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steefd

1 Rookie

 • 

51 Posts

142659

January 29th, 2018 05:00

Unable to start the bluetooth stack service

Ever since a couple of weeks ago, every time I start my Dell XPS15 I get a BTTray error message saying:

ERROR: Unable to start the Bluetooth stack service.

 

When I check device manager, no errors are shown.

I updated the Bluetooth drivers to the latest version, but the error is still there.

 

Any ideas?

21 people also have this problem

torchs

1 Message

September 22nd, 2018 00:00

This worked for me, thanks

pezworld

3 Posts

September 23rd, 2018 11:00

@mtowery

mtowery
mtowery What a coincidence! My husband just finished replacing my battery and my touchpad on my XPS13 due to similar issues! While I'd ordered the parts (computer out of warranty), I suspected that the battery was the culprit of the touchpad issue, and I already knew I had a degraded battery. The touchpad wasn't lifting up, but it was acting up and not responsive in the center part a lot of the time. Husband is a bit of a techie and said it was a bad design to put the battery and the touchpad so close together without leaving any margin of error. He did test my touchpad before replacing the back and screwing it down, and it was fine, but after he tightened the screws it wasn't. Turns out he needed to unscrew the ones closest to the touchpad slightly to leave room for the touchpad clicking. It was that tight.
 
 

P3x401

1 Message

September 24th, 2018 06:00

This worked for me. Thanks

TF731

1 Message

September 26th, 2018 06:00

Thank you.  Uninstalling the huge WIDCOMM driver also appears to have helped with performance.  Things have been sluggish for the past month and I thought it was due to my new TB3 dock from CalDigit.  I also note Chrome reported a problem with that driver as well, but I ignored it.

KMBC

1 Message

September 30th, 2018 14:00

Removing WIDCOMM bluetooth driver worked. Thank you.

 

WilliamVJ

1 Message

October 6th, 2018 23:00

This worked! Dell XPS15 awesome, thank you

GrieVerd

1 Message

October 9th, 2018 05:00

Whoa, worked!  Have spent days and hours on this nagging popup!

murph111

1 Message

October 13th, 2018 05:00

That worked for me. Thanks.

Been driving me nuts forever. Every time I wanted to get a Bluetooth connection I had to "repair drivers" to get it to work. Every reboot. Finally never again. 

"

RajuKulkarni

1 Rookie

 • 

1 Message

October 15th, 2018 06:00

Perfect Bronze, It worked for me as well. Thanks.

ikanbili

1 Message

October 21st, 2018 18:00

I can't find WIDCOMM from 'Apps and features' under settings->apps. Is it hidden somewhere? I am running Win 10 home; version 1803 installed on 11/5/2018. OS build is 17134.345 I only encountered this problem yesterday even though version 1803 was installed in May this year.

Twinpalms

1 Message

October 27th, 2018 08:00

>>  'add / remove programs' and towards the end found WIDCOMM bluetooth driver. I removed it and system has been fine ever since.

Thank you - fixed the issue for me too.

Not sure what I've lost by not having the WIDCOMM stack driver. Seems to be the bluetooth device management UI. Now using Windows standard UI. I've not found any functionality I use lost.

alexawhy

1 Message

October 28th, 2018 16:00

I have the same problem starting a few days ago. I try to find the WIDCOMM bluetooth driver in uninstall or change a program, but the only bluetooth related item I could find is "Qualcomm Atheros Bluetooth installer". Any other opinion on how can I fix this?

Moza1

1 Message

November 17th, 2018 11:00

This solution worked. Thank you.

Rowzee
Rowzee
Bronze
 
‎05-01-2018 03:27 AM
Re: Unable to start the bluetooth stack service

I've encountered the same error. In my case it was really an annoyance - all BT devices worked, but occasional BSOD due to btwaudio.sys. Tried updating drivers, etc. multiple times. Finally found a solution which worked for me (XPS13 Windows 10). I went to 'add / remove programs' and towards the end found WIDCOMM bluetooth driver. I removed it and system has been fine ever since.

 
 

RicoXPS

1 Message

November 20th, 2018 06:00

Had the same problem on my XPS .. started also at the same time as mentioned below. Rowzee your method worked... so thank you for that :)

Eric-the-Fruitbat

3 Posts

December 3rd, 2018 03:00

@ikanbili
In case you haven't already found it, WIDDCOM Bluetooth driver isn't under "Apps & features", you'll find it under "Add or remove programs".

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