May help someone doing a Windows clean install

Did a 1TB SSD and clean Win10 install on a older Dell Inspiron 7720 that was getting really slooow, mostly because of 12 years of junk on the OS and an HDD. Really like the 17in screen. After the OS install and driver and patch updates, I had no Bluetooth. No Bluetooth in 'Devices' settings or device manager. After watching the mind numbing repetitive 'how to fix your BlueTooth' tutorials for 6 hours (if I hear slum dog millionaire say Bluetooth one more time I'm going to punch a hole in the wall) I found a website that I was able to decode an 'unknown device' in device manager. PCILookup decoded the vendor and device that was 'unknown' so I new there were still missing drivers. Tried Dell again, no good. Went back to 'Windows Update' and of course up to date except for some 'optional' updates underneath in small blue letters that you have to click on. Well guess what should not of had been classified as optional. Why Windows didn't detect my Bluetooth adapter and download the appropriate driver the first time around I don't know. I installed a Intel driver for the wireless adapter and a few other for my video adapter and Bluetooth popped right back into action. And now with the clean OS and SSD the laptop is performing pretty fast and a nice bright screen. Call it a win!

 

It's fairly normal to have to download the Intel driver manager after the os is first installed esp on older hardware. It's also a wise move since windows doesn't always discover the pieces of the puzzle correctly as you saw. I always trust the intel drivers more then windows discovery when it comes to motorboard drivers, I worked in an Intel Fab and all their tools (machines) run on PCs using intel hardware, some costing $6m apiece. They were all extremely stable and together they basically ran the $5B factory.

Newer systems are better at self discovering their hardware but they still occasionally suffer from similar issues.

Good job figuring it out.

 

And not one of these ‘gurus’ ever mentioned the optional drivers menu or Intel driver manager.

 

I am going to be "that guy". I was a longtime Windows user, ever since Windows 95. I switched to Mac a couple of years ago, and never looked back. With Mac, you never have to chase down driver issues. And I have never reinstalled MacOS because the computer sh!t the bed. I can't count how many times I've reinstalled Windows because the registry got corrupted, or the system slowed to a crawl. My MacBook runs just as smooth today as when I bought it two years ago.

 

2 years I get. My last refresh or OS upgrade on my Dell was probably 6 years ago. MacBook’s wear out too or they wouldn’t be making a billion of them a year.

 

You're talking to the choir, I use a mac for all video editing which I do allot, my last Mac one was a 2016 model I7 that would still edit 4K video pretty well considering it was 8 years old and almost nobody was shooting in 4K back then, I can count the times it's locked up on 2 fingers. It worked flawless until the HD finally quit. Prior to that I was a long time PC user, I worked for Intel for 7 years and as an employee we could get a free engineering processor every year as a perk, these were $700-$900 processors when they were first released. I got sick of chasing down compatibility issues with various manufacturer's hardware in the windows environment, most of it was solvable but it was a PITA none the less. The Mac has always been seamless and done everything I needed straight out of the box. I replaced it with a Mac Mini2 Pro last christmas and it's been awesome for video editing, probably the best computer I've owned and I've been messing with PCs since about 1985. With the mini I can copy the 4K GoPro and drone files onto the system and edit them immediately in their full native resolution with no studders, dropped frames or lagging, it doesn't require proxy files, or any other prep. Since I often have 100G of video after a day's videoing that alone took hours off the time needed to edit. I could do it with a PC but it would require some expensive hardware to build one that can process 4K files on the fly. I still use a windows laptop and a PC for PC only programs though.

 

I haven’t upgraded either of my laptops to Win11 yet because that would mean I’m committing to probably 4 or 5 more years of Windows OS. I’m going to gift myself an Apple computer eventually if I can decide which is best for an experienced laptop user but first time Apple computer buyer. It’s strange I haven’t purchased up to now as I’m a long time iPhone user.

 

I'm the opposite, I use an android phone and a Mac, the Apple integration between the phone and their computers is pretty extensive and some people really like it. I'm not a fan of throwing all my eggs in one basket so I split between most of the ecosystems. I also use a flavor of linux on SBCs (single board computers) like Raspberry Pis. I recently saw a headline where windows OS is going to eventually become a subscription based service, when it happens that will cut the my PC ties completely.

 

Win 10 was problematic getting the Bluetooth to work reliably for me. Upgraded to Win 11 Pro & it's been fine ever since.

Couple of bugs in Win 11, but overall good.

If they ever make it subscription based, I'm out of there.

I have Linux Mint & openSUSE on my older PC. Both OS's work great.

I use a lot of programs that aren't compatible with Linux.

I'll get over it.

Have a great day, guys & Thank You for your service!