Bluetooth problems SOLVED!

You may have read my posts in another topic, but here is the final solution to everyone's Bluetooth problems - It works with my 355 module, and it has been said that it works with the 350 module as well, but if someone with that module could please test it and reply with the results, that would be great.

This assumes you have Dell's Widcomm bluetooth drivers installed, or you have no bluetooth drivers installed. If you have some other version of drivers (such as bluesoleil), you should uninstall them before making these changes. If you do have the Dell-provided drivers for the 355 module, don't uninstall - these are simply newer versions of them, and the setup program does detect that Dell's outdated version is installed and it will update it without problems.

1. Download Widcomm v5.1.0.1100 from http://www.sendspace.com/file/bf4jok. There IS a newer version of the drivers (5.1.0.2100) but it did not work correctly with my 355 module and most likely doesn't work with the 350 either, so despite what other people may have said, do NOT get this version, it's "too new".

2. Extract all of the files in the zip archive to a directory of your hard drive, then run Setup.exe. If you have drivers already installed, it will ask to upgrade them. If you have no drivers, it will lead you through the same install wizard that you've seen a million times before.

3. Give it time, the drivers take quite a while to install (on my Core 2 Duo 2ghz). At the end, it will ask you to restart your computer. Do it!

4. When your computer starts back up, you will have the bluetooth icon in the system tray. It will be lit up red even if your adapter is turned on, that's normal. Now you need to get the Widcomm License Patcher 1.8. It is located here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/u9851u.

5. Now run that license patcher. It will have a drop-down menu with many devices in your system - you will want to select your Bluetooth device. I'm not exactly sure what Vendor ID means but don't worry about it, because you can't change it anyway - just click the Save button. It will say that it has been saved.

6. Right-click the bluetooth icon with the red status indicator and click Start using Bluetooth. It will instantly turn to white (or stay red if your adapter is deactivated) and now you will be able to use remote controls, wireless headphones, etc. with your bluetooth adapter!

So that ends this tutorial. These are the exact steps that I used to get my Logitech wireless headphones to work. An additional step, in the case of headphones, is as follows: Click Start, Control Panel, and then navigate to the Sounds and Audio Devices dialog. Click on the Audio tab, and for the drop-downs in the "Sound playback" and "Sound recording" sections, you will have to switch your audio device to Bluetooth Audio or Bluetooth High-Quality Audio. The Bluetooth software did claim to perform these steps automatically when I connected my headphones, but for some reason it didn't, so I had to use those steps to make the change manually. The second time I tried, however, it worked great.

I hope this helps everyone. Mods, you might want to sticky this - I think it is useful, but maybe it's a less common problem than I thought. The Dell tech support person sure hadn't heard of it before, but I can't believe nobody else has the module and wants to use Bluetooth headphones without needing a USB Bluetooth module!

Well it would fix the problems for all users using the E1705 (or other computers) with the Bluetooth 355 module. Dell's driver download has version 5.0.1.2609, the download is here, and that is the WIDCOMM stack. I just now looked at 350, and yes it has the Toshiba stack so I guess that stack is more recent.

Basically, v5.1.0.1100 adds support for Stereo Audio devices (headphones), Hands-Free Audio, sending of business cards, and possibly other things. Also, the 355 module is the only one available for the Inspiron E-series and XPS notebooks, and probably other notebooks, so issues will continue to appear with people who are just buying notebooks and finding that their bluetooth headphones don't work. I'm not sure that this fixes much more than just bluetooth headphone support, though. Maybe it isn't important enough to sticky, it's up to you.

I do see, though, that the Latitude series continues to include the 350 module.

The link to the 5.1.0.1100 driver seems to have broken. If someone can please suggest a good place to upload this 69mb file, I would be happy to upload my copy that I grabbed before the site went down.

And in the meantime, if anyone wants the file just PM me your email address and I will give you a sendspace.com link (sendspace deletes after inactivity, that's why I won't use it as the public download link here).

(I'm so glad I saved the file!! )

At the request of a forum user, I have uploaded the file to sendspace. The URL is http://www.sendspace.com/file/bf4jok and it will stay alive until 7 days of inactivity, at which time it will be removed from their servers (according to their FAQ). So, hopefully this has enough interest that there will be at least one download every 7 days and we can keep it alive for a while.

I would like to add one more note too. When you try to pair with a device, it has a text box for Security Code. Look at the manual for your device and try to find a code, but if you can't find a code then try 0000 (4 zeros). According to the Dell rep that I talked to, that is the common default Bluetooth code. It worked for my headphones.

Glad I could help.

Sorry I didn't get back to you, I had left notebook forums for a while but I think I'll come back.

Trust me, you don't want that file. I don't know what's wrong with it but apparently the programmers messed up because it increases hard drive and CPU activity greatly. It starts out with just a few reads per second when you first start up your computer, but if you leave the bluetooth software running it gets to the point where it makes thousands of reads to your hard drive each second... The hard drive can keep up, but it's audible and probably bad for your hard drive.

I found a temporary fix which is to kill the messed-up thread using the Systinternals tool ProcessExplorer, but I am working on getting the newest WIDCOMM software and figuring out how to make it run on my computer.

