Can bluetooth not be supported by a PC at all?

[ChipsDotMp4]

I recently picked up a $25 HP ProBook 4540s from a recycling center to upgrade and use for basic media consumption. Naturally, I wanted to put a wifi 6 supporting card in it to replace the ancient card that came with the laptop. I also noticed that there was no bluetooth device in device manager in Windows 10, but figured the laptop must have just not came with any bluetooth as a cost saving measure. I bought an Intel AX210 Card and installed it, installed drivers and the wifi was working as expected, but there was still no bluetooth device in device manager, even after several driver uninstalls/reinstalls, checking services.msc, etc. Is it possible for a laptop motherboard, pcie interface, etc. to just not support bluetooth regardless of hardware?

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

10 minutes ago, ChipsDotMp4 said:

I recently picked up a $25 HP ProBook 4540s from a recycling center to upgrade and use for basic media consumption. Naturally, I wanted to put a wifi 6 supporting card in it to replace the ancient card that came with the laptop. I also noticed that there was no bluetooth device in device manager in Windows 10, but figured the laptop must have just not came with any bluetooth as a cost saving measure. I bought an Intel AX210 Card and installed it, installed drivers and the wifi was working as expected, but there was still no bluetooth device in device manager, even after several driver uninstalls/reinstalls, checking services.msc, etc. Is it possible for a laptop motherboard, pcie interface, etc. to just not support bluetooth regardless of hardware?

Check the BIOS, Bluetooth might have been disabled there. Most Business/Enterprise laptops will allow you to disable devices more granularly than on consumer stuff (you can disable almost every device like camera, microphone, fingerprint reader, smart card, etc.). I know HP ProBooks and Elitebooks can have Bluetooth disabled in BIOS separately from WiFi, even if it's on the same card because I use them at work and we have Bluetooth disabled. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

32 minutes ago, ChipsDotMp4 said:

I recently picked up a $25 HP ProBook 4540s from a recycling center to upgrade and use for basic media consumption. Naturally, I wanted to put a wifi 6 supporting card in it to replace the ancient card that came with the laptop. I also noticed that there was no bluetooth device in device manager in Windows 10, but figured the laptop must have just not came with any bluetooth as a cost saving measure. I bought an Intel AX210 Card and installed it, installed drivers and the wifi was working as expected, but there was still no bluetooth device in device manager, even after several driver uninstalls/reinstalls, checking services.msc, etc. Is it possible for a laptop motherboard, pcie interface, etc. to just not support bluetooth regardless of hardware?

Its definitely possible, Bluetooth almost always uses USB on WiFi cards and its not mandatory for all miniPCI/M.2 sockets to support it.

 

It would be unusual to not do so, but not impossible.

 

Its also possible of course that the USB port wired into the M.2 slot is broken.

[ChipsDotMp4]

On 9/21/2022 at 6:53 PM, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Check the BIOS, Bluetooth might have been disabled there. Most Business/Enterprise laptops will allow you to disable devices more granularly than on consumer stuff (you can disable almost every device like camera, microphone, fingerprint reader, smart card, etc.). I know HP ProBooks and Elitebooks can have Bluetooth disabled in BIOS separately from WiFi, even if it's on the same card because I use them at work and we have Bluetooth disabled. 

I think Alex Atkin may be correct. When I check the place in the BIOS where others have that option, I have no option. There is no mention of bluetooth anywhere in the BIOS.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

1 hour ago, ChipsDotMp4 said:

I think Alex Atkin may be correct. When I check the place in the BIOS where others have that option, I have no option. There is no mention of bluetooth anywhere in the BIOS.

Yea with HP BIOSes, if it doesn't detect the device or otherwise can't make sense of it, it won't list it in the BIOS. For instance, if your webcam malfunctions or the cable fails, the integrated camera option would just disappear from the BIOS completely. Came across that several times at work and every single time HP warrantied it with a new camera/cable installed. 

[ChipsDotMp4]

On 10/3/2022 at 6:44 PM, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Yea with HP BIOSes, if it doesn't detect the device or otherwise can't make sense of it, it won't list it in the BIOS. For instance, if your webcam malfunctions or the cable fails, the integrated camera option would just disappear from the BIOS completely. Came across that several times at work and every single time HP warrantied it with a new camera/cable installed. 

Hey! Just wanted to update, even though this was posted a while ago- somehow, without any action on my part, I noticed a little bluetooth icon on my taskbar this morning. Lo and behold, the card is now being read completely normally, and I haven’t done a single thing to try and fix it since checking the things you suggested. I guess perhaps Microsoft pushed a driver update or something, I’m pleasantly surprised but also confused as to why none of the things I tried worked.

[Mark Kaine]

a little usb bt adapter for 5 bucks should do the trick,  no additional software required,  Microsoft bt drivers are all that's needed 

 

but i guess it's fixed now anyways,  but yes bt is a built-in windows option,  that can be turned on and off, provided the corresponding hardware is connected/ plugged in.

 

4 hours ago, ChipsDotMp4 said:

I guess perhaps Microsoft pushed a driver update or something, I’m pleasantly surprised but also confused as to why none of the things I tried worked.

yeah, maybe the driver wasn't installed but typically it should be preinstalled (i think)