Last week I picked up a new Bluetooth dongle for my laptop in order to use my cell phone as a wireless modem while I was out of town. I ended up picking up a D-Link DBR-120 since I had recalled hearing good things about them (compared to the shitty Ambicom adapter I also have). I was pleased to find that it worked out of the box with the native Windows XP Bluetooth stack included in XP SP2 . The Microsoft stack works well allowing one to avoid all of the hoops necessary to configure and bond two devices when using the Widcomm (Broadcom) Bluetooth stack. Given the choice between the two I would use the Microsoft stack hands down as it provides a nice UI and it actually works – providing a USB like automagical experience when using Bluetooth devices on Windows.
This got me to thinking if it would be possible to make my Ambicom dongle work with the Microsoft Bluetooth stack. After uninstalling the Widcomm drivers I was using and rebooting I found Windows would detect the Bluetooth adapter but complained that it did not have a suitable driver to support it. Fortunately with a bit of Googling, I was able to find a way to make it work simply by altering the contents of the Windows bth.inf file. The info here at Jon’s Guides was pretty helpful to putting me on the right track. To make it work you simply need to add the applicable hardware IDs to the list of supported devices. Once this is done Windows will detect the adapter correctly and load the Microsoft Bluetooth stack. After the drivers are installed Bluetooth support is ready to use – in my case after bonding my Nokia 3650 phone to my PC (using the included wizard) I was able to fire up Nokia’s PC Suite and everything worked automagically.
In case anyone is curious here is how I edited the bth.inf file to support my Ambicom adapter:
- determine the hardware ID of your adapter. This can be done by clicking on the device in the Windows Device Manager and selecting “Hardware IDs” from the Details tab. My Ambicom device had a hardware ID of: vid_0bdb&PID_1002
- once you have determined the hardware ID locate the bth.inf file and make a copy of it
- open up the copy in an editor and scroll down to the Device section
-
select one of the headings (I placed mine under [Belkin.NT.5.1]) and paste in the following:
; AmbiCom Support
Erickson Bluetooth Adapter= BthUsb, USBVID_0BDB&PID_1002I named it as an Erickson Bluetooth Adapter since the chipset in my dongle appears to be made by Erickson.
- Save the file
- Update the dongle drivers to use your newly edited inf file. If all goes well it will detect and install the adapter.
- Enjoy a working Bluetooth stack
To make it easy you can download a copy of the bth.inf file that I already edited here.
I found that MS-drivers really don’t work with my dongle.
In the example above, the “Bluetooth Adapter” installed (or smth about this). Not “Bluetooth Radio”.
“Bluetooth Adapter” – i suppose remained from previosly installation. Maybe when I’ve installed Blue Soleil or maybe when I install drivers using MS Update. I don’t know. But whed i recover previous restore point of Windows XP. There were no “Bluetooth Adapter”.
And was “Bluetooth Radio”, I try to do like MuadDib did. Try to do as pointed at link at mishanya.b post. But every methods give out an Error 43.
Thats all.
Hi, glad Maudbid kicked out his error 43. Hi jon the genius. It still works fine for me. I tried it in vista, when I put my dongle id in some other group, not in belkin. It didnt work. It only work if i put it in belkin. So, plz try with all the groups. Tough job, but hope for the best. Bye………. And also use \ only, / didnt work for me, if you type it yourself.
Hello, Did anyone get a solution to this ISSC dongle problem?
if you got it to work in XP without error code please email overloaded@gmail.com
thanks
BlueSoleil and Vista success!
I finally have Bluesoleil running on Vista without any errors and without any modification of INF files. I just had to clean up my system, download new BT stack, and install by running Setup.exe.
Here are the details.
I found at http://www.bluesoleil.com a new (less that a week old) BT version 5, which is Windows Vista compatible and works with most cards (or at least CSR and ISSC dongles). It also runs on Windows 2000 and XP They also have a version 3.2 that they say is Vista compatible (runs only on CSR dongles). Both versions are free to download and try, 14.99 Euros to buy (about $21 US dollars). I tried both and could get neither to work at first. I discovered that I have the ISSC dongle chip, so I used BS version 5.0.
Then I went to their FAQ page, which informed me to not let Vista load a Bluetooth driver, because it will load the wrong one. Since I had already allowed Vista to do this, before going to Bluesoleil’s website, I had to go into Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Device Manager, find the Bluetooth device, Bluesoleil install.
I restarted the computer to allow it to clear out any registry entries from the old Vista BT stack. The Bluesoleil stack 5.0 which I had previously installed still did not work, so I uninstalled it, then rebooted the computer again to allow the registry to clean itself out.
