Why bluetooth doesn't work on hp laptop. Enabling the Bluetooth adapter on different versions of Windows

If Bluetooth does not work on a laptop or computer, then the first thing you can do is check whether it is turned on. We described how to enable it in detail and with a video. If you've tried all the methods and Bluetooth still doesn't work, reinstall the driver.

How to reinstall the Bluetooth adapter driver

First you need to remove old drivers.

Go to the Control Panel (switch to category view) -> Uninstall programs. .

The installation is simple: run the downloaded driver (unpack it if necessary) and continue, continue, continue. Restart your computer and everything should work. If it doesn't work, there may be a hardware problem (for example, the Bluetooth adapter is faulty). If you have desktop computer and the Bluetooth adapter in the form of a separate card, then you need to try pulling it out, blowing out the connector (on the motherboard and on the Bluetooth adapter) and inserting it back. Naturally, all this needs to be done with the computer turned off. You can do the same thing on a laptop, but it may require serious disassembly and you need to think about using the services of a service center.

Despite being less popular compared to Wi-Fi, bluetooth technology is alive and continues to develop. One day it may turn out that such a familiar channel for exchanging files between devices - via Bluetooth - will refuse to work.

Why did the Bluetooth module stop working?

The reasons for the Bluetooth module not working may be:

physical shutdown of the module (disconnected, power is not supplied for other reasons);
driver failure (damaged driver files, incorrect installation);
the device in Windows is recognized as hidden;
hardware failure (error in data exchange between a PC, laptop or tablet with other gadgets);
other reasons, for example, viral activity and other “orphan” conditions Windows systems that interfere with its operation.

Bluetooth module unavailability

The reasons why the Bluetooth module suddenly appeared “offline” are as follows.

Checking device status in Windows 7/8/8.1/10/10.1

Windows Device Manager is a built-in OS application that monitors the correct operation of devices.

Give the “Start” command - right-click on the “Computer” element (for Windows 10/10.1 - “This PC”) and open “Properties”.
Go to Device Manager Windows 7
Select "Device Manager", find your non-working Bluetooth device. If it is disabled (down arrow icon), give the command: right-click on the device - “Enable”. If it is enabled, but does not work correctly (does not receive or send data between the PC and another device), give the “Disable” command, and then the “Enable” command.
IN in this example not used bluetooth module, and SD card reader
If desired device no - connect the Bluetooth module (or its cord) to another USB port. If you are using a tablet, change the OTG adapter or USB hub (if, for example, a keyboard and mouse are connected to the Bluetooth module at the same time). Repeat the previous steps as soon as the device appears in the list (usually it should turn on and work immediately, and not show up as unused).

You can also get to the Windows 10 Device Manager in five other ways: by searching for the word “Manager” in the Start menu; by the command “Start - Run” with launch using the phrase “devmgmt.msc”; by the command “Start - Control Panel - System - Device Manager”; by the command “This computer - Computer management - Device Manager”; right-click on “Start” and select the “Device Manager” menu item. As you can see, Windows 10/10.1 provides a much more impressive list of ways to open the Manage Connected Devices Wizard. Half of them have been known since Windows Me/2000.

Video: how to check Bluetooth operation

Update Bluetooth Drivers

Return to the familiar “Windows Device Manager” and do the following.

Give your device the command: right click - “Update drivers”. The Driver Update/Reinstall Wizard will open.
Run the wizard for working with existing device drivers
The most competent option is to find and reinstall the drivers manually. Insert a flash drive (or distribution CD/DVD with your programs, which also contains the driver version for your Bluetooth module) with the driver and select manual method driver search.
Choose to manually search for drivers on your PC
Select the location of the folder with the files of the driver you are looking for.
As an example - a custom folder on drive D:, not external media
Confirm the driver reinstallation by clicking “OK” and “Next”. The system will reinstall the Bluetooth driver.
As an example - the same SD card reader, not Bluetooth

After the installation is complete, the system can both find the driver and indicate that it does not need to be reinstalled.

The device works fine and does not need to be reinstalled

If reinstalling the Bluetooth module as a device in Windows did not give anything, follow the instructions below.

But before you move on, do something different: give the problematic device the “Remove” command (and confirm the request by checking the option to remove drivers). It will need to be reconnected, after which the “Update drivers” command is given, and all the steps from this instruction are repeated. After removing the drivers, you may need to restart Windows.

Video: how to reinstall Bluetooth drivers

What to do if your device is hidden

First, open the already familiar Windows Device Manager and give the command “View - Show hidden devices.”

Windows 7 will show hidden and unconnected devices

If the Bluetooth module driver has not been installed (the device is not registered in Windows), the module itself will not appear in the list of hidden ones. Category hidden devices assumes the presence of already installed and previously correctly operating devices.

