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Bluetooth not available after Driver/Windows update.
Hi,
I have a Dell XPS 15 9560. Until recently I have been using a Logitech MX Anywhere 2 mouse which is paired to the laptop's bluetooth (BT). A few days ago, however, I noticed the mouse did not work.
On further investigation I found that the laptop's BT was not on and the button to activate it had disappeared from the windows 10 action centre panel thing. I have checked the device manager and the BT section has disappeared; on viewing hidden items there is no BT hardware entry.
I recently updated some drivers following an notification from the Dell Update service. It seems very likely that the updates and loss of BT are related. The updates were primary Intel chipset related stuff (I cannot find an update history in the Dell Update software so I'm not 100% sure).
I tried to use system restore yesterday from several previous points created over the last few driver and windows updates, but all the restores failed. I tried also to do the restore by booting windows into troubleshooting mode; same result. Checking again today, and now all the system restore points have disappeared so that option is gone even if it had worked.
I tried to do a check using the Dell diagnostic software but it says there is no BT hardware to check.
I got the latest BT drivers directly from Qualcomm (10.0.0.309) but their installation made no difference. I also reinstalled the drivers using Dell Support (Killer Wireless AC Driver 10.0.0279) - no joy.
I tried rolling back to the previous 'Intel(R) Management Engine Components Installer' driver to no avail. Going back to the latest (11.6.0.1047) also changes noting. I suspect this driver merely implements all the other intel sub-component drivers and that they may need to be rolled back, but I haven't a clue where to start and I'm not even sure what these drivers do.
All other drivers are up to date according to the Dell Support software. All Windows updates have been installed.
I'm frustrated. In addition to this problem I previously had to seek out separate Intel graphics drivers to stop the stuttering problem. I do not feel I should have to be spending an inordinate amount of time doing this sort of thing for a premium, relatively new (bought in Match) off-the-shelf computer. Do Dell not check drivers before rolling them out through Dell Update?
Can anyone help?
-Dave
DaveyDave1
5 Posts
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June 29th, 2017 02:00
Any chance of a Dell response?
Zeeba
10 Posts
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June 29th, 2017 14:00
Seems you have tried a lot of options but here are a couple of suggestions that have worked for me on some dell laptops with conncectiv.ity issues.
1. Go to device manager and check if you have any bluetooth device drivers installed. Unistall them and reinstall manually from device manager.
2. You mentioned that you have downloaded various versions of the directly from Qualcomm, this might be redundant but try downloading from the Dell support site.
3. Are you getting any errors when installing the drivers, I also couldnt connect my devices a couple of weeks back with the driver installation throwing this "a problem occurred installing this update package" but I was able to solve the problem using tips outlined here.
4. Is it only the mouse not connecting or its any bluetooth devices. Attempt to connect other devices to see if they work.
Saltgrass
3 Apprentice
3 Apprentice
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4.3K Posts
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June 29th, 2017 16:00
I would disable the BT in the bios and boot a couple of times with it disabled, maybe three times. Then re-enable.
The Software suite for the Wi-Fi seems to be causing problems for it, so you might consider uninstalling it, if you have it installed.
If you don't see the Bluetooth device in Device Manager, that means the system is not recognizing it during boot. If you check Windows update, update history, there are two sections which might show an update, drivers and Others on the bottom after the Quality Updates.
If you check the location path below it may show what Dell update packages are installed. ProgramData is a hidden folder so you will need to enable the Hidden items in explorer view options.
C:\ProgramData\Dell\UpdatePackage\Log
DaveyDave1
5 Posts
0
June 30th, 2017 02:00
Thanks for the response Zeeba. To answer your points:
1. There is no bluetooth device listed under the device manager, even when I show hidden items. So I can't access the drivers this way.
2. I have tried both the latest Dell and OEM drivers, same result.
3. No errors.
4. I only have a bluetooth mouse but, regardless, the bluetooth device itself has 'disappeared' (windows/device manager etc. don't even recognise BT hardware is installed) so no bluetooth devices will work.
Thanks again,
-Dave
DaveyDave1
5 Posts
0
June 30th, 2017 02:00
Saltgrass,
Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I will try the BIOS thing.
Checking the Windows Update and Dell update logs I note the following pertinent driver updates:
29 Apr: Windows installed Qualcomm Atheros Communications Inc. - Net - 2/12/2017 12:00:00 AM - 12.0.0.296
25 May: Windows installed Qualcomm Atheros Communications Inc. - Net - 4/13/2017 12:00:00 AM - 12.0.0.307
20 Jun: Dell update: Intel-Chipset-Device-Software_HMDR4_WIN_10.1.1.38_A05_06
I think, from the chronology and when I noticed the lack of Bluetooth (which, admittedly, may have been a few days after the loss of bluetooth - I don't use the mouse every time and don't use bluetooth for anything else) that the failure occurred coincident with the Dell chipset update.
After this there are a few entries where I had variously tried different versions of the network and chipset drivers.
Regarding the Wi-Fi suite, I honestly hadn't noticed anything was installed until i specifically looked for it and found Killer Network Manager. But I have never used this software before, there has been no tray app or anything. I will try uninstalling it in case it has some sort of service in the background, but I think it unlikely to be the cause as, on checking the version number, it seems significantly out of date and therefore hasn't been updated recently (or ever) so I don't see why it would suddenly cause BT to stop working when it was fine before.
Thanks again,
-Dave
DaveyDave1
5 Posts
1
June 30th, 2017 03:00
Updates...
I uninstalled the Killer programme suite, restarted - NO CHANGE.
I installed a newer Killer programme suite (the latest didn't actually work), restarted - NO CHANGE.
More convinced than ever that this was to do with the Intel Chipset drivers, I used the Dell update service to roll back to the previous Intel 'Management Engine Components Installer' version (11.6.0.1030, A00). I have no idea what this does but it seems to be connected to the Chipset drivers (the file name is 'Chipset_Driver_9W0T7_WN32_11.6.0.1030_A00.EXE'. Restarted and voila! Bluetooth is back! (I think previously I tried rolling back the 'Intel Chipset Device Software Driver' rather than the 'Management Engine Components Installer', which is not what I reported in my original post.
So, for some reason, when Dell Update installs the latest Intel Chipset drivers it disables my bluetooth hardware.
Thanks for the suggestions. It seems I have a workaround for now, be interesting to see if future chipset driver updates also cause the bluetooth hardware to be disabled.
-Dave