Bluetooth Capability not detected - Windows 10 - Lenovo Thinkpad T430

Question

So my Bluetooth was working fine on my Windows 10 PC (Lenovo T430) for the past few months. Then, suddenly, today when I went on Settings to check my Bluetooth, it says Bluetooth is turned off - there is no option to turn Bluetooth off and on, and it has disappeared from Action Center. I tried a few different potential solutions to fix it, none of which have worked:

1. I used System Restore to bring my Windows 10 system back to a time when the Bluetooth was working. Nothing changed when I went into the new restore point.
2. I checked on Device Manager to see if something was wrong with the actual Bluetooth devices. The Bluetooth section on Device Manager was hidden, and when I opened it, all of the Bluetooth devices were greyed out. "Scan for hardware changes" did nothing. "Update driver" did not do anything. Under 'Device Status' when I see properties for the device, it says 'Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer. (Code 45)'. I currently have 'Thinkpad Bluetooth 4.0' as a bluetooth device, among others. 
3. I went on Services to check the Bluetooth services and all were running automatically except one called 'Bluetooth User Support service' which would not let me run it automatically. I restarted multiple services and rebooted the laptop. Nothing worked.
4. I downloaded numerous drivers from Lenovo and tried to connect them with 'Thinkpad Bluetooth 4.0' on device manager. Nothing worked. One driver, when I ran its Setup.exe, said that it did not recognize bluetooth capability in the device. 
5. Ran System File Checker on command prompt - didn't work as well.
6. I used Windows 10 'Get Help' to diagnose the problem. It discovered the Bluetooth radio in the T430 but claimed that it was missing/in a 'phantom' state - when it tried to fix it, it came up with an error. 

One more piece of info: Before I used System Restore, when my Bluetooth had stopped working, I accidentally uninstalled the 'Thinkpad Bluetooth 4.0' driver on Device Manager. The Events log on the Properties of the Bluetooth device reflects this error.

I'm really confused about what has happened to my Bluetooth device and hoping to restore it, any help would be greatly appreciated

Answer 1

Hello all,

I think I had this problem just now...

My problem:

Bluetooth was working perfectly, but suddenly nothing... No more blue bluetooth icon in my taskbar nor any button for enabling or disabling bluetooth under devices in Windows 10.

The bluetooth could not be found anymore in "device manager". Only if I enabled the "show hidden" function then I could see it. Windows was sure there was no bluetooth hardware in my laptop...

Things I've tried:
Restarting the laptop many times.

Trying to rollback to older restore point.

Pressing FN+F5 (I was sure this wasnt the solution, but who knows right?)
(Did not try to look at my bios settings, I was sure that that couldnt be it.)

....  nothing worked ....

My Idea:

The bluetooth device could be in a deadlock or atleast in a wierd limbo state. I could try and reset it. Normally with USB devices and stuff you disconnect it and then connect it again... but how to do this on this bluetooth device.. (had no intention of trying to pull the hardware out and than put it back.. normally this is my option.)

Then I remembered that in a laptop everything allways has power. So I shut down the laptop and pulled out the battery. Then I put the battry back in and restarted the laptop  ..... No succes....

My solution:
Then I remembered, when trying to fix old tube monitors and tv's, I switched on the device and than pulled the power cord out of the socket. This way I always hoped that all capasitors were empty. (hoping not to shock myselve with the charge in those capasitors)

I powered on my laptop (Lenovo T430), no power cord attached, and while in Windows 10 I pulled out the battery. Then I put the battery back in and started the laptop........ SUCCESS!!

(Windows and sudden powerloss might cause problems, but desperate times right?)

The bluetooth icon was back and my headphones could connect again! 

I hope this will help some of you!

Answer 2

Thank You so much. I had the exact same problem as described. Suddenly my Bluetooth stopped working and I couldn't find the Bluetooth icon.

Troubleshooting Bluetooth was giving me the error stating Bluetooth hardware cannot be found in this device.

However, I am using Lenovo C740 and the battery cannot be detached from this laptop. In order to reset capacitors (I think that what happened), I removed the power cable and pressed down the power button for around 5 sec until it turns off completely. I let it rest for 30 sec and then turned on the laptop and Bluetooth started working.

P.S. Normal restart didn't work for me.

Answer 3

I had the same issue after several reboots but I have an HP820G3 and not a Lenovo but I recall that instead of removing the battery if you unplug the power supply and hold in the power on button for 30 seconds that also releases the left over electricity in the circuits. Once that is done plug in the power and start it up and it worked fine for me! I think this also works on Lenovo machines.

Answer 4

Yes!! Thank you!!
I had the BT issue. No update and no drivers could help.

The "pull out the battery when turned ON" was tricky in my case (ThinkPad T480) because i did pull it out and it was still ON, and had 12% battery.

I had to tweak the Power Options so it won't try to shut down on it's own when low battery.

And it worked, it cut off during operation, i put the battery back and turned it on, the mouse instantly connected and headphones are usable again.

I was in the same boat you all were in - Bluetooth had completely disappeared from Windows 10, and no amount of restarts, reinstallations of the Bluetooth drivers, troubleshooters, BIOS refreshes/settings tweaks, or fiddling with the WiFi adapter settings could fix the problem.  I, too, thought that something had to be up with the physical Bluetooth hardware inside my Y910 desktop.  So, desperate times and all that...I pulled the plug from the wall outlet while the desktop was booted up.

And when I plugged back in and started up, Bluetooth was back! So bizarre.  But whatever works!

Answer 5

Yes!! Thank you!!
I had the BT issue. No update and no drivers could help.

The "pull out the battery when turned ON" was tricky in my case (ThinkPad T480) because i did pull it out and it was still ON, and had 12% battery.

I had to tweak the Power Options so it won't try to shut down on it's own when low battery.

And it worked, it cut off during operation, i put the battery back and turned it on, the mouse instantly connected and headphones are usable again.