bluetooth greyed out?!

I am having a similar issue. I installed 10.5 on my MacBook on Friday. Bluetooth worked fine until this evening. No the Bluetooth Icon on the menu bar is grayed out with a jagged line across it. When I click on it, it says "Bluetooth: Not Available"

When I go into Network System Preferences, select Bluetooth, and click on the Set Up Bluetooth Device buttons I get a message that says, "No Bluetooth Hardware Found In order to use this application, you must have a Bluetooth module. Please verify that your Bluetooth hardware is properly attached to the computer."

In System Profiler when I select Bluetooth it says "No Information found." It is like my Bluetooth just vanished.

You tried those steps, posted here before by mathew98(?):

1. Make sure you have bluetooth built in and the device has batteries installed. If you are not sure if you have bluetooth then go to System Preferences under the Apple Logo and determine if you have a Bluetooth Preferences Pane. If not then you may not have bluetooth or it may be absent due to a Power Management Issue. If you suspect you should have bluetooth and it is not listed or if you are sure you do have bluetooth or have been using bluetooth all along and your batteries are new then move on to the next step:

2. Be sure it is not an issue with other "new", "old" USB devices: Unplug all USB devices and restart. If the problem still exists then move on to the next step:

3. Repair your disk permissions. Go to Applications/ Utilities / and double click the DIsk Utility application. Once open select your start up disk and perform the Repair Permissions. Restart the computer. If the problem still exists then move on to the next step:

4. Delete the preferences file for Bluetooth. This is found either in the main Library folder or the Users Library folder. ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth or ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist Once deleted, restart the computer. If the problem still exists then move on to the next step:

5. Reset the PRAM on your device. Shutdown the computer and hold down the Command, Option, P, and R keys while Restarting your computer. If the problem still exists then move on to the next step:

6. Reset the Power Management System. Do this by shutting down your computer. Then unplug the Laptop. Take out the Battery. Hold the power button down for 5-10 seconds. Plug the Laptop back in and also the Battery. Restart the computer. Once bluetooth is established plug back in the USB devices.

This should fix the problem. Turning on the computer or shutting it down as well as changing Batteries and waking from sleep, et.c all access the Power Management System and may cause problems with the built-in bluetooth module. Reseting the system should fix this problem.

Graefe

Try rebooting first. If that doesn't help, I would agree that an SMC reset (system management controller, a.k.a. the power management hardware) would be a good next step.

Failing that, though, Bluetooth in the MacBook is really a USB device under the hood. Does it show up in the USB device list in System Profiler? You should see five USB busses on the MacBook, and it should be attached to the fourth one.

If it is showing up in System Profiler, try forcing a flush of all the KEXT caches and stuff by rebooting once with the shift key down (safe boot), then rebooting again.

Thanks for the help. I never got to use the suggestions though. I got up this morning and opened the MacBook to find Bluetooth was working. I did turn the Airport on and off to try to fix a network issue with my wireless network. It was after I toggled the Airport that I noticed the Bluetooth was functioning and back in my System Profiler.

Not sure if it was the Airport or maybe the power management system that got nudged when I woke from sleep that did it. But when it goes out again (I have a feeling it might) I will try both and report if one fixed it.

Maybe I just need a rubber chicken.

Have you checked the Bluetooth signal checkbox in System Configuration -> Bluetooth?

Graefe

Sorry, 'System Preferences'. (I am working with a localized version of 10.5)

Graefe