Dell XPS 1645, Windows 8.1 and Bluetooth

My trusty Dell laptop is still going strong 4 years on. It’s showing signs of being well used - the screen is a bit scratched in places, most of the rubber feet have fallen off and the battery doesn’t last as long as it used to, but it does the job.

Until recently I hadn’t really needed to use any Bluetooth devices, and it was then that I realised that Bluetooth had somehow disappeared. The Bluetooth status light on the front of the case would blink briefly when booting up but then stay off, and there was no Bluetooth icon in the Windows system tray. I’m sure these used to be there originally! A bit of Googling revealed that it was probably upgrading to Windows 8/8.1 that would have disabled it, due to out-dated/incompatible drivers.

I downloaded the latest Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Minicard Application, but after it self-extracted, the installer was prevented from running by the Windows Program Compatibility Assistant. Sometimes you get the option to proceed with caution, but in this case not.. Or so it seemed.

Next, I wondered if I could get newer drivers directly from Broadcom? Well yes you can – from http://www.broadcom.com/support/bluetooth/update.php, but after downloading and running the app it wanted to see the existing Bluetooth device (as it presumably then goes and downloads specific drivers for your devices). But that’s the problem, I can’t get the device working in the first place!

I came across this post - http://www.wiknix.com/solved-bluetooth-device-not-working-in-windows-8/ which at first glance looked like one of those annoying content aggregation sites, but in this case either the site is legitimate, or at least the instructions were valid. To repeat the relevant steps here:

1. Go to C:\dell\drivers\R226750\R226750\Win64
2. Run BtwMM.exe
3. Run Inst.exe

This time, the drivers installed and bingo, I had Bluetooth devices appearing!

Figuring there’s probably a good reason that Windows wasn’t keen on these older drivers, I then re-tried the Broadcom Software Update application.

This time, it detected the existing Bluetooth devices and so could proceed to download and update the drivers to newer versions (that apparently do properly support Windows 8/8.1).

Rebooting, I noticed that now just a ‘generic’ Bluetooth device was listed in Device Manager. Right-clicking on this and choosing Update Driver Software, it then updated the driver back to the Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Mini-card (version 12.0.0.8047)

Device Manager now looks like this (yes, my laptop is named ‘Clarabel’ 😀)

And there’s the Bluetooth icon in the system tray again:

We’re good to go!

SSDT BI Install Logs

A short note for my reference. When you install SQL Server Data Tools – Business Intelligence for Visual Studio 2013, the installer writes a log file to a folder under C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Setup Bootstrap\Log\

Handy if you’re trying to install it remotely or via an unattended install file and need to diagnose any errors.

ADNUG–PowerShell for Developers

I’m presenting at the July meeting of the Adelaide .NET User Group.

If you’re not automating repetitive tasks with PowerShell, you’re probably doing it wrong! In this presentation I will give a quick introduction to PowerShell (including some recommended practices) and then dive deeper into how you can use PowerShell as part of your TFS build process and how you can even host PowerShell in your own .NET applications.

6pm, Wednesday 9th July 2014

Marcellina Adelaide 273 Hindley Street, (Cnr Gray St) Adelaide

($5 for pizza, free if you’re an ADNUG member)

Register via the ACS Events site

Hope to see you there!