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I have an Asus Zenbook UX331FAL running Windows 10.

Till about a couple of weeks ago, I was able to connect as many devices as I wanted using Bluetooth (mice, headsets, keyboards), and there was no problem.

However, for the past 2 weeks whenever I try to add a new Bluetooth device, this is what I see:

enter image description here

This is about the same time that whenever I plug in my headphone jack, I get no audio in my headphones (RealTek audio drivers), although the speakers seem to work just fine. Not going to dwell on this issue on this question, but these two might be connected.

Update: Audio issues have resolved themselves, and I can now get audio to my headphones, after all the updating and restarting. So a minor win there.

Since there is no physical switch for Bluetooth on my laptop, I started on the long trek of trying to figure out how else to get back Bluetooth on my machine:

Windows Support Page Instructions

Following the link to the Windows support page, none of the options were workable.

There was no Bluetooth icon in the taskbar:

enter image description here

Ran the Windows troubleshooter for Bluetooth, and was told that there is no Bluetooth device on the computer:

enter image description here

Since this is not possible, I continued to try other steps.

Updating Windows

I updated my Windows to the latest 1909 build and got all the driver udpates from Asus that that action necessitated:

enter image description here

Reinstalling Asus Bluetooth and Audio Drivers

Got the audio and Bluetooth drivers from the OEM website for my particular model:

enter image description here

And as per the instructions, ran the setup script in Powershell admin mode. Now, I can't tell whether the installation was successful, but here is what I saw:

enter image description here

This seemed to me to say that the installation went through without problems.

Restarting Bluetooth Services

The last thing that I tried was to re-start the Bluetooth services in the services manager:

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These are the only Bluetooth services that could see -- not sure if there are other services related to Bluetooth.

Checking for BIOS Update

Based on the advice here, I checked on the OEM site to see if there is a BIOS update available:

enter image description here

But WinFlash told me that the BIOS that is already installed is no older than the latest update available on the OEM site:

enter image description here

Device Manager

One of the first pieces of advice on all the sites that talk about Bluetooth problems on Windows 10 is to go to the Device Manager and turn on the Bluetooth device, and in case it can't be seen, to change the view to also show hidden devices. However, I could not spot the Bluetooth device even with the hidden devices view turned on:

enter image description here

The most likely scenario appears to be that the most recent Windows updates have broken Bluetooth, and that Asus has not released updated drivers. Or it could be something more specific to my setup. Any advice on how to understand what happened to my Bluetooth device would be appreciated.

tchakravarty
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7 Answers7

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If it is a Windows update that caused your Bluetooth drivers to stop working, then you should consider restoring Windows to a previous version where you know for sure that Bluetooth was functioning normally. You can see recovery options to restore previous versions of Windows here, and if you are going to go this route then ensure you back up any important files that might have changed since this point.

If that is successful in fixing the Bluetooth issues and everything is working normally, then you could temporarily disable automatic Windows updates via the registry until you're certain that updating Windows again will not break your Bluetooth. If you are going to update again at this point then you might want to look into creating a system restore point to more easily restore previous states of Windows, should anything break again in the future after updating Windows.

Hope you get this fixed, as this looks like an annoying issue to have to deal with!

Bob Smith
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I've heard this helps sometimes with missinsg/unknown devices. In Device Manager, if I select Intel Wireless Bluetooth and then switch the view to Devices by connection, I see the following: enter image description here If you switch to Devices by connection, you'll most likely see that unknown device beneath the USB Extensible Host Controller. Right-click the Host Controller & unistall. Redetection/reinstallation should be immediate. Sometimes, clearing things out "upstream" and forcing redectection of everything below sorts things out.

Keith Miller
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Just to close this question out, the issue was fixed by a Windows update:

enter image description here

tchakravarty
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I had the exact same issue with the latest Windows 20H2 Update. Unfortunately the suggested solution didn't work for me as windows does/did not provide a fix for this issue at the time of writing this. Luckily I was able to fix this issue based on this video on YouTube:

  • Open the device manager
  • Uninstall the entire "Intel(R) USB 3.1 eXtensible Host Controller"
    • This will remove other devices, too (including the "Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed)")
  • Open the windows start menu and shut down the computer (a "restart" did not work for me and others that commented on the YouTube video)
  • Start the computer with the power button
    • The computer will now install the eXtensible Host Controller and will finally recognize and install the Bluetooth driver
Stephen Rauch
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dabbinavo
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Good grief on drivers. have checked the registry editor? https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/registry-trees-and-keys

dmytro
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I don't have an explanation for why this works, other than it is a factory defect. But here's what I've done on my ZenBook a couple of times when bluetooth all but disappeared.

What helped is completely draining the battery to 0. Holding the power button for 10 secs without power being plugged in. And then booting up again. This made bluetooth show up again.

Could probably do the same by opening the case and unplugging the battery from the mobo, but draining the battery was an easier way to go.

Found this solution on the net somewhere - has helped other zenbook users as well.

rothschild86
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I did find one way to fix this. I had the same problem on my Asus Q550LF recently. There is an incompatibility with the Wireless Radio app from ASUS. I tried all the steps that were tried above, but I downloaded "Outbyte Driver Updater". You can use the free version, no need to upgrade. I upgraded ALL of the drivers with their recommendations. My machine works perfectly now. The download can be found at OutByte Driver Updater

WeHoChris
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