XPS 13-9365, Bluetooth completely disabled

For my notes and to check the warranty status, click my username and via private message, send me the service tag number.

The XPS 13-9365 2-in-1 has the onboard Intel Wireless 8265 + Bluetooth 4.1. There are different drivers for Wireless and Bluetooth.

* Install our Intel Chipset driver. Reboot when down
* Install our Intel 8265 Bluetooth driver. Reboot when done
* Retest

Hi Chris!

Thanks for the quick reply, I appreciate your assistance.

I just tried installing both the Chipset Driver and the Bluetooth Driver to no avail.

Any other suggestions?

I read somewhere that a user fixed this issue by allowing the battery to fully drain to the point where the power button didn't do anything at all and then it caused the BT hardware to be recognized successfully once again.

Cheers

I have never heard of that workaround. Would not hurt to try it.

* Disconnect the AC power adapter from the laptop
* Remove the battery from the laptop (page 12)
* Press the power button for 8 seconds
* Reconnect the AC adapter with the battery still out
* Power on. Then see if the BT appears. If yes, power off, reinstall the battery. Power on

For my notes and to check the warranty status, click my username and via private message, send me the service tag number.

Did you ever have any luck with this?

I'm having the same issue as of a week ago (BT only appears as hidden device in Device Manager). I have tried pretty much everything you described including toggling Bluetooth on/off in BIOS, restarting Bluetooth Support Service, draining the battery, all the driver updates from Intel and Dell, etc. 

Intel 8265 networking card works fine on the wifi side of things, but something is causing the BT component to not be recongized. 

---

@ST... wrote:

I'm having the same issue as of a week ago (BT only appears as hidden device in Device Manager). I have tried pretty much everything you described including toggling Bluetooth on/off in BIOS, restarting Bluetooth Support Service, draining the battery, all the driver updates from Intel and Dell, etc. 

Intel 8265 networking card works fine on the wifi side of things, but something is causing the BT component to not be recongized. 

---

If the Bluetooth device shows as hidden, that means it isn't connected or has failed.  You might try using the Bios to turn off the Bluetooth (as you did) and maybe even the Wi-Fi and then reboot your system a few times to see if it will recognize the Bluetooth again after turning it back on in the Bios.  Since Win 7, the number of times to repair some specific problems is three, so reboot your system normally, with the device disabled, at least three times.  Then re-enable it in the Bios.

I have seen instances where the Bios forgets a device is installed and refuses to recognize it until forced to do so.

If the 8265 has failed then your option would be to get a Bluetooth dongle because the 8265 card is soldered in place.

Thanks for the tips.

Yes, I tried disabling wifi and Bluetooth in BIOS, then rebooted 3x, then re-enabled wifi and Bluetooth in BIOS. Still no luck with the Bluetooth. 

Also, I should clarify that the hidden Bluetooth device was just the generic Bluetooth driver I installed during the troubleshooting process. I've since deleted that and we're back to the beginning:

Although I had to edit the registry to get the Power Management tab to appear in the Properties dialog box. In the process, I noticed that netwtwo6.sys fails to start. But I can't make sense of the error message:

Maybe that's why I have to manually start the service or maybe that's just a session-specific instance?

This is already more Bluetooth fun than I had planned for one lifetime, so any additional suggestions are greatly appreciated. 

We will have to wait for your attachments to show up, right now they are just icons.

Hopefully, when those show up I can compare them to my system. 

Modern Standby systems do not normally have a power tab on the Wi-F-Network adapter since the system is supposed to be able to turn it on and off when in low power mode.  Bluetooth is essential for many of the low power mode processes to function, such as using the PEN or Cortana to turn the display on.

My system shows netwtw06 was installed in November of last year and no more entries after that in the events tab of the Wi-Fi adapter.  The Bluetooth adapter shows as being installed only once in November.

Sorry, I'm not sure why the images aren't showing up on your side. 