If the Bluetooth module has been installed, proceed according to the above instructions for (re)installing the Bluetooth module.

Enabling an unused Bluetooth device from the BIOS

BIOS control is useful when you have built-in Bluetooth adapters - typically in laptops and tablets.

Depending on the BIOS/UEFI version, the commands for Bluetooth are different

All commands have been translated into Russian and popularized.

Enable built-in bluetooth adapter from the BIOS is key - without it you won’t be able to do anything with Bluetooth. Therefore, it would be better to start by engaging wireless modules namely through the BIOS. Now you can perform any actions from the previous instructions.

PC system units built into motherboard Bluetooth adapters are not installed - housing system unit shields the Bluetooth signal from all sides, and the range of the module without an external antenna is greatly reduced. Therefore for desktop computers USB module - best solution. The same applies to Wi-Fi adapter, 3G/4G modem, wireless keyboard, mouse, headphones, microphone and similar peripherals.

Hardware failures of Bluetooth modules

In addition to power problems, Bluetooth may fail in the following ways:

Bluetooth module overheating

The speed values for different versions of the Bluetooth radio interface are as follows.

Bluetooth version 2.x uses data transfer rates of up to 1 Mbit/s. Thus, the Dial-Up Networking service used with Nokia smartphones, Siemens and other brands popular in the 2000s. and supporting 3G Internet, allows you to get speed mobile Internet up to 384 kbps. These values fully fit the transmission of high-quality stereo sound to headphones (the MP3 format supports a speed of 128–320 kbps). Now supplanted Wi-Fi technology Direct, which allows you to distribute traffic (and files through a connection via a router) from one smartphone to several at once (point-to-multipoint mode) other gadgets and PCs with multi-megabit speeds.
Starting from version 3.0, Internet speed, communications local network PAN and file sharing via Bluetooth between devices increased to 24 Mbit/s.
Versions of Bluetooth 4.x, as already mentioned, use speeds of 75 and 100 Mbit/s, very close to bandwidth a regular cable LAN connection (Ethernet-100 standard).

Sometimes Bluetooth modules that have a range of 100 meters or more (using a power of 100 mW) overheat and in very weak signal. Barriers to reliable Bluetooth communication include:

shielded rooms and buildings;
the distance between devices is too large (at the limit stated in the data sheet of Bluetooth modules and gadgets);
neglect of directional antennas when establishing communications in the form of RRL line of sight, stretching for kilometers;
poor coordination of external antennas and cables used in Bluetooth modules equipped with a microwave socket for their connection;
other factors.

Other causes of overheating wireless devices(not only Bluetooth):

Operation of wireless modules in the heat, launch of a Bluetooth module supercooled in multi-degree frost in northern conditions.
Strong interference (dozens of Bluetooth modules are connected to one USB-Hub). Like any radio transmitters (as such), like any lines digital communications, these modules interfere with each other. It is recommended to place them as far away from each other as possible. It's the same as placing external antenna a router that distributes the Internet via Wi-Fi, and a Yota 4G modem inserted into the same router, right next to each other - the Internet speed will noticeably decrease, especially if it is available on a SIM card unlimited tariff with very high speed, despite the fact that the 4G tower is in at the moment will be significantly unloaded.

Failures when exchanging traffic between devices

So, you “drive” the Bluetooth module and gadgets to the brink of their maximum throughput. Failures during file and content sharing often occur when sending multi-gigabyte files. Cheap ones often fail Chinese smartphones and tablets, whose performance is not the best. Even if the Bluetooth module and/or the gadget itself are not overheated, stopping the transfer of content can take the user by surprise. Thus, sending a movie in (Ultra)HDTVRip format weighing tens of gigabytes from a laptop to a smartphone can get stuck, say, at some 74%.

The fact is that low-speed memory cards are very common - the writing speed on them is only 5–8 MB/s. Don’t flatter yourself by purchasing a bargain microSD card for 32 GB. If the Bluetooth module in the gadget has a high speed (100 Mbit/s) - and the speed of writing the received content to the SD card is noticeably lower (40–64 Mbit/s), then the transmitted data will not have time to be written to the flash memory. The gadget's RAM will overflow - first its overall performance will slow down, then the receiving gadget will glitch, other applications and processes will freeze, and eventually it will restart abnormally. In turn, the donor gadget or computer will report a failed file sending.

They are struggling with this problem, not without success. iOS developers, Android and Windows Phone/Mobile - included in any of these OS software control high-speed streams in the form of a special system process or service. This allows you to automatically limit the data flow rate if the “receiving side” has problems with the speed of saving it to a file. This approach allows you to forget about annoying failures during content exchange, which were a nightmare for previous generations of wireless solutions.

