Bluetooth adapter missing after upgrade to windows 10 BUT OS claims a new driver is installed!

I hear you... I don't know what the Vostro 3500 looks like inside. Check your Repair manual (it should be online). If your BT is user replaceable, the info will be there. My laptop is 8 years old and I am not ready to shell out $3500 - 4000 to replace it with what I would like to have.  I invested about $20 for the card on eBay and downloaded the drivers from Intel. It was really a no-brainer install/upgrade. I did some additional upgrades to my system and now it runs better than new. :emotion-1:

If your laptop was not included in dell's W10 testing, you may be out of luck trying to find a driver that will solve your issue

Well, I hope your BT is not MB integrated.  

Well I guess I am confused. I have never taken my Vostro 3500 apart but believe the BT is part of the system board. The BT light is lit on the icon panel directly above the function keys on the base. So at some level the computer thinks the BT is enabled, but Windows 10 does not give me access to is and does not display the driver, in a way I can identify. I do not want to spend more money on a unit what is four years old, nor would I know how to disable the current BT chips, as I can't find where it is supported in the OS.

You are correct. it is a "card" that is connected to the card that seems to be the audio port card. The manual would require me to disassemble the entire unit. Plus as I am in the Philippines, that cheap ebay offer will not be as economical for me. Still I may, with your suggestion have a way forward, it I want to hire a competent tech to change out the chip, assuming I can find one. 

Thanks for your suggesting. I am not sure I want to mark this as answered, as I would like to identify the actual driver in the "device drivers" that is loaded now.

This is what it takes. For one thing, the screw for the hard drive cover was over tightened and stripped by Dell as I received it years ago. I only discovered it when I tried to remove the cover to put in a bigger, faster drive. I gave up. Even if I could get past that, this process requires me to completely dissemble the computer. I am not in all honestly up to it.

Your enthusiasm is noted and appreciated. If this was a desktop unit, I would be entirely at ease with the work, but with the Vostro I am not.

Also, for what it is worth, here is a comparison of your BT card and mine. I am not sure I could find a separate but compatible unit.

Hooray!! Before you hire someone, check out YouTube for videos.  You may be able to do this yourself. With mine, it was simply a matter of unscrewing the popping out the old card the installing the new card. My system recognized the card immediately and I not only had BT again, my network connection improved.

Good luck to you. :emotion-2:

Totally understandable. I had to disassemble my entire laptop just to replace a broken cpu fan!  Every piece of the laptop had to be removed!!  As for the WLAN/BT card, it is readily accessible just under the system bottom cover.

But the problem is not the "card." That is probably fine. It is the driver. So replacing it with what is already there makes no sense. :-)

Well, now, that is different. But, lucky for you, the cost is substantially less.  I see a few on eBay for $3 -$6... 

Broadcom's drivers on their own website  go up to Windows 8 and stop there. I do see "C:\Program Files\WIDCOMM\Bluetooth Software\BtStackServer.exe" on my drive but it is not loaded as it does not appear in taskmanager. Windows 10 loaded so other BT code it there, at least it says it has, but I can't find it. According to another post, if I could identify the problem driver, I could remove it and load in the Dell Driver and it will work.

True. I went with Intel instead of Broadcom, which is usually Dell's goto component. My drivers are provided by Intel. Take a look at their site and see if they might have a replacement.

You can try that. Hopefully it will work.

I had similar driver sitings, but couldn't get them to load. 

In your W10 "Settings". if the BT switch is grayed-out, any driver, while it says it is installed, will not work... dell's W10 testing and configuring locked that feature out... sadly.  This is why I had to go with a different brand...

After I upgraded to W10 and realized BT was gone, I noticed the switch in "Settings" was grayed-out and the title Bluetooth did not even appear in Device Manager.  There was a troubled item under Other Devices. I even tried to reinstall BT by calling it a "legacy" device - that showed up in DM with a driver, but BT in "settings" was still grayed-out.  After a month of trial, error and disappointments, I chose the Intel card and have been happy ever since. I purposely stayed away from the Broadcom cards.

If I had it to do again, I would go with a different brand other than a dell component.  You may have a similar fate...

Good luck, my friend.

Do you see a BT switch? I don't.