Dell Bluetooth 350 does not work after installing XP SP3

I have had *exactly* the same experience with my Latitude D620 w/ Bluetooth 350.  I updated to SP3.  Everything seemed fine, except Bluetooth didn't recognize the adapter.

 

After spending *multiple* rounds with technical support for 3+ hours of uninstalling drivers, reinstalling them, and repeating, the final recommendation to me was to uninstall SP3 and reinstall the Bluetooth drivers.  I did that.  And, sure enough, I ran into the dreaded "FN+F2" problem you've described.  Despite my entreaties to tech support that "Fn+F2" was not doin' a darn thing, they asked me to continue trying it.  Needless to say, nothing could make it work.  Bottom line: my XP SP2 installation has no Bluetooth capability any longer, despite the fact that SP3 is gone.

 

Dell, are you listening??  You gotta fix this ASAP.  And *DO NOT* tell us that the solution is to reinstall windows from scratch.  You are close to losing a loyal customer.  Very irritated.:manmad:

I have similar problems with my Inspiron E1705 laptop (which has a Bluetooth 350 card and the Toshiba Bluetooth stack).  After installing XP SP3, my bluetooth devices quit working and the Microsoft bluetooth system tray icon showed up (in addition to the Toshiba one that should be there).  The bigger problem though was that many windows would automatically disappear or act strangely.  I wanted to reboot the machine, but if I clicked on Start->Shut Down, the "Shut Down Windows" dialog would appear for a couple seconds, then go away before I could get the mouse to it.  I also tried opening Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs to see if I could just uninstall SP3, but while the window was up, the titlebar would continually flash and I couldn't scroll down the list of applications, it would keep automatically going back to the top!

 

I was able to use System Restore to put everything back to a pre-SP3 configuration and everything is fine for now.  I'm not sure if all the strange window flashing/disappearing is related to the Bluetooth problem or not, and I'm afraid to try again for fear of breaking my Bluetooth functionality permanently.

 

My machine is well out of warranty so I can't call support without getting charged a fortune and it sounds like they haven't been much help to you guys anyway.

 

You guys that are still broken after uninstalling SP3, have you tried System Restore to go back to a point before you first installed SP3?

Ditto on the EXACT same issue with my Dell D620 w/350 Bluetooth module!  On tech chat for hours, had me uninstall XP SP3 back to SP2, and still had the dreaded FN + F2!  Same exact symptoms on device mannager as you described.  I was able to gain some use with generic windows drivers for Palm bluetooth sync and file transfer to another laptop, but no audio with Bluetooth headset on windows generic driver!  And I use my bluetooth for Skype calls often.  Dell tech support very disappointing!

Download the driver from here:

http://aps.toshiba-tro.de/bluetooth/?page=download

 

 It worked for me.

 

 

 

As a follow up to my earlier post, I have gotten the Dell 350 Bluetooth stack to work again, but not with the Toshiba 6.x.x version.  That, too, gave me problems.  I found a version 5.10.12 that worked like a champ from another computer manufacturer's website.  The most recent version on the Dell website was 4.x.x, which definitely has an issue with XP SP3.  Following is a response I just sent to a Dell moderator who graciously offered to help, but I had already found this solution before he offered:

 

Larry,

I actually had three different incident ID's open with Dell.  I own 2 D620's, and they both had the identical problem.  Tech support actually had me re-image a machine, but the problem still returned when I upgraded to XP SP3.

 

Having given up on tech support, I actually corrected the problem on my own after completing a little research.  The most recent Dell 350 Toshiba Bluetooth stack from Dell's website is a version 4.x.x.  I went to another computer vendor's website and located a newer version, 5.10.12, also for the 350 chip set.  Once I downloaded this version, the problem was instantly fixed!  There was a newer version of the Toshiba Bluetooth stack, but Dell does not have it on their website.

 

Be warned, I found a version 6.x.x, which was supposedly also for a 350 Bluetooth chip, but it did not work correctly on either of my D620's.  The driver would not install.   The version 5.10.12 worked like a champ.

Thanks for the offer to help, but I am now good to go.  I have been meaning to post this information on Dell's forums, but have been very busy lately.

