G752VM BT crash

This has happened twice now, and the first time I just wandered through various settings and tried various things to get it to finally work again. This time I did a proper write-up, because I can't be the only user having this problem. Maybe I am though, since I don't see anyone else posting about it. Part of my problem might be the fact that I use the INTEL Driver & Support Assistant service to detect and update drivers for the various Intel hardware bits. Usually the periodic driver updates are for the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 card, which might also contain the Bluetooth card. I don't know for sure where the BT card is, my ASUS N71-JQ laptop had both hardware services on one card. Device Manager lists a Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network) which disappears after the crash, and there is a USB device error that appears. I think I have traced the fault down to a recent driver update from Intel for the Intel Wireless Bluetooth, version 22.0.0.2 dated 9/13/2020. I am going to withold the update now to see if the crash recurs. In both cases, the crash occurred when I was browsing my Favorites list in the Chrome browser. This happens several weeks after installing the driver update. I expand my Favorites list and the crash occurs immediately. The cursor will be stuck and my Bluetooth mouse (Logitech V470) will be unresponsive. I check the System Tray and the Bluetooth Devices icon is gone. I check Windows 10 Settings for Bluetooth devices and the Bluetooth on/off button will be gone and all devices will say they are off. The Bluetooth tile in the Action Center will be gone. Digging further, I run services.msc and Bluetooth Support Service and the Bluetooth User Support Service will be stopped and I won't be able to restart them. The fix this last time around was to run the Find and Fix Problems With Bluetooth Devices wizard. After the fix I will be prompted again by the Intel Driver & Support Assistant system tray widget to install the same update again. I will monitor for a couple weeks to see if the crash happens again and report back.

 

Maybe it was a month later, same thing happens again. So Step 2 is to reset your PC by refreshing your Windows 10 installation. It's in the Settings menu, Update and Security, then select the Recovery tab. Did that a couple weeks ago, manually removed all my files just in case but I believe they would have remained untouched. There were several programs removed as part of the refresh, especially some ASUS apps, but they can be reinstalled easily. A couple months have gone by now with no further problems. The refreshed Windows 10 installation is a bit different from the previous, some menus and fonts, and all in all it works much better.