last week the laptop at home would connect happily with the bluetooth speakers.
now, the laptop has forgotten that bluetooth ever existed; there's no icons anywhere, there's no mention of it in the control panel.
wtf?
help please!
ta.
Have you tried turning it off and back on again?
Does WiFi still work? Is there a physical switch somewhere on the laptop to enable / disable the radio features?
Is BT built in to the laptop, or an external dongle?
off and on again, check.
wifi still works.
BT built in.
i can only guess that there's been an update, and a default has been reset somewhere turning the BT chip to 'off'
but i'm a computer moron, so i can't find it...
Do any of the laptop keys have the little Bluetooth rune on them?
Usually on one of the function keys in blue?
good call, i'll have a look...
also, and maybe just so i can remember this later, i'll have a poke around in 'control panel' - 'device manager'.
(now that might sound an obvious place to start, but i am a prize winning chump at these things)
right, i'm back here again.
I'm updating this, as believe it or not, i'm such a massive twonk at these things, that i need little notes like this scattered all over the place, and this is convenient...
to turn on Bluetooth:
control panel - change to icon view - system - device manager
feel free to ignore this, it's mostly for my own (future) benefit...
Or just type devmgmt.msc into the Run/search box
Some laptops even have physical switches for Bluetooth and wifi, check you haven't accidentally moved a slider.
If it still does not work then there is a software power switch where you can turn it on and off. The diagnostics will tell you bt is working, but the icon will be red.