Hi!

Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a try.


Regards,
Peter

Well, in the first try I had the same behaviour on Vista - the Bluetooth
adapter was still not found.

But I found a solution for reactivating the 355 Bluetooth adapter somewhere
else, which works for me:

1) Disable Bluetooth in BIOS and boot Vista
2) Download the current driver (eg. R140135.exe)
3) Extract the downloaded file (cancel install when asked for Fn+F2)
4) Instead install the Bluetooth software by running Inst.exe
5) Power off the NB when asked for Fn+F2 (don't cancel)
6) Enable Bluetooth in BIOS and boot Vista
7) Right-Click the Bluetooth icon in taskbar and (re)enable hardware

Hope, this works for others too.


Regards,
Peter

Peter, I had windows vista on the Inspiron 9400 and now i formated the hard drive and installed the windows xp. I wasn't aware of this problem that it will occur in windows xp. now i am trying to enable the bluetooth in windows xp and its not working for me. i already downloaded the drivers from the dell website but its keep on asking to enable the blue tooth with the FN+F2 key. its not working. let me know how do i solve this problem. Thanks

It won't work with Windows XP. You need Windows Vista to re-enable the device.

I had to take a harddrive image using Acronis TrueImage, installed Vista, took
the steps above to enable the Bluetooth module and restored the harddrive image.

I tried to find some information what configuration flag in hardware was set when
the device was disabled (in the hope to re-enable it eg. on Linux), but no luck.

It seems you have to go the hard way.


Regards,
Peter