Bluetooth Driver Vanished (Windows 10, Acer Aspire E-series) Aspire E5-573G

Greetings.

Ran into a problem recently. Out of nowhere, my pc was completely incapable of connecting to bluetooth devices. At first, in definitions, the settings froze, then, immediately after, nothing in the settings even opened, so I rebooted the pc, as I usually do to fix when my pc randomly forgets how to connect to wifi. Took a long time, gave me a blue screen in the middle of all that, and when it booted, still no bluetooth capabilities. This time, when accessing settings, there wasn't even a on/off slider for the bluetooth, and on the device manager, nothing related to bluetooth appeared. So, windows 10 apparently completely deleted the driver, and therefore was then unable to reinstall it on reboot. So I'm trying to do it manually, but I ran into a few doubts.

First, several bluetooth drivers appear, and I am unsure which to select, since I can't check anything bluetooth related in the device manager (bluetooth header is not there, and nothing points to bluetooth functionality in the wireless adapters). And checking the system specifications didn't help much either:

Processor: intel Core i5-4210U

Network 1: Realtek PCle GBE Family Controller (IPv4 and IPv6 Off)
Network 2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 Wireless Network Adaptor (IPv4 and IPv6 On) (this one annoys me to no end with the wifi)

There is a bluetooth driver available for each of these 3 brands, and I have no idea which is appropriate. Furthermore, I have no idea how to install said driver manually. Wifi is working fine, so ideally it would be bluetooth only, but I've checked one of the files, and it had different zips for Wifi and Bluetooth only, and inside them there wasn't a setup/executable file.

If anyone has had a similar experience, or is versed enough to give some insight, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thread was edited to add model name to the title

Accepted answers

JackE

Yes, I've seen this happen before when too many BlueTooth devices have been added to the BlueTooth driver list as in image #2 below. Some of the BlueTooth device drivers seem to be held in RAM memory at the same time and are overwhelming the USB bus lines that BlueTooth operation depends on. The bus driver shuts off.

Try this.

(1) Open Control Panel. Search 'button'. Click 'change what the power button do' in left pane. Click 'change settings that are currently unavailable'. (2) Scroll down and uncheck the box for fast startup if not already unchecked.

(3) Shut down Windows normally

(4) Unplug charger

(5) Insert paperclip into reset pinhole on bottom of machine for 60 seconds

(6) Plug charger back in. Turn machine back on.

(7) Test one and only one BlueTooth device again.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/ja/svn5feskljg7.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/kw/mxmywidouxgy.jpg

All comments

JackE

>>>device manager, nothing related to bluetooth appeared. >>>

Click on show hidden devices in the View tab to see if anything shows up.

daffl4l

JackE said:

>>>device manager, nothing related to bluetooth appeared. >>>

Click on show hidden devices in the View tab to see if anything shows up.

Thank you, Jack E.

It did show some hidden bluetooth related tabs, including in the network adapters section. But nowhere does it say the producer, all of them . And clicking on properties on any of the devices (including those paired with the pc via bluetooth) returns a code 45 (hardware not connected to the computer). Could it be not just a driver problem?
It would be weird if the bluetooth adapter suddenly disconnected, since my pc is simply lying on a table. Couldn't be overuse either, I only started using this functionality earlier this year.

Edit: Actually, looking closer, under the Bluetooth Tab, the "Bluetooth USB Module" says the producer is Qualcomm (Atheros). Says the same code 45 (hardware not connected). Should I try to install the more recent Qualcomm Driver provided by Acer for my pc, then?

JackE

You should be seeing red or yellow driver warning symbols in Device Manager when you first open it and show hidden devices. Do you see these symbols?

daffl4l

None such symbols. The only difference is these bluetooth icons are more transparent, rather than in full color like the rest of the icons. But I think this only shows that they were hidden, nothing else. The only symbol I see is under the USB tab (Unknown USB Device), but that symbol is available even before turning on the hidden devices.

JackE

Please post a screenshot of Device Manager as intitially opened if possible with the View tab hidden drivers checked if possible.

daffl4l

If you don't mind the Portuguese (half of the things have either icons or are in english) here it goes. I didn't quite get what you asked for sure, so here's three different situations, for clarity sake.

