Acer laptop - bluetooth problems

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lucky1979

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#11439 23-Jan-2007 14:47

I purchased a laptop (Acer Aspire 3100), and since there were no bluetooth drivers installed, I downloaded them from the Acer website. I entered my laptop specs and was directed to the WIDCOMM 5.0.1.1500 driver that I installed. When I click on the blue/red icon in the tray it says "Bluetooth device not found." The desktop icon doesn't work. When I click on the icon in the control panel I get the following error message: "Bluetooth device not found. Please verify that your Bluetooth device is properly connected and turned on."

I've been trying to install a Kensington bluetooth mouse following the instructions precisely and am having absolutely NO luck at all. I'm wondering if I downloaded the appropriate drivers or what else I could possibly be doing wrong. Somebody please help!

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BDFL - Memuneh
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Geekzone

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#58608 23-Jan-2007 14:51

Welcome to Geekzone... It sounds as though you need the Bluetooth adapter on your laptop. Simply having the drivers is not good enough, if there's no Bluetooth hardware on your PC.

If there's no Bluetooth adapter on your laptop's specifications then you should remove the Acer driver, purchase a Bluetooth adapter (USB is the most common form factor) and install the software from its CD before inserting the adapter.

lucky1979

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#58623 23-Jan-2007 16:16

Freitasm, thanks for your reply. I guess I should have mentioned that my laptop is suppose to have the hardware...well, it was advertised to have the hardware. I'm by no means a computer genius, but I know enough to get around...can you direct me somewhere on my laptop to help establish if I have the hardware?

freitasm

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#58643 23-Jan-2007 19:11

Systems sold as "Bluetooth Ready" do not come with Bluetooth. If you are sure the machine has got Bluetooth hardware, I suggest you look for the Bluetooth key on your laptop. Bluetooth is OFF by default, and you need to use a switch or a key combination to turn it on.

I have an Acer Ferrari 5000, and on this model there's a sliding switch in the front, next to the Wireless LAN switch. In some models you have a button, or a combination such as Fn + [other key].

After you find the proper combination you will see if Bluetooth is working by trying to use it as before.

speedtek

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#60336 10-Feb-2007 13:37

I have the same problem, when I flick the bluetooth switch on the front of my laptop it says "no device" on the screen. I installed the same drivers and software that you did and the laptop found all kinds of hardware from audio to networking, but for some reason nothing will connect or turn on. I noticed all the ACER laptops on the store shelf are exactly the same. This laptop is supposed to have bluetooth, it was one of the reasons I bought it....now why the heck doesn't it work?
Mine's an Acer 5050-5554

rscole86

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#60337 10-Feb-2007 14:00

As Freitasm said, notebooks marketed as bluetooth ready, do NOT have bluetooth hardware already installed.

The acer AS3100 has bluetooth as an optional extra according to acer's website. Which means it will have been marketed as "bluetooth ready".

http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/as3100.htm

The acer 5050-5554 states that the specs may vary, meaning for soem markets they may have decided to not include it?

An easy way to tell is to do as Freitasm stated, or try looking at your network connections in the control panel. If bluetooth is listed then you are going to have bluetooth connectivity.

speedtek

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#60340 10-Feb-2007 15:11

Bluetooth devices was listed in my control panel from day one as well as the actual hardware switch on the front of the case. When I open up bluetooth devices in the control panel, select options and attempt to turn "auto discovery" on (apply), I get the following message:
"an error occured while windows was saving your settings."
After I installed the Widcomm driver my laptop did an auto discovery of new hardware and found bluetooth audio, high quality audio, and bluetooth networking device (which disappeared on reboot for some reason). Now I also have a listing in device manager under bluetooth devices called "bluetooth bus enumerator". Like I said, everything I read on this laptop prior to purchase said that it actually had bluetooth, not just bletooth ready. I guess it just doesn't make much sense to me to install all the outlying peripherals and capabilities yet leave the guts of the system out, why would they do that? It is becoming painfully obvious that it may actually be the case however. I would be interested in hearing if anyone has dug into this deeper. I took the bottom panel off the notebook and checked out what was attached and I found the wireless module as well as a modem module, but it doesn't look like there is anything else. Any ides what bluetooth plug in modules would work with this unit?

lucky1979

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#60343 10-Feb-2007 16:30

Speedtek,

I understand how annoyed you are. I've been regretting the purchase of this laptop because I feel like Acer really pulled the wool over my eyes. I'm not sure if you and I have the same problem, but it appears that (unfortunately for my situation) Freitasm and Rscole were right. I contacted Acer customer support and here's what I got from them:

"Although there is a button on the notebook for Bluetooth, Your notebook models that ship in the US and Canada does not ship with a Bluetooth module on the motherboard. Therefore it does not support Bluetooth as it ships. In order to get Bluetooth, you will need to purchase a third party device such as a USB to Bluetooth transceiver, or other external device that provides Bluetooth capabilities. These type of devices are available at most computer shops that sell options and accessories for notebook products. Acer America does not offer an update to Bluetooth on systems that did not ship with Bluetooth from the factory."

