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Unable to Pair Bluetooth Headset with Dell Desktop PC

I am unable to pair a Bluetooth headset with a Dell Inspiron desktop running Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium. This PC comes with built-in Bluetooth support.

I put the headset into pairing mode and I click on Add Device in Windows 7 and select Bluetooth. The PC says "Searching for devices" but never manages to see the waiting headset.

I know that the headset is working b/c I had no problem at all pairing it with an iPhone.

I went into the Device Manager and tried to updated the Bluetooth network driver, but Windows indicated that the installed driver is the most current one.

Anyone else come across this problem or have recommendations for further troubleshooting steps? Thanks in advance!

anuneznyc

ASKER

PC is an Inspiron 3847 tower PC.

Justin Smith

32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7 are you running? Go down to Start Button and type in System. Then click on the Icon labeled "System" and it will bring up a window. It should say 32-bit or 64-bit underneath the score a little bit. Let me know.

Justin Smith

If you have 32-bit: Download this Driver and install it. Go to the same screen where it says it has most updated driver and search for this install file. Just put it on the Desktop, to make it easy.

32-bit Windows Dell Bluetooth Driver

Here is file if it says 64-bit: Do same thing as above, but only get this file.

64-Bit Bluetooth Driver

anuneznyc

ASKER

Thanks for the suggestion, but the link you provided is for one of sh!tty sites that tries to trick you into downloading 42 other worthless POS files before you can get what you really need.

And yes, I did try clicking directly on the file link for the qualcomm_atheros_bigfootnetworks_killer_6.1.0.590_win7_8_64bit.zip file but it instead downloaded some BS file named, driver_booster_ds_setup

Justin Smith

Sorry about that, I didn't know. It looked legit. I will find a better source. Since you seem to know a lot, can you tell me which driver you have installed currently?

Justin Smith

Actually scratch that....go here. It will make you run a diagnostic tool and guide you through to get the drivers and see whats going on...

From a legit website....Dell.com lol.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/inspiron-3847-desktop/diagnose

anuneznyc

ASKER

Thanks Justin. Yeah, that last link is much better. I'll give it a shot!

anuneznyc

ASKER

Dell Diagnostics didn't find anything out of order with the PC or anything out of date, driver-wise. Probably I had updated all the drivers recently.

However, I have been seeing this PC exhibit some evidence of instability over the past week or so. Given that it is over 2.5 years, it might be time for me to do a full data back and restore to the factory image (and install all OS updates) and then see if that resolves the Bluetooth issue.

I'm about to go on vacation, so this will have to wait a couple of weeks. I'll post an update at some point in August.

SOLUTION

Justin Smith

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anuneznyc

ASKER

Yes. I will do the restore using the recovery partition on this PC, so all the correct drivers will be reinstalled.

I'll be in touch at some point in August. Thanks1

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Arana (G.P.)

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anuneznyc

ASKER

Thank you, Arana. These look like good alternatives.