I next tried to reinstall Bluesoleil 5.0 by running BlueSoleil.msi because this works on many Windows 2000 program installations. The installation did not work.
Then I noticed that there was a Setup.exe file in the download. So I removed the dongle, rebooted to allow the registry to normalize, then uninstalled BS again, rebooted again to clean out the registry. Finally, I installed BS 5.0 by running Setup.exe. I rebooted and then reinserted the dongle.
Success!!!
BS worked great immediately. No windows errors. My BT headset was recognized and paired up easily. I heard sound from my movie DVD playing in Windows Media Player through the headset and was able to record from the headset using Windows Sound Recorder. I could then hear the playback of my voice file through Windows Media Player.
It is too bad that we have to buy drivers instead of being able to just reuse the old ones, but I guess the developers need to make a living too. If I had to rewrite my drivers all the time to keep up with incompatibilites introduced by operating system changes that I had not control over, I would need to be paid for my time also.
BlueSoleil allows you to transfer 5megabytes across the BT link before you have to buy it. This allows enough time to see that it is really going to work for you. I only consumed about 700 bytes in and 700 bytes out while pairing and testing.
This is not a free solution, but it works!
Good luck to all.
Also, while I have not yet tried it, BS 3.2 and 5.0 downloaded from their website is advertised as being Skype enabled.
Sorry, I just found a typographical error in the fifth paragraph of my original post. I mistakenly said:
Then I went to their FAQ page, which informed me to not let Vista load a Bluetooth driver, because it will load the wrong one. Since I had already allowed Vista to do this, before going to Bluesoleil’s website, I had to go into Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Device Manager, find the Bluetooth device, Bluesoleil install.
The end of the paragraph should have read:
… Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Device Manager, find the Bluetooth device, highlight it, and uninstall it, checking the box to delete the driver also. This uninstalls and deletes the driver that Vista loaded (Way Point driver).
I hope this helps.
I checked the Bluesoleil 5.0 BT stack with the ISSC dongle and my BT headset.
It worked fine and I was even able to make a couple of short phone calls using my iConnectHere.com SIPphone account.
So, I went ahead and bought the Bluesoleil BT program and registered it.
Fairly painless. It is working fine and I have made several 30 minute calls with the above setup. I have also watched a movie using the BT dongle/BS5.0/BT headset.
hi everyone!
just a few words here:
- yes some dongles try to imitate a CSR code and so XP de-recognizes them. so you may have a ISSC-type dongle, but it may work for some (with embedded CSR) and not for others.
- to work PC suite with BlueSoleil, do this:
– use ONLY BS version 1.6.1.4 (Google it, you’ll find it, and it’s free)
– first uninstall ALL Bluetooth dongles, PC suite, Nokia Cable driver and PC cable connection
– disconnect any dongle
– reboot, clean registry
– load BS 1.6.1.4 using the setup.exe
– reboot, connect the dongle, let XP load BS drivers (it’ll do that auto)
– load PC suite
– reboot, make sure the dongle is connected, open PC suite
– go to manage connections, select BS USB BT, click configure
– you should be able to connect
– if it doesn’t, make sure your phone is NOT paired, if it is, un-pair it, make sure it’s discoverable (not hidden) and let BS discover again
- lastly, stay away from generic-and-cheap ‘e-bay’ dongles, invest well once, you’ll be happier!
- yes for Vista, BS 3.x is out, download, try the 5MB and then if you’re happy, buy…
hope this settles this thread once and for all and writes the epitaph for some cheap dongles. these cheapsters helped this thread grow…
thanx to Jon, you are great…
Sh… what a piece of sh.. this hardware I tried everyting cambridge, belking all sorts of things
my bth.inf is really fu..ked and is driving me crazy. The blusoleil stack is broken when I try their example it doesn’t even works. This company is so abusive against third partie software that should be demanded for abuse monopolization and cheat to the users. No wonder that there are millionaires. Of course cheating on the persons anyone can do that. On tiop of that when you try to see inside the stack with a debugger they fuck you application. When you aske them about the API no answer. I should burn this piece of hardware and warn everybody around. A boot with strength on top of it is the solution. Or maybe alcohol and a match. Grrrrrrr. Beware they are selling shit from china. Chinese products are usually so shitty. Grrrrrrr.
