Level 1

5 points

Suddenly... No Bluetooth Hardware Found

Two days ago I began using a Magic Mouse with my early 2009 MacBook, it worked like magic. Tonight I used it at a friend's house, put it to sleep and when I returned home it seemed it had "forgotten" it had Bluetooth. When I attempt to open the Bluetooth File Exchange, I get:

"No Bluetooth Hardware Found — In order to use this applicatino you must have a Bluetooth module. Please verify that your Bluetooth hardware is properly attached to the computer."

There is no Bluetooth icon in System Preferences and when I attempt to get to the Bluetooth preferences via Spotlight I get:

"You cannot open "Bluetooth" preferences pane because it is not availible to you at this time. — You might need to connect a device to your computer to see this preferences pane."

The closest I've come to this in the threads is Bluetooth mice not responding after waking from Sleep, but nothing about Bluetooth "dissappearing" altogether. I tried a simple restart, but I'm not sure where to go from here. Any help?

MacBook (unibody), Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Dec 20, 2009 12:04 AM

28 replies

Apr 23, 2010 10:23 AM in response to Barry Hemphill

Hi Barry,
I am having the same issue and I tried all of the above and still have no luck geting my BT back. Also I had the magicprefs and uninstalled thinking that may be the problem and still no luck. Do you hve any suggestions.

bnoer

Level 1

0 points

May 15, 2010 5:20 AM in response to bluetooth help!

I have a similar problem. Mine says that "No Bluetooth Hardware Found". I was using my mac bluetooth keyboard and a mac approved mouse when I hit a key on my keyboard while in Windows I lost the ability to use either keyboard or mouse, so I restarted to the MAC side and tried to rediscover them and that is when I kept getting the no hardware found error. I reset the PRAM but can not locate the .plist file it does not exsist on my computer. How else can I get the bluetooth to work?

bnoer

Level 1

0 points

May 15, 2010 5:30 AM in response to bnoer

Ok so further reading I found someone who posted a tech from Mac had them reset the motherboard using this "Turn powerbook off (or any mac computer), press 'shift, ctrl, alt and the power button' this will reset your mother board" after doing this my Bluetooth icon returned and my keyboard and mouse worked again. Hope this helps someone 🙂

oriface

Level 1

4 points

Jun 8, 2010 5:30 PM in response to bnoer

I have also been having Bluetooth problems. After following instructions on ifixit i replaced the bluetooth circuit with a second hand one from a mates dead Macbook. Things looked good and i had bluetooth back. Then the bluetooth symbol started coming in and out again intermittently.

The best solution i have found has been to hit my 2006 macbook core 2 duo near the power switch. The bluetooth symbol looses its cross and things return to normal. I never tried hitting the macbook when the old circuit was in but i suspect it would have also fixed it temporarily. For me the problem seems located in the hardware. Deleting plists worked as well for me as crossing my fingers. I am afraid i am developing an abusive relationship with my once beloved macbook. Can anyone help?

Jim Mooney

Level 4

1,585 points

Jun 27, 2010 8:18 AM in response to imladenoff

Shutdown computer. Removed the battery in the laptop for 10 seconds. Reboot holding command option p r down until the gong noises strikes twice.

Let machine boot up and turn your mouse on.

My computer last night had a dark but lit screen, nothing but black in the window and would not wake up. Had to hold the power button down and rebooted. When it rebooted, the mouse would not work. Went to the bluetooth and it said it did not exist. I zapped the pram and that did not help. So pulled the battery thinking something was lieing to the machine about the bluetooth. Complete battery pull and wait worked.

Whew, thought I lost my bluetooth. Hurray it's back.

justin n

Level 1

0 points

Jun 29, 2010 8:24 AM in response to imladenoff

I am having the same problem with my MacBook Pro. I deleted the Bluetooth preference file and rebooted. Nothing. The file is now gone and rebooting didn't recreate it to the system default prefs like its supposed to.

Next I reset the SMU and rebooted. Still nothing. Still no pref file, no Bluetooth pref pane and the system profiler shows "No information found." under the Bluetooth tab.

Finally, I reset the NVRAM and rebooted. Once again, nothing! Is there a software patch or firmware update that will fix this issue? Should I just crack open the case and check out the Bluetooth module for loose connections, or maybe try replacing it with a $10 ebay replacement? I'm reluctant to take it to Apple and have them charge me a butt-load just to swap out a module that will take me 5 minutes to do myself...

Anyone have any answers?

Jul 3, 2010 9:08 AM in response to justin n

I've got my Mac Ver 10.5.8 working fine with the wireless Apple keyboard and mouse. I've tried numerous times to connect the keyboard and mouse to my MBP with Snow but no luck.

One time I found the bluetooth on my Mac so I shut my Mac down and took MBP to another room and tried again. No luck.

Can't you use your w/l keyboard and mouse with more than one computer even if the operating systems are different?

All it says is not recognized on the MBP

Dec 20, 2009 2:25 AM in response to imladenoff

Try deleting the following preference file and restarting the Mac:

Your Mac HD > Users > Your username > Library > Preferences> com.apple.bluetooth.plist

Dec 20, 2009 7:29 AM in response to Julian Wright

I had the exact same problem. I found a solution in zapping the PRAM. That seems to have resolved the problem for me and Bluetooth is back as a functioning part of my system.

MPower

Level 1

43 points

Dec 30, 2009 10:39 PM in response to imladenoff

Having similar issue on a Mac Pro with an external Bluetooth adapter (Belkin F8T003). Gonna kill the plist and see if it helps...

dnonnema

Level 1

11 points

Jan 5, 2010 5:45 AM in response to dnonnema

Disregard my previous post. The BT keyboard was able to reset PRAM during startup.

Mar 11, 2010 10:31 PM in response to imladenoff

Happened to me too. No solution yet

May 9, 2010 8:53 AM in response to imladenoff

Hi, I must have a serious problem! I the the PRAM reset but I can't find that file under preferences to delete... Help?

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Suddenly... No Bluetooth Hardware Found