disconnect the Bluetooth card that shipped with the system I suppose. But haven't tested that configuration yet.

I just decided that using only SATA drives will be an acceptable workaround.

Ironyyyyy · Answer

So finally did you completely sovle this problem? i found my R10 got a same problem @cknoettg420

Ironyyyyy · Answer

No ones met this problem?

Vanadiel · Answer

I never used bluetooth on my r10, but I am wondering if this is using a USB port to make the link with the Bleutoth adaptor. If it does, it could be related to a known issue with AMD chipsets and Ryzen processors, where there are intermittent issues with USB ports for some configurations.

Apparently AMD is releasing a new Agesa version to fix this issue, and hopefully Dell will incorporate this into a future bios update.

However, if they do it would also open up support for Ryzen 5000 CPU's on the Ryzen 3000 only R10 boards, and I am thinking the "new" R10 might only receive the new Agesa version.

Brad1992 · Answer

I'm discovering this problem, it's rediculous.   Any news on your end?

edwindjb · Answer

I have this issue too. I haven't bothered tearing my machine apart. It seems though that a powerdown/poweron isn't enough. I must powerdown and _unplug_ my machine for about 30 seconds, or so -- 10 seconds didn't seem to be enough.

A little confused why this thread is marked 'Solved'. It seems to me it isn't solved.

sudo lshw -short

H/W path                    Device          Class          Description
======================================================================
                                            system         Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition (098E)
/0                                          bus            0NWN7M
/0/0                                        memory         64KiB BIOS
/0/8                                        memory         32GiB System Memory
/0/8/0                                      memory         [empty]
/0/8/1                                      memory         16GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 2933 MHz (0.3 ns)
/0/8/2                                      memory         [empty]
/0/8/3                                      memory         16GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 2933 MHz (0.3 ns)
/0/a                                        memory         1MiB L1 cache
/0/b                                        memory         8MiB L2 cache
/0/c                                        memory         64MiB L3 cache
/0/d                                        processor      AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 16-Core Processor
/0/100                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/0.2                                  generic        Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/1.1                                  bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/1.1/0                                storage        Micron Technology Inc
/0/100/1.1/0/0              /dev/nvme0      storage        Micron 2300 NVMe 1024GB
/0/100/1.1/0/0/1            /dev/nvme0n1    disk           1024GB NVMe namespace
/0/100/1.1/0/0/1/1          /dev/nvme0n1p1  volume         511MiB Windows FAT volume
/0/100/1.1/0/0/1/2          /dev/nvme0n1p2  volume         953GiB EXT4 volume
/0/100/1.3                                  bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/1.3/0                                bus            Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/1.3/0/0              usb1            bus            xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/1.3/0/0/9                            communication  Bluetooth wireless interface
/0/100/1.3/0/0/a                            input          AW-ELC
/0/100/1.3/0/1              usb2            bus            xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/1.3/0/1/5            scsi2           storage        Voyager SliderX1
/0/100/1.3/0/1/5/0.0.0      /dev/sda        disk           256GB Voyager SliderX1
/0/100/1.3/0/1/5/0.0.0/0    /dev/sda        disk           256GB 
/0/100/1.3/0/1/5/0.0.0/0/1  /dev/sda1       volume         238GiB Windows FAT volume
/0/100/1.3/0.1                              storage        Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/1.3/0.2                              bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/1.3/0.2/0                            bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/1.3/0.2/0/0          eno1            network        Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
/0/100/1.3/0.2/1                            bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/1.3/0.2/1/0          wlp5s0          network        QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
/0/100/1.3/0.2/2                            bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/1.3/0.2/3                            bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/1.3/0.2/4                            bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/1.3/0.2/8                            bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/1.3/0.2/9                            bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/3.1                                  bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/3.1/0                                display        NVIDIA Corporation
/0/100/3.1/0.1                              multimedia     NVIDIA Corporation
/0/100/3.1/0.2                              bus            NVIDIA Corporation
/0/100/3.1/0.2/0            usb3            bus            xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/3.1/0.2/1            usb4            bus            xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/3.1/0.3                              bus            NVIDIA Corporation
/0/100/7.1                                  bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/7.1/0                                generic        Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/8.1                                  bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/8.1/0                                generic        Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/8.1/0.1                              generic        Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/8.1/0.3                              bus            Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/8.1/0.3/0            usb5            bus            xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/8.1/0.3/1            usb6            bus            xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/8.1/0.4                              multimedia     Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/8.2                                  bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/8.2/0                                storage        FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
/0/100/8.3                                  bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/100/8.3/0                                storage        FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
/0/100/14                                   bus            FCH SMBus Controller
/0/100/14.3                                 bridge         FCH LPC Bridge
/0/101                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/102                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/103                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/104                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/105                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/106                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/107                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/108                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/109                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/10a                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/10b                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/10c                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/10d                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/10e                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]
/0/10f                                      bridge         Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]

-edj

sm56 · Answer

I don't really use Blu-tooth on my R10 but I also noticed it going out and icon missing in icon-tray... Looked at device manager and not working... a re-boot usually cures it..

Running Win 10 Pro version 20H2 and noticed an Intel update driver available under "optional updates" in Windows Update... Went ahead and updated the Bluetooth driver from Windows Updates...

Will see if it knonks out again!

Alienware Desktops

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