Virus activity on PCs and gadgets

The essence of the problems that arise when the OS has Windows viruses is that the virus clones some processes (system processes “explorer.exe”, “svchost.exe”, etc.), littering and overloading the performance of the PC/tablet.

Since each of Windows processes consumes so many megahertz of processor performance from each core and so many megabytes RAM, a sharp increase in the number of these processes will lead to the fact that all available peripherals, including data exchange via Bluetooth, will significantly slow down in operation, since the lion's share of hardware resources is spent on what the user does not need.

Antivirus programs are not the only means of protection - it is worth adding to this list for completeness and maximum effectiveness:

So, for example, the list useful programs, protecting a PC or tablet from external intrusions, could be like this:

AdBlock+ plugin for browsers;
cache proxy HandyCache (has its own web content filters);
Windows 8 Firewall Control program (monitors programs and components that consume traffic and allows you to permanently remove unnecessary ones);
free antivirus, such as Avast.

The tips below sum it all up.

Place your modules and devices with Bluetooth in an area of reliable coverage in relation to each other.
If you need to “fill in” long file- charge the gadget, or do not remove it from recharging until the file is transferred.
Free up space on disks and memory cards in a timely manner unnecessary files, if the next file does not fit in the memory of the receiving PC or gadget.
Do not use wireless data transmission in extreme weather, for example, if there is a risk of the gadget or laptop battery overcooling and turning it off.
Do not disassemble the module during operation, do not disconnect cables (if any). First, end the data session between the devices.

Bluetooth shows no sign of losing ground. Version 5.0 will support content sharing speeds of up to hundreds of megabits. And restoring the operation of your suddenly failed Bluetooth device is actually not difficult.

Many, like the author of this article, can for a long time not thinking about a certain problem until its solution becomes necessary. Today I was faced with an almost vital need to transfer a photo from a phone with built-in memory to my work computer in the absence of a USB connection cable and wireless internet. And only at that very moment I remembered the existence of the bluetooth function. I remembered - and was very happy about it.

But what should someone do who has never had anything to do with bluetooth in their life? And how much work will it take to understand how to enable bluetooth on a laptop? The following description will use an HP laptop as an example, but most of the tips will also work for models from other manufacturers.

Is there bluetooth?

Bluetooth (blue tooth) is the nickname of the Danish Viking king Harald I. He became famous for uniting various peoples living in Denmark into one country - exactly where, on the initiative of Ericsson, the development of this digital technology began.

No matter how crazy it may sound, many people try to enable bluetooth on a laptop that is physically unable to support it without an external adapter. To avoid such an awkward situation, you need to make sure that your laptop has a built-in adapter.

How can you tell if your laptop has bluetooth and where it is located? There are several options.

You can search for information about the capabilities of your laptop on the manufacturer’s official website.
You can carefully examine the bottom of the laptop to see if there is a label with the bluetooth brand logo on it, which would confirm the presence of this function. Unfortunately, there was no such icon on my HP laptop.
You can also go to the “Control Panel” through “Start”. There, select the “Hardware and Sound” tab. Next - “Device Manager” (by the way, you can launch it completely intact). In the list that opens, you can easily find bluetooth if your laptop has it.

And finally, the fourth. The most eloquent sign of the presence of laptop bluetooth is a button on the keyboard with the corresponding icon. On an HP laptop, again, there is no such button. But this is the secret - in my laptop the same key is responsible for bluetooth as for Wi-Fi!

Finding the inclusion method

Now that you are sure that you have this option, you need to understand how to enable Bluetooth on a laptop.

We will hope that you have already installed necessary drivers. Otherwise, you will need to download and install them. It is better to do this using the official website of the manufacturer of your laptop, which will not be difficult to find in any search engine.

So, the drivers are available. We find the button on the laptop case that is responsible for turning on bluetooth, and simply press it. If it is a lever, drag it. Typically these buttons are located in the upper left corner. Some laptops are helped with this by the F6 key or the Fn+6 (Fn+F3) key combination, and on some, as has already been said about my HP, the bluetooth and Wi-Fi keys are the same.

If you can’t find the button (or just for variety), you can turn on bluetooth on your laptop manually. To do this, you need to click with any mouse button on the bluetooth icon in the taskbar, which is located mainly in the lower right part of the desktop, and select “Enable adapter”.

Now let's see how to set up bluetooth on a laptop.

Connecting to the device

In order to fully enjoy all the delights of bluetooth on your laptop, you now only need to connect the same function on your phone/tablet. Then click on active icon bluetooth in the taskbar and select "Add device".

If for some reason bluetooth does not work on a laptop and it does not find a new device, it means that the settings of this device are set to invisibility for unpaired objects. In this case, you just need to turn off invisibility (or, accordingly, turn on visibility). To start pairing, you just need to click on the found device and follow the recommendations that you will see on the laptop monitor. This is roughly what awaits you as a result.

