[gocatsgo08]

I have been trying to activate the bluetooth capabilities of my Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop for several days now. No matter what I do I keep coming up with the same problem, which is that I cannot get a bluetooth icon in my system tray in order to turn it on. After much searching I found some info on the web which I thought might help. Basically, I downloaded the wireless bluetooth 365 module with the drivers from the Dell website. When trying to install these drivers, a window pops up telling me to switch on my bluetooth antenna. The Inspiron 1545 does not have an actual "switch", but pressing F2 will turn the wireless antenna on/off. I have switched this antenna on and off to no avail. The info I found said to just click cancel on this screen and go to a folder called Widcomm, which was installed from the file which contained the drivers. This folder has an application called BTTray, which is supposed to give me a bluetooth icon in the system tray. This does not appear however. Here is the site on which I found this info: http://en.kioskea.ne...-inspiron-1525. Note that the info on that site is in regards to an Inspiron 1425, but I made sure to download the correct drivers for my Inspiron 1545 system with Windows 7 64 bit. Apparently I need to have the bluetooth icon appear in the system tray in order to activate it and finish the driver installation, but that does not happen. I have checked Task Manager and BTTray is listed as an active process, yet it still does not appear. I have even checked my BIOS settings and bluetooth is enabled there as well. I am really about to lose my mind over this issue. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Here is my system info:

Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop
Windows 7 64 bit

If any more info is needed, please just ask. I really would appreciate the help. Thanks in advance.

[Advertisements]

Pressing Fn + F2 together should turn all your wireless radios on/off including bluetooth and wifi. When this happens if your laptop hasn't installed the necessary drivers then it will try to do so automatically. Have a look in device manager to see if the device is installed and if not what the error is: Go to start -> type devmgmt.msc in the search box and hit enter -> check for any yellow exclamation points and check what the error message is for the device. Post back the results.

Your screen should look something like this if your on the right page:

[hendaz]

Pressing Fn + F2 together should turn all your wireless radios on/off including bluetooth and wifi. When this happens if your laptop hasn't installed the necessary drivers then it will try to do so automatically. Have a look in device manager to see if the device is installed and if not what the error is: Go to start -> type devmgmt.msc in the search box and hit enter -> check for any yellow exclamation points and check what the error message is for the device. Post back the results.

Your screen should look something like this if your on the right page:

[hendaz]

Pressing Fn + F2 together should turn all your wireless radios on/off including bluetooth and wifi. When this happens if your laptop hasn't installed the necessary drivers then it will try to do so automatically. Have a look in device manager to see if the device is installed and if not what the error is: Go to start -> type devmgmt.msc in the search box and hit enter -> check for any yellow exclamation points and check what the error message is for the device. Post back the results.

Your screen should look something like this if your on the right page:

Edited by hendaz, 13 September 2010 - 03:08 AM.

[gocatsgo08]

Thanks hendaz. I have no yellow exclamation points or errors showing in device manager. I did however, just notice that there is a new driver update for my wirelass WLAN card, which I am getting ready to update. I will post back here in a few and let you know whether that helps or not. Thanks for the reply.

[gocatsgo08]

I have updated the drivers, restarted the system, and still no icon or bluetooth.

[hendaz]

Ok, updating your wireless drivers shouldn't affect Bluetooth anyway. Without sounding stupid I'm wondering if you actually have a bluetooth card installed. Most dell laptops are setup ready for bluetooth but weather you have one installed is depending on if you bought one when you ordered you laptop - please check the documentation to make sure you have indeed bought a bluetooth card with your laptop. Try going to start type in devices and hit enter and see if any bluetooth devices are there.

Thanks.

[gocatsgo08]

By going to start and typing in devices, it only shows 4 items: my laptop, cdrom device, fax, and a document writer. No bluetooth device is shown. I could have sworn that it came with bluetooth, but now you have me second-guessing myself. Some of the reviews that I can find on the web shows this model with bluetooth, while others have it listed as optional. Would the BIOS still display bluetooth as enabled even if I did not have it?

[hendaz]

I haven't restarted my dell to check the bios but I think all the laptops will have the same bios regardless if a bluetooth card is installed so you will probably have the option whether you have it or not. My advice would be that if your laptop didn't come with the bluetooth working then you probably don't have it. Dell like there customers to have everything working when there laptops arrive so they aren't phoning support on day 1. However, I'm not sure how your problem arose so I can't say - Has it ever worked? The only way to be sure would be to check your receipt as it lists every device installed on your laptop (normally they email this to you). If you do have a bluetooth card I'll be happy to help I just thought it would save a lot of time as I've learnt from experience to check the basics first.

Thanks.