New MacBook Pro...can't turn on Bluetooth...

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Level 1

14 points

New MacBook Pro...can't turn on Bluetooth...

I have one of the new 17" MacBook Pro laptops (OS X 10.6.6 with 2.3 Ghz Intel Core i7 and 4 GB of RAM).

For the last week or so I've been using a bluetooth Mighty Mouse with this unit and it has worked well. Tonight, I downloaded and installed the new versions of iTunes (10.2.1) and Java for Mac 10.6 Update 4. Once those installations were complete, I ran Disk Utility to repair permissions and then restarted. Once I restarted, I found that the Mighty Mouse was no longer working. I checked Bluetooth in the menu and found it was "off" so I chose "Turn Bluetooth On" but nothing happened. I checked Bluetooth from within the System Preferences pane and it showed that the Mighty Mouse was paired, but it wasn't connected. The checkbox for "On" was not checked and the checkbox for "Discoverable" was checked. I tried checking the "On" checkbox but it would not allow me to place a checkmark there.

Obviously, it would appear that there was some sort of issue with one of the updates I applied tonight.

Does anyone have any insight into this situation? Can you provide a fix for whatever this problem is?

Thanks for any info you can provide!

- David (don't you hate it when this happens?)PwrMc

MacBook Pro 17", Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 8, 2011 6:38 PM

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Answer 1

iVmichael

Level 6

13,740 points

Mar 8, 2011 10:52 PM in response to DavidPwrMc

Try doing a Parameter RAM reset - hold down command/option/p/r keys at start up and wait for three chimes before releasing the keys.

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Answer 2

DavidPwrMc Author

Level 1

14 points

Mar 9, 2011 3:32 PM in response to iVmichael

I have an "answer" to the problem I ran into.

The answer is: let the MacBook Pro sit all night, start it up the next evening, and watch Bluetooth magically re-enable itself! At least, that's what happened in this case. 😉

I don't know why Bluetooth would not work last night, but this evening when I started the MacBook back up again, Bluetooth was working again. I did a couple of restarts last night, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it.

If it had been the case that Bluetooth was still not working when I turned the MacBook on this evening, then I would have tried iVmichael's idea of zapping the PRAM. I used to do that from time to time on my old OS9-and-earlier Macs, but never had occasion to need to do it on my most recent Mac, a 17" G4 PowerBook (which served me for 6 years). So, the thought never crossed my mind of that being a possible solution.

I will keep that suggestion in my back pocket in case the need arises. I thank iVmichael for his response!

I wish that I had something more substantive to report on this situation so that others looking in on this thread could be helped, but my problem seems (at least as of this writing) to have disappeared!

Would that it were the case that all problems on our Macs could resolve themselves in this manner!

Take care and happy Mac'cing!

- David (I'll post back to this thread in the event anything else related turns up)PwrMc

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Answer 3

jopl

Level 1

0 points

Mar 20, 2011 4:17 PM in response to DavidPwrMc

Hi,
just have a new mb pro and have the same issue.
Can't turn on bluetooth, the checkbox is not grayed out but when I click it it unchecks itself immediately.

gonna try iVmichael's tip in a bit but anybody knows where this may come from? Obviously something is wrong..

thanks

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