Verify it is present, plugged in, and cabled properly.

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

Tks for reply - yep, did that, and even changed the card and cable - same result. I am thinking problem may be with WinXP; hoping Dell Wireless/Bluetooth Support will have a solution tomorrow.

Tks for your time - appreciate your cooperation

BT worked fine for me under XP Pro (on my I8600). I have used it with a MS BT mouse.

- Stu

Many tks for letting me know the bluetooth is working fine on your 8600. I have not heard from Dell Support in a week, so have not makde any progress. In light of your comments, I suspect it is a problem with Win XP Pro on my system and I now have a second HD and plan to load it with Pro this afternoon to see if the problem goes away on a bare OS setup, without Office, etc.

Actually, I loaded Office 2003/OneNote beta before trying bluetooth, which caused all kinds of problems on my 8600 and had to un-install it. This could also have something to do with the bluetooth not working.

Tks for info.

 

I have the same problem with my 8600, when you discover the solution would appreciate communicating the fix.

I have tried unsuccessfully to get the bluetooth working on the 8600. I get the above error message on start up, when I check in Services the service has started.
When I right click on the bluetooth icon and try to follow the wizard, It freezes on the general page and only a ctrl alt delete will get out of it.

I have uninstalled all bluetooth and reinstalled with the drivers provided by Dell

Also received the following error, unsure if this is related
Microsoft Visual C ++ Runtime Library
Program C:\windows\explorer
Pure virtual function call

Noticed that in processes seem to be more then one btsend to explore running??

Any help appreciated!!

HERE IS HOW I FIXED MY 8600.

Download the latest A02 Bluetooth Driver from Dell:

Uninstall the Dell Installed Firewall and Antivirus program and all components. Then remove the bluetooth driver and shut down. Remove the bluetooth card, and reboot. Shut down again and reinstall the bluetooth card and when XP says it has found new hardware, do not let it find the driver - install the downloaded (updated) driver and it should install and bluetooth should work fine.

I first got a second HD with Norton and Zone Alarm installed and it found the bluetooth and I installed the updated driver and loanbehold she worked. So I reinstalled the original HD and uninstalled the Dell stuff as above and bluetooth is working great on both HDs.

Good luck.

airman32

Did you ever find a solution?  I am having the same problem with my factory installed Dell Bluetooth on my Inspiron 8600.  I spoke to Dell Support and they said it was because I upgraded to Windows XP Professional (the laptop came with XP Home) and that the Bluetooth card can only communicate/work with Windows XP Home.  That doesn't make much sense to me, though.  Of course, if it is true, I would need to completely "restore" my factory settings because I can't uninstall XP Pro. 

Very frustrated.

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@zb4runner wrote:

Did you ever find a solution?  I am having the same problem with my factory installed Dell Bluetooth on my Inspiron 8600.  I spoke to Dell Support and they said it was because I upgraded to Windows XP Professional (the laptop came with XP Home) and that the Bluetooth card can only communicate/work with Windows XP Home.  That doesn't make much sense to me, though.  Of course, if it is true, I would need to completely "restore" my factory settings because I can't uninstall XP Pro. 

Very frustrated.

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Next time ask that person his/her name, tag (or whatever they have there) and post that information in customer support forum. Honestly, that's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard.

I have the 8600 with Win XP Pro, and did what the post right above yours said and it worked. I am now using the bluetooth all the time w/o problems. Here is his text:

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HERE IS HOW I FIXED MY 8600.

Download the latest A02 Bluetooth Driver from Dell:

Uninstall the Dell Installed Firewall and Antivirus program and all components. Then remove the bluetooth driver and shut down. Remove the bluetooth card, and reboot. Shut down again and reinstall the bluetooth card and when XP says it has found new hardware, do not let it find the driver - install the downloaded (updated) driver and it should install and bluetooth should work fine.

I first got a second HD with Norton and Zone Alarm installed and it found the bluetooth and I installed the updated driver and loanbehold she worked. So I reinstalled the original HD and uninstalled the Dell stuff as above and bluetooth is working great on both HDs.

Good luck.

airman32

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(Back to me again) Before this, I also spent a long time on the phone with Dell tech support, and while on the phone she guided me through the steps of removing the driver, card, reinstalling the driver, etc. It still did not work after a long procedure, and she gave up and told me that it would never work without a new windows service pack--I almost screamed! The tech support person did almost the same steps that airman32 listed, but missed a couple (details, details), like uninstalling the virus software first, and (after downloading the latest dell bluetooth driver, removing the existing bluetooth driver, shutting down, removing the bluetooth card) rebooting once and shutting down again. Once working, I reinstalled the McAfee virus software, and everything works like a charm.