1. How it is when it's first opened (notice the yellow sign, the only time such a thing appears, before and after selecting hidden devices)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/ll/c0ru0baj8vju.png

2. after choosing to display hidden devices (only now the Bluetooth tab appears)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/cp/ovo8q7keh088.png

3. Bluetooth Tab open (the device selected being the one developed not by Microsoft, but Qualcomm; sorry for the mess with all the added devices)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/12/ekwv712k0xcg.png

If anything else is needed, just say so. And thank you for your continued help with this problem.

JackE

Yes, I've seen this happen before when too many BlueTooth devices have been added to the BlueTooth driver list as in image #2 below. Some of the BlueTooth device drivers seem to be held in RAM memory at the same time and are overwhelming the USB bus lines that BlueTooth operation depends on. The bus driver shuts off.

Try this.

(1) Open Control Panel. Search 'button'. Click 'change what the power button do' in left pane. Click 'change settings that are currently unavailable'. (2) Scroll down and uncheck the box for fast startup if not already unchecked.

(3) Shut down Windows normally

(4) Unplug charger

(5) Insert paperclip into reset pinhole on bottom of machine for 60 seconds

(6) Plug charger back in. Turn machine back on.

(7) Test one and only one BlueTooth device again.

Easwar

Hi @daffl4l,

Here yo can download the driver,

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/IN/content/support-product/5977?b=1&pn=NX.MVMEB.013

JackE

Yes, I've seen this happen before when too many BlueTooth devices have been added to the BlueTooth driver list as in image #2 below. Some of the BlueTooth device drivers seem to be held in RAM memory at the same time and are overwhelming the USB bus lines that BlueTooth operation depends on. The bus driver shuts off.

Try this.

(1) Open Control Panel. Search 'button'. Click 'change what the power button do' in left pane. Click 'change settings that are currently unavailable'. (2) Scroll down and uncheck the box for fast startup if not already unchecked.

(3) Shut down Windows normally

(4) Unplug charger

(5) Insert paperclip into reset pinhole on bottom of machine for 60 seconds

(6) Plug charger back in. Turn machine back on.

(7) Test one and only one BlueTooth device again.

Erick-Acer_Retired

Hi @daffl4l
Could you please tell me full modern name of unit

daffl4l

Sorry I couldn't answer sooner. I'm gonna try JackE's method in the next minutes (completely shutting down, remove power sources and restarting), see if I don't have to mess with the drivers manually.

As for Acer-Erick, the answer is Acer Aspire E5-573G (Easwar had it right in the money). I believe I posted an id number somewhere, but my bad for not specifying the model, I apologize.

Easwar, as I said previously, I just don't know which driver is the appropriate one, since my pc and device manager isn't responding normally. I believe it is (one of) Qualcomm's but I can't risk losing wifi access in this pc, and the driver package doesn't clarify the procedure. A simple txt file from the developers or Acer to help out people who have to troubleshoot manually would go a long way on the accessibility department. This network adapter of mine has annoyed me to no end before (easily the biggest flaw), but the wifi problems go away with a simple run of the mill reboot, and I gave up on manual driver reinstalling precisely because it's so unclear, from a noob's perspective. This one problem with Bluetooth is persistent, the only reason I'm at a loss on how to fix it using window's own mechanisms. Driver installing is totally new ground for me.

daffl4l

The problem seems to be solved using JackE's method. Almost. I forgot to do the reset step (waited 15 minutes instead to turn it on), but I am now able to connect via bluetooth. Tried only one device at first, worked, and then another simultaneously, and doesn't seem to be giving any problems. I assume the pc just needed to full shutdown and be disconected from a power source, and reboot didn't give it that chance.

Device manager now shows bluetooth at open, and no error signs appear in the USB tab. I assume that even if I were to reinstall the driver, that problem could keep the bluetooth functionality from being accessed.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/fu/ujhujgyhfiaz.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/fo/shcmeawgajzq.png

I would like to thank everyone for the support you all have extended. For anyone that might have the same problem, I'll post here again if this becomes a repeated occurrence.

SOLUTION (Credit to JackE, as per his post)

Disabling Fast Startup
(1) Open Control Panel. Search 'button'. Click 'change what the power button do' in left pane. Click 'change settings that are currently unavailable'.
(2) Scroll down and uncheck the box for fast startup if not already unchecked.

Actually Solving the problem
(3) Shut down Windows normally

(4) Unplug charger (I did so, as well as all other electrical connections)

(5) Insert paperclip into reset pinhole on bottom of machine for 60 seconds (Optional, I forgot, but left the pc shut down and disconnected for some 15ish minutes)