Windows 10 bluetooth missing from device, can't install drivers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mr.McSquiggle
  • Start date Start date
M

Mr.McSquiggle

i'm on an alienware m14xr1 running windows 10. recently i noticed bluetooth is completely absent on my device when i tried to connect new headphones to it. i went to bluetooth and devices only to get an error saying it can't connect, so i go to device manager to check the bluetooth driver and notice it is completely absent. doesn't show in hidden devices, not under network adapters, i can't even add a generic bluetooth driver. there also is no option to toggle bluetooth in bluetooth in devices. so i of course i look this up and go around trying to download drivers but somehow that doesn't work either.




(bluetooth not present)

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(no bluetooth toggle button)

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i download a driver from the dell site (here) but get a notification saying "Broadcom Bluetooth Software can't run on Windows".


the driver says it's for windows 7 anyway, so next i went here, unzip, setup, but this terminates with a message only saying "Activate Bluetooth using wireless switch". the onboard keyboard doesn't work on this thing (i use a usb external), so i can't use the fn keys to toggle wireless, but wifi is on anyway, so i don't actually know if that really is the problem or not. (i also checked the bios to see if bluetooth is enabled, it is.)


either way, this also didn't work, the only other button being "cancel installation", without me getting my bluetooth driver. so lastly, before writing this ticket, i went here, downloaded, opened a wizard, i chose typical installation, it said it was installing Intel Wireless Bluetooth, it finished installing, that was it. i rebooted, still no bluetooth, this just plain didn't work.



so i don't know where to go from here. i might just be bad with finding drivers, so i really would appreciate any help here, wether with finding appropriate drivers or other methods of fixing this.


one thing i think might also be of relevance is the replacement of my wifi card, as the previous one stopped working. instead of using the factory-shipped, Killer Wireless N-1103, i now use a 802.11n Wireless LAN card, i don't entirely know if this had an affect, but i'm mentioning it in case it did.


i really would prefer to just fix this problem if possible, but if there's truly nothing that can be done, i'll just get a bluetooth adapter.

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