I am having the exact same problem on my D600. Very annoyinging indeed. i hope someone finds a fix soon...

I have the same problem and wasted a lot of time trying to solve it. I would also appreciate any hint ...

 

Hi everybody,

nice to see that I'm not alone. Bad to see that there's no reply by Dell support to this issue.

I just got my Inspiron 510m today and tried to get the Epox bluetooth mouse running - didn't work. I decided to install the latest driver and application release and during installation the firmware update occured automatically.
After that, I happened to have same problem like you. Seems like the new firmware nukes the bluetooth adapter. :-( Very disguisting.

Hope there'll be a fix of that problem...

I don't know if still someone still observes this thread, but just figured out an easy way that solved the problem for me:
1. Deinstall of Dell BT Software and the BT adapter in system devices
2. Shutdown, disable "wireless" in BIOS, windows restart.
3. Shutdown, enable "wireless" in BIOS, windows restart.

After that, I got my blue BT led back again and could normally reinstall BT drivers and software.

Hope it helps...

tried all that.. and tried it again.. and again.. and again..

 

makes no difference, the bluetooth device is found as `bluetooth module in firmware upgrade` then the driver installs and comes up with an error in an inf file. and thats your lot.

from what i can make out, it upgrades the firmware, and doesnt actually finish it, even tho the software says it does, and leaves the module in firmware upgrade state. how you get it out of this i have no idea. i have even rebuilt the system from scratch twice to try and solve it. using different drivers, original drivers etc. no luck.

end of the day, its a dodgy bit of software dell have on their site, which should be pulled until its fixed, and they should put in place a remedy for the above issue, which is removing the facility that i have paid for, and quite obviously does not work.

That's really strange. I had exactly the same problems you are describing like "bluetooth module in firmware upgrade" etc.
The only thing I didn't mention is that I opened the HD tray, took out the HD and replaced it because I somewhere heard that the BT device is located near the HD. But I don't think this got anything to do with the fact it worked for me then.

I have had the same exact problem as all of you. What we need is a utility to flash the firmware of the bluetooth back to an older version.

Dell told me last night they would just replace the MB and BT card. Not a very good solution to the problem. I think they should also pull the software!!

I would love to hear from anyone who finds a solution to the problem.

Mine is in a 600m.

Message Edited by agripnt on 06-17-2004 09:36 AM

Hello,

I applied this update to a D505 the other day. Interestingly, the software wizard came up with the "must restart now" window, just as the firmware download had begun, so of course I didn't restart the machine and waited until the firmware had done it's thing. After the bar had filled up and the blue led came back-on, I then re-started the machine using the "must restart now" window.

Today, I have just applied this update to a D800 and it didn't do the above, but the "must restart now" window did appear far too early (blue bar filled up completely but the process obviously wasn't complete) and I wasn't paying attention and restarted. I had the same problem as you described, no blue led and "enable radio" just told you to do FN+F2 to turn it on.

However, remembering my experience on the D505, I decided to run the bluetooth update again, but this time I left the machine for a good 5 minutes after the blue bar had filled up on the firmware download. Of course the "restart now" appeared far too early again but I ignored it. Sure enough about 5mins after the "restart now" box had appeared the bluetooth software finished. My blue led came back again and all was well.

I realise you have most likely tried this, but thought I should add my experience as it may be useful to some.

Cheers,
Richard.

hi guys

well first of all i am from australia.

i just bought this laptop from www.dell.com two days ago.

i did a format and now it has a new fresh copy of XP pro on it

the bluetooth module "Dell TrueMobile 300 Bluetooth Module" was working perfectly before i did the format.

but since i formated it and try to reinstall this with the "R77162.EXE" 20mb file downloaded from here http://support.dell.com/FileLib/Format.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&Category=5&OS=WW1&OSL=EN&SvcTag=&SysID=INS_PNT_P4_9100&DeviceID=3122&Type=&ReleaseID=R77162

it does not pick up my bluetooth module and while its installing it ask for that firmware file or something..then i just click cancel and then it wont enable my radio.. it just saids "make sure bluetooth is connected etc etc"

when i press the Fn+ F2 keys, the blue light DONT light up and it just beeps..

i uninstalled everything now and after i restart my notebook and when its loaded into windows, i press the fn+f2 keys it brings up "Found New Hardware Wizard" window i go through it and it CAN NOT pick up the drivers because that file i downloaded has not got the drivers it wants..

now when i double click on that file i downloaded now, it just saids

"bluetooth radio is turned off press fn+f2 to turn it on click ok to contirune installation" clicking ok just brings this same box back again..

so im lost here..

can someone tell me how i reinstall my bluetooth please..

please explain to me how i can fix this.. :(:(

email me asap or reply here

neon@wrx.net.au

Yep, my 600m now has a dead TrueMobile 300 Bluetooth adapter as well. The firmware upgrade seemed to apply itself fine, although it was slow.

I have tried the disable, reboot, enable, reboot trick - no dice. I called Dell about this, and a Level 2 tech will be calling me back within 1.5 hours. We'll see what happens, but I do not have much hope that any keypresses will bring this thing back. I smell "hardware return" in my future.

Sigh. Is this much anticipated but DANGEROUS software upgrade still posted? What are they thinking?

JP

Let us know what you find out, but like I posted earlier, I am supposed to return mine for a new motherboard, and bluetooth card. I am curious if they have a standalone utility to try and flash the firmware of the card to a previous version.

Just to update my message earlier on in the thread, I have now applied this update to an X300 successfully also. Obviously it is difficult for me to see what you're seeing, but I have found that if the FW update is cut short, the bluetooth LED will never illuminate, as you say (even from startup) and this therefore does indicate a hardware problem.

However, I have found that by simply running the bluetooth update software again (but letting it fully upload the FW) it kicks the LED back into life and bluetooth starts working again. Leave the FW update window on-screen for a good 10 minutes after you see the "please restart now" window. You'll probably find this "please restart now" window appears on-top of the bluetooth FW update window (it did with me on a number of ocassions), but move the "please restart now" window out of the way and you'll see the bluetooth FW window is still there and is still uploading and applying the FW. Be patient, it's worked for me everytime, as long as I give it time.

Why Dell hasn't allowed enough time for the FW to update I don't know, but this has happened to me on a D505, D800 and X300.

Let me know what happens for you.

Cheers,
Richard.

Well, so far, not so good. They recommended that I wipe my hard disk and reinstall a clean copy of XP, then install the Notebook System Software, then isntall all patches and updates, THEN install the Bluetooth drivers (even though the blue light never comes on even from the boot screen which means this is a hardware problem).

These guys are brilliant, really. I'll keep trying to solve the problem on my own.

JP

unfortunatley, this laptop is critical for myself and work, and have no alternative to use, thus i cannot send it back to get sorted at this time, thats why im hoping that there is someone at dell with the `savvy` to write an app to get the bluetooth module back on.

Actually the lack of response to this issue from dell is quite alarming... although im glad that other people have the same issue, (sorry! but i am!) hehe :)

this is of no use in my case, as i have rebuilt my system, none of the bluetooth software will install, neither will the firmware update again, as it simply says `turn the bluetooth on` `no bluetooth device found` and you cannot progress past this.

 

in device manager it simply says `bluetooth module in firmware update`

no blue led, no bluetooth - all due to some sloppy dell update that should never have been released in its state.

thanks to everyone for their input on this, if anyone from DELL is reading this, id advise you to pull this update before you end up with every bluetooth latitude owner having the same problem.