Here's what I learned that I was doing wrong, maybe others will find it helpful...

When I disabled the wireless settings in the BIOS I made sure to:

1. Cycle through once with both wifi and Bluetooth OFF; 
2. Then I switched just the Bluetooth ON -- and it finally popped back up in Device Manager.
3. Then I rebooted to bring the wifi back on via BIOS and now I'm back in business.

Apparently, in my case, the fact that I had been toggling the Bluetooth on/off via BIOS (without also disabling wifi) was the issue. 

There are some differences in your device listings and my system.  The Cisco AnyConnect is different, and even though it is disabled, it may still be loading drivers.

In the Bluetooth section, you have a "Device Identification Service" and I show a "Device Information Service".

I can't see the bottom of your Network Adapters, but I assume you have the Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual adapters?

The reason the attachments don't show up right when posted is, I believe, they have to be approved by a Moderator.

But glad you got it working.

I hope someone is still monitoring this conversation.  I have been having the same problem with bluetooth on my XPS 9365 since last October.  I've tried all the suggestions.  For the last couple months, Bluetooth came back after the restart/bios switch procedure, but went away again the first time the computer was restarted.  Now that procedure doesn't even work.  I just tried switching to bluetooth only and then turning wifi back on and it didn't work for me.

My problem started with the October BIOS update (October 24?).  I reverted to the old BIOS and bluetooth came back  and worked fine until a bios update in December I believe it was.  At that point I couldn't revert back to the pre-October bios since it will not go back farther than the last release.

I am convinced that this issue is somehow related to the October bios update.  Any other help?

---

@Rob386 wrote:

I hope someone is still monitoring this conversation.  I have been having the same problem with bluetooth on my XPS 9365 since last October.  I've tried all the suggestions.  For the last couple months, Bluetooth came back after the restart/bios switch procedure, but went away again the first time the computer was restarted.  Now that procedure doesn't even work.  I just tried switching to bluetooth only and then turning wifi back on and it didn't work for me.

---

There have been three Bios updates recently.  The current is 2.4.1 and I seem to be having no problems using Bluetooth.  I am not using one of the newer 9365s but one from Feb. of 2017.

You need to go through what you are seeing as far as devices and what driver versions you are using for the Intel Wireless-AC 8265 card.  You might also use the Device Manager to check the properties and Events tab to see what the Bluetooth might be doing regarding installed drivers.  Make sure and scroll the window in case there are repeating entries down in the window.

My current Bluetooth driver is 20.70.1.1 

If you look at Settings-Devices and Bluetooth, is it turned on or even showing?

If it isn't showing in Device manger, did you try disabling it in the Bios and then rebooting a couple of times and then enable it to see if it woke up?

There is always a chance a problem exists with your Wi-Fi card being involved.  These devices seem to be very reliable so hopefully it isn't that.  Loose antenna connectors may cause problems or high density Wi-Fi activity.

There was one Bios update I did not install, and it may have been the October version or 2.2.0.  If that one put something in your system which is responsible, all I might suggest is to set the Bios back to its default settings then go through an reset any changes you had made previously.

Any observations you have regarding driver installs or what happens when you try to pair a device or connect, might be helpful.  If you are having problems with a single device, try to remove it, reboot and pair it again.

just came across this which I hadn't seen before and it may be helpful for others so I thought I'd share:

https://www.dell.com/support/article/ca/en/cadhs1/sln284158/bluetooth-may-not-turn-back-on-when-using-wireless-switch-on-a-dell-notebook?lang=en

Hi

It is very frustrating to have the same error on a device which has only 2 external ports and intended to be used with wireless devices.

I read the thread but none of advices worked for me

As for now I don't have bluetooth in device manager

What I tried so far with no success

- enable / disable bluetoth in BIOS with multiple restarts after each toggle
- disabled Wireless switch in BIOS
- reset BIOS to factory defaults
- updated driver for Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265