Bluetooth not displayed in system tray in Win 10

[Akusika]

My device is Dell Inspiron 5759. The Device Manager shows Bluetooth USB with Bluetooth Soleil Generic Bluetooth Driver. The Network Adapter is Intel Dual Band Wireless AC-3160. The problem is that Bluetooth does not appear to be detected on the Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160. The Bluetooth icon is not showing in the expanded hidden icons in the system tray. It also does not show in the Bluetooth and other Devices menu in the Settings so I cannot connect Bluetooth devices to the laptop. I would be most grateful for any assistance to resolve this issue. Thanks

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Akusika, Thank you for posting in the Intel® Communities Support.

In reference to this scenario, it is important to mention, that the Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160 card is under the status of End Of Interactive Support / Discontinued, as you can verify in the link below:

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/75442/intel-dual-band-wireless-ac-3160.html

So, Intel® technical support will no longer be provided for this kind of product, but perhaps fellow community members have the knowledge to jump in and help. You may also find the Discontinued Products Website helpful to address your request: 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/discontinued-products.html

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Akusika]

Thanks, Alberto. I will try the "discontinued products" support, while I still hope some community members may provide solution.

[n_scott_pearson · Accepted solution]

Intel may not support this device, but all is not lost; I have the final drivers that support this card saved in my archive. Use this link: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtacZBU04mo-j-tQ34BdSDv6y1BFsg?e=7gn50T to access my archive. Subfolders provide final driver packages for most of the Discontinued Wireless adapters; the subfolder names tell you which.

You will likely need to use a clean Install process to install these drivers. Here is proper process to use: 

1. If you haven't already, download to your PC - but do not install just yet - the 21.10.1 Bluetooth and Wireless driver packages.
2. Most important! Disable Internet access. Unplug Ethernet cable and/or disable wireless. Keep disabled until told to re-enable. Note this Wireless disable *must* be of type that will persist (stay disabled) across reboots.
3. From the Apps & Features applet, check for instances of Intel PROSet/Wireless Software and Intel Wireless Bluetooth. If none, skip to Step 6.
4. Uninstall each instance of Intel PROSet/Wireless Software and/or Intel Wireless Bluetooth that is present. When prompted, choose "Discard Settings".
5. Manually reboot your computer, keeping Internet access disabled throughout.
6. From the Device Manager applet, check the Network Adapters section for an entry for Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160 and check the Bluetooth section for an entry for Intel Wireless Bluetooth that has an intel driver associated with it. If neither is the case, go forward to Step 10.
7. Right click on the entry for Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160 and uninstall it, choosing (checkmark) Delete the driver software for this device.
8. Right click on the entry for Intel Wireless Bluetooth and open its properties. If it has an Intel driver associated with it, then uninstall it, choosing to (checkmark) Delete the driver software for this device.
9. Go back to Step 5.
10. Install the downloaded Bluetooth driver package (my rule: always install Bluetooth first).
11. Install the downloaded Wireless driver package.
12. Manually shutdown and reboot your computer.
13. Reenable Internet access. Restore Ethernet cable and/or reenable wireless.
14. Test.

Note that it sometimes takes multiple uninstalls (and reboots) to clean out the older driver installations, so don't give up on the process until you hit, say, 10 reboots. 

Now, very important: DO NOT allow Intel Driver and Support Assistant or Windows Update to install any newer driver packages! If either of them do, the problems will come back and you will need to manually install these packages again.

Hope this helps,

...S