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Today my ADSL was down, so I was using Bluetooth to connect to my phone for extended periods. Twice the connection Bluetooth connection just dropped, and no Bluetooth icon was found in the tray. Neither was any Bluetooth device present in Device Manager. I reinstalled the Bluetooth software from the Dell CD that came with the machine, and it worked for a few hours more, then down, again. Restartng the machine doesn't help, nor does killing the BTTray.exe process and starting it again.

Any ideas anyome?

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium

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2 Answers

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First step is to download and install the latest Bluetooth driver from Dell.
In this Support page you will find, under Network, the module "Wireless 365 Bluetooth Module", dating from december 2009. Download and install.

Then run Windows Update and see if there is any optional (or non-optional) update that relates to Bluetooth. Install if found.

Reboot a couple of times and check if the problem persists.
If it does, then further steps may be called for.

By the way, is the laptop still under warranty?

EDIT

The article Fixing Intel Wifi Link 5300 AGN Drop on Dell Latitude E6400 contains some advice that you should look into. The most useful recommendation is apparently to disable Bluetooth from the BIOS, which doesn't prevent Windows from using the wifi card but keeps the BIOS from interfering.

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Yes, it is still under warranty, I would just like to avoid taking it in and being without it for any time if possible. – ProfKaos Oct 5 '10 at 14:58
Have you done everything else I described? – harrymc Oct 5 '10 at 15:25
Yes @harrymc, I found the latest BT driver package on my machine, it had recently come down via a Windows update. I tried a manual install of the driver as well, to no effect. I still lose the BT connection at random times and need to restart. – ProfKaos Oct 22 '10 at 4:26
Have you tried with multiple bluetooth devices? Like a headset or mouse/keyboard? It could be related to the specific device you're connecting with. – Adam Oct 22 '10 at 4:35
@ProfKaos: I edited in some interesting advice I found. – harrymc Oct 22 '10 at 6:12
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An addition to what harrymc said; maybe this is trivial, but just just make sure you are not too far from the computer. I think normally bluetooth is best in 10 meters radius.

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nothing is ever trivial solving a problem like this, thanks, but my phone is always right next to my laptop when I use it to connect. – ProfKaos Oct 28 '10 at 12:01
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