Added internal Dell 365 Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR adapter...

Just wanted to report my experience here:
I ordered a Dell Bluetooth 365 2.1EDR adapter from eBay for $8.99 + $5.90 shipping ($14.89 total) from a seemingly shady Hong Kong seller on eBay ("deambestbuy" - I also see "dreammacys," as if they are affiliated with Best Buy or Macy's ). I received it just weeks later and installed it right away.

The internal connector is located on the top side of the motherboard, so it takes a bit of work to get to. Take the lower panel and battery off (captive screws; should not fall out of the panel). After that, there are two different screw sizes but the holes are labeled well enough to keep track of it, so just remove the ones marked P & K (palm-rest & keyboard). The smaller ones go into the K holes and the larger ones go into the P holes EXCEPT the ones marked with the size (#x#; they take the smaller screws too). After that is done, you can remove the front panel LED+I/O cover with the power button. Start lifting from the right where there is a pry-point. From there, you can remove two more of the smaller screws to take off the keyboard. Now you can remove four more screws to release the keyboard (longer of the two varieties of non-captive screws). Slide it up slightly and then lift the back side enough to disconnect the two flat cables (lift the latches and slide the cables out). Set it aside and remove the last four screws holding the palmrest down. Disconnect any flat cables that are part of the keyboard/touchpad chassis piece (palm-rest) and pry the snaps loose. I know there was a cable for the touchpad and another to the upper left. I found it easiest to start prying at the sides of the front and work my way back on both sides. There is still a cable connected to the LED+I/O panel so lift from the front until it is parallel to the open display panel and disconnect it.

The connector for the bluetooth module is right next to the coin cell CMOS battery in the lower-left region. It does not have a screw in the post and the adapter did not come with one, so I used one of the small screws from the front panel cover. I'd make sure the K holes are occupied when reassembled, but it's your call if you even want to use a screw for the BT module. That said, make sure the keyboard is snapped in on the edges when you reassemble. After a tech serviced it once, I used mine for weeks without realizing that it wasn't all the way down (keys contact the display panel too easily).

Anyway, after that, I threw it all back together and booted up. It was automatically detected and worked great. I've heard others say that it didn't even show up in the Device Manager as an installed or unknown device until they downloaded the Dell drivers, but that wasn't the case here with my default Dell-provided OS installation. Also, you may need to make sure that it is enabled in the BIOS/CMOS setup when you boot your notebook.

I paired my Razer Orochi with it and ditched my old external dongle for good. *thumbsup*

Edit: I have since upgraded to an M11x r3 and done this same procedure with a DW375 BT 3.0 adapter. The steps are largely the same. The major difference is that the 375 connects with a small cable which was already there in my M11x r3.

 

Nice

 

Was this the adapter?

I'm thinking of doing it myself...

 

yep. Dell only has one type of Dell Bluetooth 365.

Dang... my m11x isn't even here, yet, and I am already planning so many upgrades, lol...

 

Well guys, I just thought I'd pop back in to point out how annoying this is:



It pops up every single time I reboot or resume from sleep or hibernate and an additional unexpected time every now and then just to annoy me. Basically, I have to make it discoverable when I don't want to just to get rid of the message when I have no reason to broadcast my presence and it would only be wasting power. Why pretend to helpfully give me a choice when you are just going to nag me to make the choice when I already MADE my setting selection according to my preferences?! Argh! What's more, it's the default selection for the same reasons I want to leave it that way. Someone needs to shoot the software designer who engineered this stupid prompt that has no way to shut it off. My options should be "Discoverable" or "constantly nag me that is isn't discoverable" instead of "Discoverable: yes or no," because that's more literally what the choices they are giving me are.

 

Uhhhh..... I don't really care for that message. It dissappears after about 10 seconds. On it's own! You could just disable the tray icon, instead? (get to the bluetooth settings again via the network and sharing center-->wireless adaptors)

 

I have a question: Does this adapter work with other laptops?? Is it only for DELL? What kind of port is that??

 

It's an USB port... with a special form factor. It's not Dell only, though the placement of the locking screw makes it difficult to properly use in other laptops.

 

Yeah, but it comes back so often that it still causes me to wait cumulatively much longer. To top it off, if I was actually doing anything in that area of my screen, mousing over it causes it to snap back into focus even when it is almost faded away.

But... but... but... having the tray icon readily available is more important when you aren't making your PC regularly discoverable. So, basically, I am nagged about the existence of a selection I have already made and the only way to shut it up is to either change my selection or change something else I didn't want to change. Whoever designed this is abusing the system notification area. I mean, why isn't windows constantly popping up with messages about "HEY! Did you know that you can hide filename extensions? I bet you do because it looks like you specifically turned that feature off. Let me just point you in that direction several times a day as if you probably changed your mind and need me to help you get back there but keep dismissing me because you don't read anything and you don't know how useful I am. I'll keep popping up until the end of time because I'm persistent. Someday, you'll thank me."

I never installed BT drivers or an alternate BT stack, so I think it's either MS' BT stack or whatever Dell has pre-loaded on their standard build. I guess I don't know who to blame.

 

There are other Dell laptops that use the 365 adapter and probably others from other manufacturers, but it isn't a consumer-standard connector. It's best just to find out the part of the OEM BT module for any particular notebook and order one.

 

I pinned the BT icon to my win7 taskbar, and hid the systray icon... I don't know if that solved the message popup issue, since I rarely get it to begin with.

 

I have since upgraded to an M11x r3 and done this same procedure with a DW375 BT 3.0 adapter. The steps are largely the same, which I have updated the OP to reflect. The major difference is that the 375 connects with a small cable which was already there in my M11x r3. If you need a 365 and don't want to wait on one to ship from China, let me know.