W530 and Windows 8: Bluetooth not running

[bendamon]

Hi,

I have various issues after installing Windows 8 Pro 64 (clean install) on my W530.

Aside from the device Manager showing 4 unknown devices, I by all means cannot get Bluetooth working. Neither BT devices nor the BT Adapter itself is detected. When I try to install the latest Windows 8 "ThinkPad Bluetooth Enhance Data Rate Software", setup will quit stating there's no BT adapter.

Fn+F5 doesn't work either (nothing happens), even though I have the hotkey Feature installed. Bluetooth is enabled in the BIOS.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Ben

[Neil]

Either install and run System Update for Win8, or manually install the missing device drivers.

[bendamon]

Hi,

of course, I already did all that. Lenovo System Update won't find anything new, and the BT Driver cannot be installed, see my post.

[Neil]

I thought your original post said you couldn't install "ThinkPad Bluetooth Enhance Data Rate Software". I figured the reason the software wouldn't install is because drivers were missing. After re-reading the original post...that still seems to be the case.

Does the bluetooth device show up in device manager? If not, it's probably because it is one of the 4 unknown devices for which you need to install drivers.

[bendamon]

(Still unsolved):

Hi Neil,

I thought that the software mentioned above actually would include the drivers. I cannot find any other drivers in the "Bluetooth" section of the Lenovo W530 drivers page. Any idea what I need to install?

UPDATE:

Well. It seems that the "ThinkPad Enhanced.... Software" does indeed include the BT Drivers (and still can't be installed). I tried to download and install the "Broadcom Bluetooth 4.0 Driver" (even though listed for other models, see http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloa ... D=DS031759), and the setup and failure is the same.

[Neil]

Did follow closely the 12 installation steps in the Readme file associated with the driver in your link?

[bendamon]

Hi,

yes I did. After all, they just explain how to download the file and start a setup. It's not that kind of problem. It must have something to do with the fact that also Fn+F5 is not working. Somehow, on a hardware level, Bluetooth seems not be "powered on" or something (even though it is in the BIOS), and so the driver setup doesn't find the BT Adapter.

[silviuk]

Hello,

I have registered just to post the solution to this problem, if anyone is still interested.

1. Create a bootable USB stick with Ubuntu Desktop 32 or 64 bits (say 12.10 or the latest). I suggest using LiLi USB Creatorhttp://www.linuxliveusb.com, it takes care of everything (5-10 minutes).
2. Boot from the newly created USB stick. Choose "Try Ubuntu" when asked.
3. Go to the upper right corner and click the user icon. Choose "System Settings". A Control Panel-like window appears.
4. No go to "Bluetooth" and enable it by dragging the slider to the ON position (until it lightens up).
5. Reboot you computer into your Windows 8 installation and install the Lenovo Bluetooth drivers (I recommend ThinkVantage Update, but you can also download it from the Lenovo website).

That's all. Good luck!

[SirVerissimo]

Thank you very much for the workaround.

I had the exact same problem with a Thinkpad Edge 15 and now windows 8 has found my bluetooth device.

Thanks again.

[Caleb9]

This workaround doesn't work anymore with Ubuntu 13.10. The ON/OFF switch keeps snapping back to OFF. Use Ubuntu 12.10 to make it work.

[sdapkniht]

I confirm that the silviuk's ubuntu 12.10 solution fixed the bluetooth problem on Lenovo B590, windows 8 64bit.
I hadn't been able to turn the bluetooth switch on in PC settings, wireless. It was switching back to off every time.
I installed new Broadcom Bluetooth 4.0 driver from Lenovo site, but that didn't help, and the bluetooth switch became grayed.
I deleted the broadcom bluetooth device from device manager, cold rebooted, and the device didn't appear in the device manager after that. The bluetooth switch disappeared too.
I made a bootable stick with Ubuntu 12.10 LiveCD iso, rebooted into Ubuntu, turned bluetooth on (it did find my other devices), rebooted into windows 8, and the device was in the device manager, as an unknown device.
I updated its driver and after a reboot the bluetooth switch was working and I could see my mobile devices.

[lele007]

Hello silviuk,

You registered on this forum just to suggest a solution, well I registered just to thank you.

I'm not a computer person, but because of your simple explanation, I followed all the steps and my Bluetooth on a T61 laptop is back! Whoever thought a lawyer could learn how to boot linux from a flash drive to reset his wireless radio, all in one morning? Phew!

Thanks to all for your priceless and free help.

Now, to flash my BIOS with the middleton update...

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the Forum.
Nice to hear you got it going!
For Middleton's BIOS, go here: http://ali.dj/blog/sata-ii-support-for- ... 61-x61-r61
Their links are regularly updated! (the original links are mostly dead...)