Precision 3571, Bluetooth turned off

Question

I have the same issue with a different laptop, Precision 3571. An oversight meant a batch was ordered without Bluetooth. I figured, switching out the WiFi card with the same model just with Bluetooth would resolve it. Turns out it, it appears to go deeper. The aftermarket card works in Windows like the original for WiFi, but still no Bluetooth, the option remains greyed out in the firmware. Based on the content here and what I've heard, as these are business laptops, it would appear the Bluetooth option in the firmware is controlled by more than just compatible hardware being present. As some organizations may deliberately configure no Bluetooth for security/compliance, it's possible this is disabled at a deeper hardware/firmware level, given the intended purpose of this option. I have a theory that either: 1. The firmware is deliberately locking out the option because it was originally provisioned as no Bluetooth.2. The motherboard has data written to it that locks out the option when it was provisioned and it cannot be changed as it is more of a one-time write process. Despite a Bluetooth capable WiFi card being installed and being compatible, the firmware is preventing it from being activated and I'm not sure there would be a way to enable it. It sounds like a board swap would be needed which by then it has gone beyond reasonable measures and you should just purchase some USB 3.0 Bluetooth 5.0 adapters and forget it.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

Did you enter the BIOS- System setup options- Connection menu and Enable Bluetooth? See page 130.

DELL-Cares · Answer

In this case, then the only option is as I also discussed with my internal team here, is that you can buy any other integrated wifi card from outside market and test it with the system or proceed with the solution to buy external bluetooth adapters for your all systems.

Precision Mobile Workstations

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