I will post a new set of instructions as soon as I figure it out. Until then, anyone who followed these instructions... Well, either uninstall the Bluetooth software, or use ProcessExplorer. Here are instructions on killing the bad threads in ProcessExplorer:
1. open ProcessExplorer, right-click btwdins.exe and click Properties
2. Click the Threads tab
3. For every thread in the list that doesn't start with "btwdins.exe", select it and click the Kill button and kill it.

That will keep the bluetooth driver stable until the next reboot, at which time you will have to do the same thing.

I'm very sorry to anyone who already installed this, I didn't expect it to be so badly written. The reads that it makes are very frequent and greatly increase hard drive activity, which does wear down the hard drive heads and reduce the life of your hard drive. You may have also noticed the fans turning on often; the CPU activity that this induces slows down the computer and creates more heat in the processor, which does make the fans turn on more frequently.

Check back here soon, for I am determined to get a working Bluetooth driver! If not, then I'll write a C++ program that you can set to start up with the computer that will perform those steps above automatically - that would be a fix that I would be fine with! Also, those steps above do not hinder the bluetooth device in ANY way, at least any way that I've found. I have NO idea why it's starting an unnecessary thread but that's just what it does.

Anyway, I'm rambling on. Expect an update within the next few days.

Okay, so here's the update, and the fix. Hang tight; this is gonna be a long post, but please read everything so you don't miss out on any of the information!

I googled for WIDCOMM but it is notoriously hidden and sneaky; I don't want to take the time to figure out what the newest version is, and then figure out where and how to get it, and THEN figure out how to make it work with the Dell Bluetooth devices.
Also, everything works fine with the driver, it's just this bug that gets out of control and causes usages to go way up, so I would prefer just patching the bug instead of reinstalling a whole new driver - "Don't Fix What's Not Broken".

So I went with my plan B - writing a program that starts up with the computer and performs the temporary fix steps (that I mentioned above) automatically. You don't need to have ProcessExplorer installed or anything; it automatically locates the buggy thread in btwdins.exe and stops it until the next reboot. I didn't write it in C++, I chose to write it in Visual Basic .NET because the .NET libraries are much easier to use, at least in this circumstance.

This fix program does not interfere with any of the functions of your Bluetooth device. All of the Bluetooth program features will continue to work perfectly, and you probably won't notice a difference (except your hard drive light won't blink as much and your fan won't be turning on as often - you might notice it, you might not, but this fix DEFINITELY reduces hard drive and processor activity).

The program is attached in a .zip file. I included a executable file, CleanBtwdins.exe, which you should set to start up with Windows (I'll explain below). I also included the source code to the program, so that you can see that I didn't do anything sneaky - no viruses, no spyware - and you can even compile the exe file yourself if you feel so inclined to do so.

A quick explanation of the program - it targets the buggy thread, stops it from running, and then quits itself (it doesn't run in the background after it kills the thread). If the buggy thread can't be found, it will keep trying once every 30 seconds for 10 minutes, and then if it still can't be found it will quit - if it does so, you are probably safe.

THIS PROGRAM SHOULD ONLY BE USED ON THE WIDCOMM PROVIDED IN THIS THREAD. It relies on some assumptions of the Bluetooth driver which probably only exist in this exact version of the Bluetooth executable, and running it with any other Bluetooth version might cause the program to target the wrong thread and make your Bluetooth driver unstable (until next reboot).

I keep saying "until next reboot" because this program does NOT make any lasting changes to the hard drive. It does not install itself in any way, and it does not hook into Windows kernel hooks or modify registry entries. All it does is stop part of the Bluetooth program from running; on the next Windows reboot, the Bluetooth program will start up everything again, including the buggy thread - that's why my program MUST be run on each startup, as detailed below.

Now that I have all of the information out of the way... See the attachment just after the end of this message, download the .zip file, extract it. Now take that CleanBtwdins.exe (the one with an icon that looks like a window) and copy it to this folder: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\
You will have to browse to that folder by first clicking My Computer, then C, then each folder until you get inside of Startup. You will probably already see the Bluetooth icon in the Startup folder. Just drag CleanBtwdins.exe into that folder, and that will cause it to run every startup. Your Bluetooth drivers are now safe!

Oh and I know that sendspace link above long expired...
I have found a site, http://www.uploadwiz.com, that provides hosting for up to 125mb files - the Bluetooth driver is 66mb, so it is perfect. It is better than sendspace because, while sendspace has a 30-day limit, UploadWiz will only delete after 365 days of inactivity - every time one person downloads it, the days counter is reset to 0 (according to the FAQ). I think this thread will probably have been forgotten in a year, so this is plenty of time...
[EDIT] uploadwiz seems to be broken, and would not accept the 66mb file - after uploading, it just went to a screen with the site's header and footer but no confirmation or download link. I didn't even try the other file, it's back to sendspace. [/EDIT]

So, here are download links to the 5.1.0.1100 driver file, and to the license patcher:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/bf4jok
http://www.sendspace.com/file/u9851u

Whew that was a LONG post!!! Hope I've helped some people, and sorry once again for causing this trouble to your systems... But hey, I suffered along with you guys... At least now I have this fix for it. Let me know if there is anything else I can do for anyone.
~Ricky