Hope this helps.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

speedtek

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#60344 10-Feb-2007 16:34

that's exactly what I needed to know. Yeah it would seem that Acer is doing a real bait and switch with this one, very lame.
Oh well, overall I am very impressed with the laptop as it works well for my purposes...I guess I will buy that Billionton Bluetooth PCMCIA adaptor after all. Thanks for the info.

shupack

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#61460 21-Feb-2007 16:07

what's the icon for scowl??

I have an acer travelmate 2480, advertised with bluetooth. I don't remember if it was installed or "bluetooth ready" in the add.

When I first got it the bluetooth light by the switch would blink randomly, so I assumed it would work. I bought a MoGo bluetooth mouse and cannot get it set-up. now when I hit the slide switch I get "no device" there's nothing in device manager.

I bought the laptop in November and think I paired it with my phone, then in the acer power settings I turned off the bluetooth to save battery on a long flight. While it (bluetooth) was turned off I ran the restore disk because of erratic operation otherwise. just doing wierd things. it works great now but the bluetooth radio has disappeared. not in the power settings or device manager.. am I nuts??

I can't find a bluetooth symbol on the bottom, what does a BT radio look like inside?

professionalnet

19 posts

Geek

#63425 12-Mar-2007 02:02

I have an Acer Aspire 5100 that came with XP MCE. After upgrading to windows vista ultimate, I found out i didn't like it too much. So I did a clean install to Windows XP SP2. Now I have to get all of the drivers back. Before my clean install I could push the switch on my laptop and it would show an OSD stating I had no bluetooth devices around. After the clean install, I went to the Panam Acer's website and downloaded all seventy-some megabytes of bluetooth driver to my computer. During the installation it told me that I did not have any bluetooth devices. After playing with the BT switch on the front of my laptop for awhile, I just clicked cancel on that dialog. After the restart I still do not have any BT hardwire identified. Not only that but it dosen't look like how it came orignally. Now it has the tray icon, the desktop icon, etc. And now I look just like the icon on this reply. Any ideas?

speedtek

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#63426 12-Mar-2007 03:19

If you install the bluetooth software and drivers, it will go through a detection process and find bluetooth hardware. You will even end up with the icon in the tray, unfortunately it is all meaningless as the TX/RX module is not there so any bluetooth capability (which the motherboard does have) is completely useless. Just uninstall the BT drivers and software and the tray icon will go away. It doesn't affect anything being there, but there really isn't any point in wasting any resources on it.

professionalnet

19 posts

Geek

#63428 12-Mar-2007 04:54

error generated from setup: "No bluetooth device was detected. Please make sure that your bluetooth device is plugged in properly and click 'OK' to continue installation. Click 'Cancel' to continue installation without the bluetooth device." I can keep pushing ok as long as i want to and it will constantly stop at that message. Yet I can click cancel and it will install it. After the reboot, the bluetooth device won't work. When the laptop came from Acer though before I did the clean install my bluetooth worked. So i know it's not because of the 'bluetooth ready" marketing trickery.

It's bad that i'm a cisco certified PC technician and I have no clue about both laptops and bluetooth:(

shupack

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#63429 12-Mar-2007 05:10

I finaly got an email from Acer on Friday, the radio is not there on most units shipped to the US. when you hit the switch and it said "no device" it meant no bluetooth radio in the laptop NOT no device in range...

I got the same errors when I installed the drivers, because there's no radio in there.

You say it worked, had you actually connected to a BT device prior to scramming it out?

Is it possible to buy an aftermarket BT radio and install? I hate having a dongle to lose in my bag.

speedtek

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#63430 12-Mar-2007 06:28

I bought a billionton bluetooth PCMCIA card and it works like a charm. The nice thing about it is the antenna is integrated in the card and is almost flush on the side of the laptop. Good for 100m range and does everything I need it to do
http://www.boteq.com/images/pcbtv2c1c.jpg

shupack

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#63432 12-Mar-2007 07:03

that would be great, but I have a MoGo mouse, that rides in the PC slot, and my Acer only has one slot....

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