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Bluetooth and me being dumb

The CatThe Cat Registered User, ClubPA regular
edited May 2008 in Help / Advice Forum
Okay, so my laptop has a special bluetooth button, and so presumably its geared to use the system, but when I hit it it says "No Bluetooth Device". Question: will I actually need some kind of dongle/card/magic spell, or just some software to take advantage of it? I just want to be able to do file transfers to and from my phone without plugging it in to the machine.

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The Cat on

Posts

  • SamuraiRockSamuraiRock Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    It's possible that your laptop doesn't have bluetooth, because for example, it might be from a range of laptops that all have slightly different hardware configurations, but all use the same chassis. My laptop has a WiFi button, but it doesn't do anything coz there's no WiFi card in it.

    Alternate explanation: your laptop DOES have bluetooth but it's broken. This could be because of drivers going bad, or the card itself being busted, knocked out of place, etc etc...

    I'd say, go to the manufacturer's website and look up your model, and see bluetooth is listed as a feature. If it isn't you're out of luck :( . If it is listed as a feature, while you're there you can grab the latest drivers for it, install them, and see if that makes it work.

    edit: and then if it's still busted/you don't have BT, you can buy a dongle.

    SamuraiRock on
  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Could be a missing feature, but also could be that most laptops are expecting to use BT for network connection; ie, it's looking for a phone to use as a modem.

    I'd try turning Bluetooth on your phone, than pair or search for devices. If it finds your laptop, it shoudl be good to go.

    MichaelLC on
  • ViolentChemistryViolentChemistry __BANNED USERS regular
    edited May 2008
    The Cat wrote: »
    Okay, so my laptop has a special bluetooth button, and so presumably its geared to use the system, but when I hit it it says "No Bluetooth Device". Question: will I actually need some kind of dongle/card/magic spell, or just some software to take advantage of it? I just want to be able to do file transfers to and from my phone without plugging it in to the machine.

    Well, the first time you do it it's actually a bit of a pain in the ass. You have to turn on both the computer and the phones bluetooths, make sure they're set up so they can see and be seen by eachother, and then tell them to find eachother. Then you need whatever software your phone wants to do file-transfers. Sadly it's the sort of thing I'd have to see in front of me to figure out step-by-step because interfaces vary, and when I Bluetoothed into my phones guts I did it from a Mac.

    ViolentChemistry on
  • The CatThe Cat Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited May 2008
    its a bit confusing, actually. The bluetooth logo is on the PDF, but not in the specs list. Maybe it needs a PC card or something. Cusses. I tried the phone trick too, no go.

    The Cat on
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  • ViolentChemistryViolentChemistry __BANNED USERS regular
    edited May 2008
    Well, the easiest way to check whether bluetooth hardware is even in the machine would probably be to look for it in the device manager or maybe network connections, I'm not sure exactly where Windows puts it, but it's under Network Connections on this thing.

    ViolentChemistry on
  • The CatThe Cat Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited May 2008
    pffft, you and your logic. Nope, can't see anything that says bluetooth there.

    The Cat on
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