Bluetooth disappeared

Bluetooth has suddenly disappeared from from my laptop. No sign of it in device manager and nothing BT related in the system tray. Yet all the BT services and processes appear to be running normally in task manager. I have both 7 and 8.1 on the system and it has disappeared from both so that would seem to indicate a hardware failure - if BT actually has any hardware. Is there anything I might be able to try?

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E335

 

You cannot install drivers for a device that does not appear in device manager plodr. But it does appear that something has happened to the BT adapter as my wife has an identical laptop and Speccy lists and gives details of the adapter. However it simply does not appear on mine. It was working last week but I guess that's the end of it :cry

 

Thanks for the suggestions David. It's dual boot, so that probably rules out it being a problem with chipset drivers. Toggling f9 doesn't change anything, and there isn't any reference at all to BT in BIOS. Looking at the wife's device manager, BT has its own heading and is also listed under network adapters but on mine there isn't any sign of it at all, not in either system.

Although it's now dual boot the system came with Win 7 Pro, BT already set up, though I never used it until quite recently when I got my first smartphone. It worked but was rather slow. Anyway, I decided to add it to the 8.1 system and installed the Lenovo drivers. I've probably only just tested it briefly since and only realised yesterday it had disappeared. So I suspect something went wrong with setting it up in 8.1 and I've probably fried it.

 

You have certainly come up with a few things I wouldn't ever have thought of, but no joy. Looks like it's gone for good. But thanks for trying

 

Sorry to hear this. These :crap py things happen. Two nights ago my USB Mobile Modem retired.

You can buy a USB Bluetooth transceiver (dongle) for about $5, if you have a USB port to spare. It's tiny and wont get in your way.

 

I have this OCD - if something is on my computer it has to be working properly, even if I never have any use for it. No wonder I never get any sleep :banghead

 

I wholly agree with you. However, I don't think onboard Bluetooth can be repaired.

That reminds me... Remember when ICs were originally fitted to circuit boards? If it 'blew', one could easily remove it from the receptacle and fit a new one. Gone with the wind are those days...

 

Win 7 did have both Intel(R)PROset Wireless Bluetooth and Lenovo Bluetooth Software installed but removing the Lenovo one doesn't change anything. There are Bluetooth processes and services running but no sign of BT itself, not in Device Manager nor in the system tray. There is no evidence at all of BT in 8.1.

 

I'll leave these snips for you to ponder while I have a go at the other points you just raised. The pics are from Win 7 after I uninstalled the Lenovo BT software and rebooted so are being initiated by IntelPROset wireless BT. This was the original system, I added 8.1 later.

Have a physio session now but will be back later.

 

Got the BT Support Service running but only with the help of the hidden Admin account but it hasn't changed anything. The article you linked me to requires BT driver reinstall. I've tried this before but gave it another chance - here's what I get. I'm tempted to call it a day but realise I haven't yet looked at BIOS updates or chipset drivers. As I have a proven image I could use I don't really have any reason not to try it, other than time consuming.

EDIT - just checked BIOS and it's only at 1.03 so that's worth a try.

 

Some advice please David. I've been studying the Lenovo BIOS update documentation and it says this, the RH column being v1.70 -

Code:

If your computer runs satisfactorily now, you have no need to change the OS
  Optimized Defaults option. If you need to change the setting, consider well
  the effect of the setting change.

  Affected Setup menu items :
  "OS Optimized Defaults" setting          [Disabled] case      [Enabled] case
  - Security
    - UEFI BIOS Update Option
      - Secure RollBack Prevention         [Disabled]           [Enabled]
    - Secure Boot
      - Secure Boot                        [Disabled]           [Enabled]
  - Startup
    - UEFI/Legacy Boot                     [Both]               [UEFI Only]
    - UEFI/Legacy Boot Priority            [Legacy First]       (Not shown)
    - CSM Support                          [Yes]                [No] 

I use EasyBCD on the HDD and Grub4DOS on a flash drive in order to be able to boot Acronis and other bootable ISOs as and when required. Reading the above it looks as if the only boot option after updating to 1.70 is UEFI, no Legacy. Would this mean no longer being able to boot from alternative devices?

 

I'm very reluctant to do anything that might change my current ability to boot from whatever I want, and yes, I don't foresee using BT for anything other than file transfers. I have a Nokia Lumia 630 and, as you say, could equally well do this via OneDrive. As I said to Eldon it's only my OCD about having non-working components on any of my computers that has caused me to pursue this.

You have been incredibly helpful with this, and significantly extended my understanding of the issues involved, but I'm going to call it a day and uninstall the BT software completely, so please don't waste time studying all the implications of a BIOS update. As I said, OH has an identical E335 with only Win 7 on it and her BT works just fine with the same BIOS version as mine, so BIOS update is probably unnecessary anyway.

Thanks again

 

David, had a reason to go into Device Manager in 8.1 and what do I see? Bluetooth! Checked Win 7 and same there! You're going to assume I've changed a BIOS setting I'm sure but no, I haven't been near the BIOS or restored any earlier images or anything like that. The only thing that has happened is my Lumia has just got Denim but that isn't the cause of this. Anyway, after reinstalling the BT drivers all is working as it should in both systems. They say time is the great healer - seems it's true :confused

 

Don't think I'll bother plodr. Seems completely unpredictable how it's going to behave. When I posted earlier it connected and sent files in both directions on both systems and at respectable speed. Stopped for a bite and when I came back to it couldn't do either on either system. Removing and re-pairing my phone got it going again on 8.1 but not on 7.

Think I'll use OneDrive - rather more reliable rolleyes

 

Hope I'm not speaking too soon but I may have found the answer to this in Win 8.1. BT file transfer works for a short time and then stops working, and I just caught site of a popup from the system tray telling me that the program was blocked by group policy. That explains why I could transfer yesterday before lunch but couldn't after - obviously I missed the popup and had no idea what may have caused it. So with a little help from a thread in another forum I had a good look through group policy security settings and in gpedit.msc-computer configuration-windows settings-security settings-local policies-security options I changed the setting for 'Do not allow anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts' from Enabled to Disabled and BT has now been working for over an hour. Haven't checked Win 7 yet but it's 8.1 that matters. I'm no security expert but I would assume that this change has put a hole in my security but this computer holds nothing vital so not too concerned about that.

I appreciate that this thread is of little interest to most members but it just might pop up on google if some other frustrated, OCD riddled geek has a similar problem.

 

Earthling,
I just checked and in Windows 7 the default for "Do not allow anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts and shares" is disabled. You can check in Windows 8.1 what the default is by double-clicking the entry and clicking explain.

 

You're looking at the wrong one Eldon. There are two - SAM accounts and SAM accounts and shares. It's the former I'm changing the default for, from Enabled to Disabled, and BT is now working in Win 7 too.

 

My apology Earthling.
"Do not allow anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts" is enabled by default.

Default on workstations: Enabled.
Default on serverisabled.

I use a USB Bluetooth Transceiver and have not had a problem.