topic Re: Bluetooth dongle in PCs & Accessories

Bluetooth dongle

TedBear — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 03:08:55 GMT

Been struggling for hours, hope somebody can help. New Sony VGNB3VP, bought an IVT bluetooth dongle because my old data cable for my Nokia 6310i wasn't USB.
Plug & Play installed Microsoft drivers from XP SP2. I uninstalled the program, then renamed the Bth.inf and the Bth.pnf to disable them. Plugged in the dongle again, but although said new hardware found etc, nothing is working on bluetooth....any experience out there? I wouldn't mind even being able to buy a Dongle compatible with the Microsoft drivers, hope someone can help:smileycry:

Re: Bluetooth dongle

William — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 09:10:15 GMT

Not wishing to disillusion you and I truly hope you find a solution.

I had a no-name USB Bluetooth dongle laying around and when I got a Bluetooth enabled Nokia phone I spent many hours trying unsuccessfully to get the damn thing to work on my Vaio desktop.

My laptop has inbuilt Bluetooth and that works like a charm with my phone.

As you mention perhaps someone can tell you a make of dongle that is known to work!

Re: Bluetooth dongle

rich912 — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 10:56:36 GMT

I use a USB Bluetooth dongle with my notebook and have no problems.

The dongle came with a Targus mini optical mouse (AMB01EU) which included a Widcomm drivers CD. The mouse no longer works but the adaptor communicates with all my BT devices including my phone.

I can’t remember the exact installation procedure, but I have a feeling that it was necessary to install the software before plugging in the dongle.

Re: Bluetooth dongle

Exinferis — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 13:54:25 GMT

I bought a Belkin dongle some months ago when I got a Samsung D500. Don't know if the instalation procedure of yours is the same, but I had to remove the Windows drivers and replace with the Belkin drivers included with the CD.

Form what I can remember of the various sites I visited when installing my dongle, Windows drivers don't work well with Bluetooth devices. I don't know if this is a general thing, or if it's only with Belkin products, but I'd recommend you search for the latest driver for your device and remove the Windows driver and add the new, specific driver for your dongle.

Hope this helps! :smileygrin:

Re: Bluetooth dongle

TedBear — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 03:36:54 GMT

Thanks, see replyto Exferis...it's working!

Re: Bluetooth dongle

TedBear — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 03:37:40 GMT

Thanks! see reply to Exferis...it works![:">]

Re: Bluetooth dongle

TedBear — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 03:46:24 GMT

Got it working!
System restore removed the mess! Renamed bth.inf file. Re-installed, unhid phone (important!) and bingo!
It's ddef to do with the pre-loaded drivers in XP SP2, wonder why they have to complicate some things while other bits are so much easier?!
The last bit fooled me, as I was trying to add the Nokia modem, as I had when using dial-up with the data cable, not realising I had to use the bluetooth one, and the Nokia one isn't used at all...once I got the brain round that one ....I'm online!
Thanks everybody for your interest and tips.:smileygrin:

Re: Bluetooth dongle

Exinferis — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:49:34 GMT

Brilliant! Glad you're up and running now!

Personally I hate that Windows always hijacks whatever hardware I'm installing and forces me to use it's naff driver for said device. The manufacturer provides drivers for a reason; they're suited to that piece of hardware! Windows makes installing new hardware such a chore it's unreal!

But still, I doubt much'll change when Vista (or whatever they're calling it this week!) hits the shelves!

Re: Bluetooth dongle

silverwolf667 — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 01:24:03 GMT

I HAVE THE VAIO M1 DESKTOP....WELL ITS A LAPTOP IN A DESKTOP WIERD CONFIGURATION ! (OOPS SORRY ABOUT THE CAPS)......the bluetooth dongle i use is the MSI MS6967. Its rated at 100m but i seriously doubt it. but anyways it works on my vaio with just about any bluetooth device ive tried from keyboards to mobile phones its worked with windows drivers and msi drivers plus over in the uk here it costs about 15.00 pounds so its fairly cheap.......remember though its the 100m model not the 10m model. it works from my lounge through 2 walls and the ceiling to a room upstairs because i use it to transfere files etc to my other pc wich has another msi dongle. so i would say its not a bad dongle at all. and easy to set up. hope this helps

:smileygrin:

Re: Bluetooth dongle

TedBear — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 11:32:41 GMT

Although my Blue Soleil suite is working great with the Nokia 6310i now, at better speed than the Nokia modem, I still haven't figured out how to fax!
This latest post (thanks for the info) prompted me to wonder again about Blutooth accessories which actually use the XP SP2 drivers.
During my frustration with my VTI device, I started looking to buy a new one which would be happy with Windows hi-jacking it, but despite Microsoft and Google searches, I only came up with 'Microsoft compatible'.
I decided that could mean anything, since my device is Ms compatible if the SP2 bth files are disabled.
So while a few of us are on this theme, can any one answer the question, 'is there a Bluetooth device that actually states, >>>>{works with XP SP2 drivers}?:smileyconfused:

Re: Bluetooth dongle

street_spirit — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 22:27:11 GMT

Theres an issue, at least there was with bluetooth and windows XP. Windows XP security doesn't like it or something. Most dongle manufactures have patches for it.

Re: Bluetooth dongle

Exinferis — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 11:18:06 GMT

In my experience, Windows SP2 in incompatable with (what seems to be!) almost every aftermarket piece of equipment NOT supplied by Microsoft!

Example: When I bought my Samsung Q10 a few years ago, it came with a USB Webcam; lovely little gadget that clips onto the screen when the laptop's open. It installed fine with SP1, but as soon as I installed SP2 (on a clean install) Windows kept telling me that it was incompatable and that if I did install it it might kill my computer!!! Talk about scare tactics to force you to buy accessories from Microsoft or their partners!

Don't get me wrong; in my posts it sounds like I hate Windows and Microsoft products. I don't... Well, not all of them! I just really hate someone hundreds of miles away telling me what equipment I can or can't use on my own computer! Bill Gates has made enough money, IMHO and should stop trying to scare people into buying his products all the time!

So, to answer your question, TedBear, I don't think I've ever seen Bluetooth devices that work directly with SP2's built in drivers. That's not to say they're not out there, just that I've not seen them!

Re: Bluetooth dongle

Exinferis — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 12:09:58 GMT

I wouldn't take my last post as gospal; it's just my take on things. I could be completely off the mark, so I stand corrected if anyone can enlighten me!

However, having trawled the 'net looking for various odds 'n sods to upgrade/add to my laptop, SP2 compatability seems to be a major stumbling block. The amount of reviews I've read which have said "(Such and such) is a wonderful piece of kit; but for the fact that it won't install with Windows SP2 drivers..." And so on and so forth!

I don't know, maybe people are just being dim and not reading installation instructions, or not doing what you did and gain advice from people on forums such as this, but there does seem to be alot of problems with SP2. I just hope that the new OS will be a big improvement on XP, because if it's not I'll be tempted to ditch it in favour of Linux or something more stable!

Re: Bluetooth dongle

TedBear — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 12:37:32 GMT

Thanks for that! Big learning curve!