Bluetooth not working Aspire A315-21

The Bluetooth of my Aspire A315-21 worked fine for a while, then started to disappear (i.e. I cannot turn it on). Rebooting does not help. Neither does removing the USB device and scanning for new devices.
I have downloaded the latest Intel Bluetooth Driver and Atheros Bluetooth Driver. I have installed, uninstalled, reinstalled both of them to no avail. If I remember correctly, repairing the Intel Bluetooth driver helped once, only once.
I have largely given up and am using an awkward USB Bluetooth adapter to get by. I am posting here just in case someone has had the same issue and found a trick to fix it.

Accepted answers

Hongz

I have finally found a reliable solution. If reinstalling, updating drivers, rebooting the laptop, etc. all fail, the following nuclear option always works:

Device Manager > View > Show hidden devices
Delete everything under Bluetooth.
Install Bluetooth Driver (NFA435) by Atheros.
Reboot the computer

All comments

billsey

What does Device Manager say about the Bluetooth? Does it have any errors or warnings on other devices?

Hongz

There is no Bluetooth item in Device Manager.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/x7/mho3p5j1sxlj.jpg

billsey

You have an unknown USB device. Bring up Properties; Details; Device Instance Path and let us know what it is.

Hongz

Here are some properties. Thanks a lot for lending a hand here.

billsey

In the Events tab, could you scroll down to the end? I believe that top entry if for a Nokia 8 phone... So likely we are looking at Bluetooth.

Hongz

I do not know what happened, but Bluetooth is working at this moment. I have not done anything to try to fix it. I was using a USB Bluetooth adapter all the time. After I unplugged the USB adapter for taking a screenshot of the Device Manager per your suggestion, I found the built-in Bluetooth was working.

This intermittent working happened before. I suspect that it will stop working again.
The dysfunctional USB device seems to have disappeared.

billsey

So we can assume the issue is with that USB device, perhaps one of the Microsoft updates broke it, then another fixed it... That wouldn't be the first time.

Hongz

I have checked the update history but did not see any updates installed in the past few days except regular definition updates for Windows Defender.
I will report back here if the Bluetooth breaks again.

Hongz

I have finally found a reliable solution. If reinstalling, updating drivers, rebooting the laptop, etc. all fail, the following nuclear option always works:

Device Manager > View > Show hidden devices
Delete everything under Bluetooth.
Install Bluetooth Driver (NFA435) by Atheros.
Reboot the computer

George-Acer_Retired

Hi Hongz,

The thread will be closed due to you got a solution for the issue, if you still have problems with your computer, I invite you to open a new question by clicking "Ask A Question" button at the top right-hand side of the site, so the users of the Acer community can guide you.