5The Bluetooth Guide

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

Driver Problems

It didn’t work: The first things to double check

• If you have an icon in the system tray that is white on a blue background ( ) then you should skip the information on this page – your driver is correctly installed already!
• Check that you followed the preparation instructions correctly.
• Double check that you didn’t make any mistakes in the main procedure.
• If running the patcher produced an error, reboot into safemode and run the patcher again
• If you weren’t logged on as a user with Administrator rights, try the procedure again with an account that does
• If you have anti-virus software running disable it and retry the procedure
• If you have a firewall installed on your PC make sure that the Widcomm Bluetooth software has unrestricted access – remember, Bluetooth is a networking technology!
• If you are using a laptop / notebook with an Internal device that came with proprietary software, read the Internal devices section.
• If you didn’t reboot after running the patcher, please do so now

The list above didn’t help and your device is a PC Card (PCMCIA)

Some PC Cards are a little tricky to locate a driver for. Read the PC Cards section.

It still doesn’t work

It is possible that Windows installed another driver for you device (such as the Microsoft driver) instead of the Widcomm driver. Read the Manual Install section.

It still doesn’t work and your device is a USB device and is NOT listed on the Tested Devices section

It is possible that your device is not included in the list of devices that the drivers can recognise by default. Read the New USB Devices section.

It still doesn’t work

• Try removing everything Bluetooth related from the computer, and try the procedure right through from the beginning again.
• Read the F.A.Q.

MS Input Devices

The Microsoft Intelli-Drivers mess

Many people have advised me to avoid IntelliType 5.0 and IntelliPoint 5.0 drivers like the plague. Unfortunately, installing the Intelli drivers from the Microsoft CD will install Microsoft Bluetooth drivers, which break the Widcomm driver installation. Without the Intelli drivers you will not be able to use the extra buttons on your keyboard or mouse. The solution? Install an older Intelli driver! All the other wireless keyboards and mice produced by Microsoft have the same or very similar additional keys to the Bluetooth mouse and keyboard.

Where to get the older Intelli Drivers

Find them on the [ Downloads ] page

Internal Devices

Laptop’s with Proprietary Software

Some laptops require their own software installed as well as the Widcomm drivers. Toshiba, and Sony both produce Bluetooth enabled laptops that have a software “switch” to disable or enable Bluetooth. If your device isn’t detected after the main installation you may need to install the original software.

Installing Toshiba’s proprietary Bluetooth software

• Download the Toshiba Bluetooth Monitor software from Toshiba 4.18 Mb
• Extract the Toshiba software to a temporary folder and copy the following files to the following locations:

• Open “Device Manager”, and uninstall all of the Toshiba Bluetooth Devices which can be found in the “Bluetooth”, “USB”, “Ports”, and “Network” sections.
• Use “Add/Remove Programs” to uninstall the Toshiba Bluetooth software
• Reboot
• Run C:\Toshiba\MS_Bluetooth\BtMonInst.exe
• Right click on the Bluetooth Monitor in the system tray, and select “Power > ON”
• Windows should now install Devices. Your Bluetooth System Tray should turn white.

If the system tray doesn’t turn blue and white you may still have a Toshiba / Microsoft driver installed. You should read the Manual Install section.

Manual Install

Manual Driver Installation

The manual driver installation should only be attempted after the Widcomm software has been installed. The description below describes how to replace the Microsoft driver with the Widcomm driver. If the Microsoft driver isn’t present you will not be able to complete the following procedure. If you have a PC Card you should have already read the PC Cards section. The method for doing a manual driver update is different on different versions of Windows, please use the procedure that corresponds to your version of Windows

Windows XP / 2003 forced manual driver installation

1. Open the system control panel, and in the “Hardware” tab, and click on “Device Manager”
2. Expand the “Bluetooth Radios” section of the device list
3. There might be a “Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator” and another device listed
4. Double click on the other device, and in the “driver” tab, click on “update driver”
5. Select “Install from a list or specific location”
6. Select “Don’t search, I will choose the driver to install”
7. Click on “Have disk”
8. Type in “C:\Drivers\Win\BDCACT”
9. Click OK
10. There should be 1 single device listed
11. Click Next
12. Click OK
13. The system tray icon should now be white & blue. If it isn’t, reboot your PC.

PC Cards

My PC Card didn’t find a driver

• Did you carry out part 10 of the main instructions?
• Have you read the Manual Driver Installation instructions?
• If you have a 3Com PC Card, see below

I have a 3Com PC Card

I have a custom driver file available for version 3 of the 3Com PC Card. Download it from the Downloads page and save it to the main installation folder (C:\Drivers\WIN\BDCACT\). If you have a version 2 card, I do not currently know a method of installing these. A firmware update may be possible.

New USB Devices

My USB Device wasn’t found…

Every USB device has a VID (Vendor I.D.) and PID (Product I.D.). If your device wasn’t found it is possible that it’s ID is not listed in the Widcomm driver. The Widcomm drivers will only install for devices they recognise, and they recognise devices based on their VID and PID. The installation file btwusb.inf contains a list of USB VIDs and PIDs that the drivers will recognise. All USB devices will work with the Widcomm stack, but the ID’s for some of them are not included with the drivers. If your device is not included you will need to add it.

The majority of notebooks / laptops with internal Bluetooth use an internal USB solution. If you have a notebook / laptop and are experiencing problems getting the driver working, you should read this section, even if you don’t have an actual USB dongle to plug in.

How to find the VID and PID of a device

This method will enable you to find the VID and PID for your USB Bluetooth hardware before it has a driver installed.

• Connect your Bluetooth dongle, and let Windows add it as an “Unknown device”
• Open “system information” from start/programs/accessories/system tools/system information
• Expand “Components”
• Select “USB”
• Locate the device in the list
• It will have an ID in the following form: USB\VID_XXXX&PID_YYYY\ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
• Make a note of the VID (the XXXX) and the PID (the YYYY)

How to update your driver with the VID and PID of your USB Dongle

This service is no longer functional, sorry

• Fill in the form below with the details of your device.
• After you have successfully submitted your device details, right click >here and select “save target as”.
• Save the file into the installation directory (C:\Drivers\WIN\BDCACT\). Overwrite the old file.
• Remove your USB Dongle.
• Restart Windows.
• Re-insert the dongle.
• If Windows prompts you for a driver, point it to C:\Drivers\WIN\BDCACT\
• If you are not prompted for a driver and the system tray icon remains red you may need to start the installation procedure again from the beginning using the new file.

Devices already supported

Uninstallation

How to uninstall Widcomm drivers

The Widcomm drivers should have a normal add/remove option in the control panel, regardless of who supplied them. If your installation has become damaged, and for some reason you cannot use the normal uninstallation method, the details below should help you remove the Widcomm drivers from your system.

The procedure

• Make a back-up of your system registry
• Run “regsvr32 -u BtNeighborhood.dll”
• Run “btstackserver.exe /unregserver”
• Run regedit and delete the WIDCOMM key from HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
• Delete “bt*.dll”, “btcpl.cpl”, and “bt*.manifest” from your system folder (this varies depending on which version of Windows you are using)

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