Windows 7 Lost my bluetooth!

Iggy

New Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2012
Messages
2
I've a DELL E4310 notebook with integrated bluetooth and Windows 7. I have a DELL Bluetooth Travel Mouse. I've been using the two together for a couple of months now. Oddly, about once a week, the two would become disconnected. I'd have to remove the mouse from the list of devices and then re-add before it would work again, for another week or so.

Today the disconnection happened again - unusual because it disconnected yesterday as well. I've come to expect it about every 7 days, so to happen the next day was curious.

Well, today was different. When I went to the list of devices, all bluetooth devices were missing (my ipod and blackberry usually get detected too).

Try as I might, I could not make Windows 7 realize that there was a mouse available (yes the HW switch is in the 'on' position ).

So I checked drivers. Seems my bluetooth driver is out of date, so I downloaded the latest Broadcom driver.

I only get to the second screen when it tells me: An older version of this software has been detected. Please uninstall it and then run the installer again.



I'll be damned if I can figure out what it has detected. I've remove all the bluetooth drivers, disabled services, removed devices, but it's always the same message. I've even checked for other bluetooth installers - nada.

I'm stuck, what do I do?
Ig.
 
It seems like you had an issue with the Bluetooth driver on your Windows 7 system. The error message you encountered when trying to install the latest Broadcom driver indicates that an older version of the Bluetooth software needs to be uninstalled before proceeding with the new driver installation. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you resolve this issue:

Uninstall Old Bluetooth Driver:​

  1. Press Windows Key + X on your keyboard.
  2. Click on Device Manager from the list.
  3. Locate Bluetooth in the list of devices.
  4. Right-click on your Bluetooth device and select Uninstall device.
  5. Check the box that says Delete the driver software for this device.
  6. Click Uninstall to remove the old Bluetooth driver.

    Install the Latest Bluetooth Driver:​

  7. After the old driver is uninstalled, run the Broadcom driver installer again.
  8. Follow the installation prompts until you reach the error message.
  9. When you see the message asking you to uninstall the old software, close the installer.
  10. Now, go to Control Panel > Programs and Features.
  11. Locate the old Bluetooth driver software in the list of installed programs.
  12. Right-click and select Uninstall to remove the old Bluetooth software completely.
  13. Restart your computer after the uninstallation is complete.
  14. Run the Broadcom driver installer again and proceed with the installation. Following these steps should help you update your Bluetooth driver successfully without any conflicts from the older version. Let me know if you encounter any issues during the process.