There is a sticky at the top of this board that I believe deals with your problem:  http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=si_wireless&message.id=35440

 

It references this article:  http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?docid=2D785CBB1BBFF5F1E040A68F5B282502

 

The title and instructions look promising anyway.  Good luck and welcome to the dell forums.

Thanks for the reply!

 

I read the sticky post and it does seem to be talking about a similar problem.

I tried to follow the instructions, however I don't have a "Bluetooth Devices" icon in my control panel.

Any ideas?

I don't have vista or integrated bluetooth so I'm not sure how much help I can be.  Hopefully someone else will jump in.

 

You said the device wasn't showing up in device manager.  Is it perhaps listed as an unknown device?  If it's not, then windows likely isn't seeing it at all.

Yea it doesn't appear in the device manager at all, and there are no unknown devices listed. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps some kind of software package was erased when I reinstalled windows. I'm going to call dell's customer support tomorrow and hopefully they'll be able to sort it out.

I'm not that familiar with vista yet, but in XP, if it's not appearing correctly and not appearing as an unknown device, then that means windows can't detect it.  That in turn means you cannot install software/drivers for it.

 

Two things come to mind that could cause that situation.  1) BT is turned off in the bios (you said you checked that though).  2) The BT card is unseated or broken.

 

 

I managed to find a solution. If anyone else has this problem you need to follow these steps:

 

(1) Download the Bluetooth drivers from Dell's website. The drivers will automatically try to install. Press cancel when the program asks you to activate your bluetooth module.

 

(2) Go to your BIOS Menu. To do this, reboot your machine and press F2 during the bootup process (when dell's logo is displayed).

 

(2) Use the curser keys to highlight wireless devices. Use the enter key to select and disable your bluetooth device. Exit the BIOS and save changes.

 

(3) Go the folder where your driver was extracted to. Open the Win32 folder. Look for "insta.exe" run this file. The installation program will initiate. Towards the end it will ask you again to activate your bluetooth module. Just press cancel again - the drivers will install anyway. (windows may give an error screen at this point saying that the installation was unable to complete - just ignore it and continue).

 

(4) Reboot your machine and turn your wireless devices back on in the BIOS menu.

 

(5) After the machine has rebooted it will recognise your bluetooth module and automatically finish the installation.

 

Hope this helps someone!

 

And thanks for your responses NemesisDB

gotta love those simple solutions...    :D

 

glad ya got it figured out