- Brian

Thank you for posting the solution you found.  I'll be sure to pass on this information internally here at Dell.  Its nice to know its a simple driver fix and not something worse.

I think it is disgraceful that Dell considers this problem "solved".  So what is the solution, exactly?  To blindly search the web for some other manufacturer's website where an older version of a driver might be found?  What website is that even?  Not specified.

 

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@JustMakeItWork wrote:
I think it is disgraceful that Dell considers this problem "solved".  So what is the solution, exactly?  To blindly search the web for some other manufacturer's website where an older version of a driver might be found?  What website is that even?  Not specified.

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I'm not sure why you feel this is disgraceful.  This is a solution to the problem.  And nowhere does "Dell consider the problem 'solved'".  Yes, I marked the post as an Accepted Solution.  I did so because it is a solution to the problem.  It is not the solution, but it is most definitely a solution.

 

To answer Matt03, yes, for now you would need to find an installer for the Toshiba bluetooth stack v5.10.12.  Once the software engineers have a chance to package and test an official Dell version of a driver newer than v4.41.02 an official solution will be available and it would be considered "solved".

Also, what exactly do we need to do, is simply installing that specific version of the Toshiba driver enough, even if the Microsoft Bluetooth stack activated itself and showed up in the System Tray upon installation of SP3?  Will the Toshiba driver installation "turn off" the Microsoft stuff or do we need to do some extra steps to tell the MS driver to go away?

 

So much for SP3 being a "minor" update that mostly just coalesces a bunch of previously released updates. Why in the heck does it activate the MS Bluetooth stack, especially when there is already a functioning driver in place?

Thank you for the update and the link.  I've passed on that information to the guys working on it.

 

Before releasing a new driver version Dell tests the driver with the various Dell computers that hardware ship ped with to try and ensure no problems for our customers. Sometimes that process goes quickly. Normally there is a scheduled date every few months were a number of updated drivers are released at once, however, depending on circumstances exceptions can be made for particular problems and updates. I'm hoping that this particular Bluetooth problem qualifies for that kind of exception as I'm not sure when the next block release is going to take place.

I also wanted to add that I found the newer driver on Toshiba's website, who makes the Toshiba Bluetooth Software Stack.  Yes, it automatically disables the generic Microsoft stack and installed itself without any issues, other than having to reboot when completed.  I have seen many times in the past that as a vendor or manufacturer comes out with new drivers, they do not immediately get Dell approval.  This has also occurred with the Intel PROset software, where I have seen Intel's website have a newer driver for my wifi card, but it is not immmediately available from Dell.  I am sure that it has to pass Dell testing, Dell customer support would have to be trained on it, etc.  No, I have no affiliation with Dell, but have been working on computers and networks for some time.

 

To also update my previous post, I was using version 5.10.12.  I found a slightly newer version, 5.10.14, that seems to have cleared up a slight audio distortion when using a Bluetooth headset.  Here is a link to download it from Toshiba's website:

 

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_dtlViewDL.jsp?soid=1816237&moid=null&rpn=&BV_SessionID=@@@@0731062391.1211379261@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccgadeeeghlhdecgfkceghdgngdgnn.0&ct=DL&all_docs=false

 

That link is a very long URL, so I hope that it still works with the line break in it here.  Please let me know if it does not.

 

I also posted a warning with any version 6.x.x.  Apparently version 6.x.x is for Vista, and I am using XP Pro pn all my machines.  But if you have Vista, then 6.x.x should work for you.  I would be interested in hearing back if anyone tries that and it works or does not.

 

- Brian

great post, exactly what I needed to know, thanks Brian!

I'm not sure how long it is going to take, but I know for sure that our software engineers are in the process of getting an updated driver available on the support site.  Once they have it ready I'll post back here with a link to it.  I wish I could say for sure when it will happen but, unfortunately, I just don't know.

The given driver from Toshiba is only a Demo-Version (usage possible up to 30 days). After this period of time the driver is no more functional and you need a license to let it work again. Is it possible, to get some information from DELL regarding the licensing stuff for the Toshiba BT-Stack? Thanks in advance for your help!

If anyone is still having this problem I have a request for some information from the engineers (they are trying to duplicate the problem so they can make sure it gets fixed).  Shoot me a PM and I'll let you know what info I need.