My bluetooth has suddenly vanished

cns00 · 11 Oct 2023

The bluetooth on my Alienware 17r5 laptop which has Windows 10 build 22h2 has suddenly vanished. The bluetooth driver is gone and I have an unknown usb device which gives an error message which says "unknown usb device descriptor request failed". I restarted the laptop, I uninstalled that unknown usb device and I downloaded the bluetooth driver from the Dell website and I installed it. The unknown usb device which gives an error message is still there. The bluetooth troubleshooter said that I don't have a bluetooth device which is wrong.

I found this Bluetooth Missing? How to Fix Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed) - Netcruzer TECH - YouTube. I have the exact same problem and I tried the same troubleshooting steps which didn't work. In 1:37 the guy said delete all the drivers under universal serial bus controllers. https://i.imgur.com/0wK51jG.png is what I have under universal serial bus controllers and I did show hidden devices. I am unsure which drivers I have to delete because I am using more devices than the guy in the video.

I know that I have to delete the active extensible host controller driver. Should I also delete the hidden one? What else should I delete?

Also the first comment of the Youtube video said that I have to unplug the laptop charger and then shutdown the laptop after I uninstall the drivers and then I have to wait for a few minutes before I switch on my laptop. Is all of that really necessary? Can I just restart the laptop after I uninstall the drivers?

Hearsepilot · 11 Oct 2023

I'd delete all the hidden stuff first as a test, it may have faulted and got deactivated by windows then come back and blitz the remainder if that wasn't a cure. I've never unplugged a battery or waited any longer than it took me to visit the kitchen for a drink reload.

hroldan · 13 Oct 2023

It depends on your specific hardware and drivers, for hardware testing, your might want to boot from an alternate OS, perhaps another copy and drive with Windows, or Linux, this, to discard pure hardware failure.

As for Windows + Bluetooth vanishing or just "malfunctioning" at hardware level: I've been there many times with different Wifi+Bluetooth cards. Basically, some are not compatible with newer versions of Windows, or fail after some updates; or... your Windows update messed up the previous driver configuration.

Take this in count for future reference, it might come handy. In past hardware configurations I used DEVCON, and created a script to disable and then enable the hardware, this would bring back the Bluetooth functionality like 95% of the times. At the end of my journey I just removed the WIFI+bluetooth card with a more compatible one (and yes, I had a few that went nuts after Windows downloaded some update), I still have a box with several of those wifi+bluetooth adapters that I discarded (working perfectly with older software).