So I spent hours yesterday trying to figure out which bluetooth adapter I had. The shell of my adapter was broken, so all I have is a PCB board stuck to a USB connector. Suddenly I remember the bluetooth software I used was something called Widcomm (which apparently is now purchased by Broadcomm), but they didn’t have any drivers/software available to be downloaded. So I searched for Widcomm software and tried a whole bunch and none of the worked.
A couple hours later (I was watching Numb3rs in the meantime – interesting show), I figured out I had a TRENDNet, but I forgot the model number, but BTW-101 or BTW-102 sounded familiar and both had one that looked like mine. Inside both of those models, were different variations. Unfortunately, I didn’t heed the “please reboot this machine” advice and wasted another few hours on it. Drivers weren’t getting installed; software wouldn’t load; software having scripting problems; software couldn’t find the bluetooth adapter; etc.
The reasoning I didn’t want to reboot was I was watching Numb3rs through my Xbox 360 (new TV shows and movies are now LIVE and available to be downloaded and rented through Xbox Live Marketplace) and the audio goes through my soundcard and when my computer reboots, there’s this 30 second gap where no audio comes out.
Also, I had no idea which model/version my adapter was. Finally, I remember there was a backup/system restore point with the driver .inf file. I did a quick diff and found the matching version. Did an uninstall, reboot, and re-install, and now it all works beautifully. I had gotten a new bluetooth adapter from FifthUnit.com called JAGGA, but the software that came with it didn’t have syncing capabilities, a really bummer, and I didn’t have a chance to reinstall the old bluetooth adapter till now. Well, what really prompted me to do it was the fact that Saran called me and his number was in my Outlook contacts list, but not on my cell phone yet. I didn’t want to enter his name manually and went through all this trouble to get my bluetooth syncing to work again.
What’s interesting is that I realized, each bluetooth adapter has their own software for connecting and synching, and there’s no central software for bluetooth on Windows XP. If there is, not many manufacturers are using it.