Sh… what a piece of sh.. this hardware I tried everyting cambridge, belking all sorts of things
my bth.inf is really fu..ked and is driving me crazy. The blusoleil stack is broken when I try their example it doesn’t even works. This company is so abusive against third parties software that should be demanded for abuse, monopolization and cheat to the users. No wonder that there are millionaires. Of course cheating on the persons anyone can do that. On top of that when you try to see inside the stack with a debugger they fuck your application. When you ask them about the API no answer. I should burn this piece of hardware and warn everybody around. A boot with strength on top of it is the solution. Or maybe alcohol and a match. Grrrrrrr. Beware they are selling shit from china. Chinese products are usually so shitty. Grrrrrrr.
sir,
here iam mukesh kumar i need ur help … pla solve my problem.. here i got lenova vista basic laptop, n mobile st is nokia7610…. iam not abl to install the pc suit n ther drivers of my mobile sset… even i hae install the.vista 761 0 nokia .. but still not working out .. i wanna acces ther intecrnet by gprs … so plz advice me wat to do ..
thanking u
urs mukesh
hi i have the mikomi bluetooth adaptor USB\VID_1131&PID_1001&REV_0373.
i need to download the softwear i dont no wear to download this from
Many Thanks Jon,
I’ve tried to find a solution since I’ve bought my ovislink BT usb…without success.
Until I’ve found your webpage!!!
Merci beaucoup!
thanks a lot ! now my ovislink dongle works withou the bluesoleil f… stack.
anf pc suite works fine too !
Thanks for this great advice. Bluesoleil and PC Suite are a nightmare, they work intermittently but I personally wouldn’t waste any more time on them. This solution above is the ONLY way to get this stuff to work, and it’s simple. Thanks for this great information, and FUCK YOU Bluesoleil
Could I have the entire thing zipped up and sent to me by any chance? I had done this (by looking at a similar tut from some other site) and it worked but that was ages ago and now I’ve lost my driver cd
Thanks 
Could I get a precooked driver package?
You have my contact info
Ive been working with/selling on Ebay these ISSC Bluetooth dongles and they are the better ones of the cheap crap. When first using on vista with vista BT stack I get a Error code 43. After a reboot they work fine. I cant comment on XP as I only use Vista a nix. Ive sold thousands of these adapters and not 1 complaint.
I think there are a few differnt issues here causing problems with BT.
#1 – Having 2 stacks/drivers causing XP/vista to get confused so it complains.
#2 – People not editing there inf file properly or editing the wrong one. Need to reinstall the driver after a inf change. Xp wont pick the change automaticly. Maybe also saving the inf as encoded text ?
#3 – Some people have no clue when it comes to computers and blame the hardware/software.
Could any one tell me how to get rid of 5 mb limit in Blusoleil. I got BS 1.6 with my ISSC dongle but the cd has been damaged and also the new versions are more sophisticated.
[b]der adapter hat den namen:[/b] [b][color=red]ACCEL bluetooth adapter[/color][/b]
[b]es ist ein[/b] [color=red][b]ES-388 USB Bluetooth dongle[/b][/color]
chinesisches fabrikat.
ich suche seit wochen nach nem ganz normalen treiber und alles was ich finde ist schrott.
es wird zum tausensten mal die [color=orange]IVT BlueSoleil[/color] software empfohlen, mit der das ding offenbar geliefert wird.
[color=orange]die scheisse funkt auch nicht![/color]
[b]LÖSUNG:[/b]
[color=red]ich habe einfach das nicht erkannte bluetooth gerät im gerätemanager beim Treiber aktualisieren…
auf manuelle auswahl des treiber mit nem GENERIC BLUETOOTH treiber installiert und es geht.[/color]
BlueSoleil ist ein schmarrn, braucht keine sau und kommt mit halben funktionen daher…
man soll also das programm kaufen.
[color=red]ich habe ebenfalls die hersteller firmen angeschrieben, dass ich nen treiber brauche.
- KEINE ANTWORT!!! von keiner sau![/color]
Ich fahre ein [color=red][b]VISTA system[/b][/color] und habe alles versucht.
ich werde das ding in den müll werfen und was gescheites kaufen.
falls jemand nen treiber finden kann und bitte keine diverse software für treiberupdate dedectives und so ein scheiss für 40 dollar oder auch nur 9. das ist alles käse.
wenn eine firma keine webseite hat mit treiber für ihre produkte, dann ist das unseriös und ne abzocke.
meine cd vom package hat überhaupt nicht funktioniert und beim test einer weiteren gings auch nicht mit original installation.
viel glück
Hi
I am having IVT BLuetooth Stack and I use BlueSoleil to connect my mobile with my PC but my Nokia PC Suite does’nt detect it.. I don’t have the File bth.inf in my PC anywhere
Hmmm I think I found a solution…
code 43….
I deleted line in bth.inf in which was my PID and VID. Then plugged in usb BT and let windowd to search for driver…
Then find windows something and no error 43 anymore after restart of computer
hmmm yes but I dont know why this solution works only in 1 computer, compaq d310.
When I try this on other computers don’t work – packard bell easynote….