Laptops equipped with Bluetooth go on sale, as a rule, with the Blue Tooth adapter disabled: just in case, so as not to jeopardize the information stored on the device. Manufacturers are confident that the user himself will be able to turn it on when he needs it. What if he can’t?

To make working with Bluetooth easier, manufacturers install it on laptops proprietary utilities. When they exist, the task is simplified, but what if there is no such utility or you cannot figure it out? Today I will tell you how to turn on bluetooth on a laptop using Windows and the device itself without using third-party applications.

Is there a “boy”?

The first thing you should make sure of before attempting to enable Blue Tooth is that it is present. The presence of a Bluetooth button/switch on the laptop body is not always a sign that the adapter is actually installed. Equipment manufacturers often indicate in product descriptions that they can change their configuration at their discretion, for example, in order to reduce the cost. The absence of a Bluetooth adapter does not in any way affect the “life activity” of the laptop, so they could easily save money on it.

To find out if your device has a Bluetooth module, you don’t need to disassemble anything. It is enough to inspect the stickers on the case, as well as the packaging and included documentation. The presence of the technology logo indicates that the adapter is installed.

This is what the sticker with the Blue Tooth logo looks like on the bottom of the Toshiba Satellite U500:

If the stickers do not clearly indicate anything, and the packaging has not been preserved, look for information on the laptop manufacturer’s website or ask the support service a question.

Hardware enable adapter

To figure out how to turn on Bluetooth on your type of laptop, take a look at the keyboard and the front and sides of the case. On some models, a switch is used for this - you can recognize it by the Blue Tooth logo icon. On others - a combination of pressing Fn and one of function keys(F1-F12). The symbols on the keyboard will help you determine where exactly to press.

On some laptops, such as the MSI X460 DX, there is a separate key to turn on Bluetooth:

On others, more often, it is combined with the Wi-Fi power button:

After activating the adapter, the “Blue tooth” indicator on the case will light up (if there is one, not all devices are equipped with it).

Driver installation

If after hardware enable Bluetooth still doesn't work, check. Look at the device manager (to get there, press Windows + R, enter the command in the “Open” line devmgmt.msc and click OK). Find the bluetooth adapter in it: it may be in the list " Network adapters", "Bluetooth radio modules" or separately.

If the adapter is not marked with a black arrow or exclamation point in a yellow triangle, it means it is installed and ready for use. If there is an arrow, it is disabled in operating system. To enable it, open it context menu and click " Engage».

A yellow triangle, question mark, or absence from the list of devices indicates problems with the driver - it is either not installed or is not working correctly. Go to the laptop manufacturer's website and download the driver appropriate for your operating system. Install it as normal application and restart Windows.

Turn on Bluetooth in the OS and connect devices to it

Windows 7

Go to Start and click " Devices and Printers».

The window that opens after this will display all devices connected to the computer, including via Bluetooth.

Windows 8.1

Click hot Windows keys+ C to open the Charms sidebar. Click " Options».

Then click " Change computer settings».

Select from the list " Bluetooth» and in the right part of the window, move the slider to the ON position.

Windows 10

Go to “Start” and launch the application “ Options».

Open the section " Devices».

Select " Bluetooth" and move the slider to the "On" position.

In all versions of Windows

After activating the Blue Tooth adapter, it will appear in the folder network connections. Enter it through the context menu of the button " Start" or " Network Sharing Center».

Right-click on the connection and select " Turn on».

Here you can configure the visibility of the computer to other Bluetooth devices, display the icon in the system tray, and notify you when a new device is connected. Open the connection properties, go to the “Bluetooth” tab and click “ Options" Check the boxes that you need and save the settings by clicking OK.

Why doesn't Bluetooth work?

Problems with the launch and operation of Blue Tooth arise for the following reasons:

The function key driver is missing. If you have recently reinstalled Windows, download it from the manufacturer's website and install it.
Improper functioning and interaction of drivers. To solve this problem, first reinstall the driver for the chipset, then for the Bluetooth adapter.
Disabling a service Bluetooth support. Check this through the Services system snap-in.
Sources near the laptop electromagnetic interference(power cables, microwave ovens etc.). Try establishing a connection in another place in the apartment.
Blocking the connection by an incorrectly configured antivirus or other protective programs. Check their settings.
Problems with the operating system, prohibition using local policies security, viral infection. It can be solved depending on the situation, at most by reinstalling the OS.
Mechanical defect of the switch or malfunction of the adapter - contact a service center for repair.

Good luck with your connection!

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How to enable bluetooth on a laptop under different versions of Windows updated: March 22, 2016 by: Johnny Mnemonic