How To: Widcomm BT Stack on FZ

First read this thread which contains links for the drivers: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=43865
EDIT: See post number 6 below for a link to the complete installation package.

The procedure there is mostly correct, but there are a couple little extras you have to do to make it work on Vista. Here is a quick outline:

1. Use Programs & Features to find and uninstall the Bluetooth Software by Toshiba. After the uninstall, you'll get a popup message asking for a driver for the unknown device 'UGX'. Click Cancel because you don't have the driver yet.

2. Follow the instructions to install the modified Bluetooth software for the SZ. Be sure to use the inst.exe program buried in the Win32 folder instead of the Setup.exe in the main folder.

3. During the process the program will say that it hasn't found a Bluetooth device. Click Cancel at that point and it will keep going. Of course, answer all Windows warnings about unverified drivers, and there will be a lot of them.

4. After the install is complete, use the device manager to update the driver for the UGX device. Direct it to search for the driver in the folder where you put the SZ drivers when you downloaded them.

5. Find the license patcher utility in the 5.1.0.1100 folder, right click it, and click "Run as administrator." In the drop down list, you should be able to find the Sony Alps device. When you select it, "044E" should show up in the second box. Save the changes.

6. Use windows explorer to find "Program Files\WIDCOMM\Bluetooth Software," right click it, and click Properties. Click the Security tab, then the Edit button. In the resulting "Permissions" dialog, highlight "Users" and then click the check box next to "Full Control" down below. Click OK on the Permissions box and then OK on the Properties box.

7. In the Bluetooth Software folder, right click the BTStackServer.exe and click Properties. Then click the Compatibility tab, and check the box next to "Run as Administrator." Click OK.

8. Reboot. When everything is up, the bluetooth tray icon should show up as blue and white. Now you can right click it and start using Bluetooth.


NOTE: I recommend using system restore to create a restore point before you start all this. As you go the process it will create a lot more restore points, pretty much one with every driver installation. So it will take quite a bit of time to do this installation. Last night I did it with a brand new machine, so I had the option of doing a complete system recovery if something went wrong. Knowing, that I turned off System Restore before the installation and it went much faster. Probably 10 minutes as opposed to 30 or more doing it the "safe" way.

 

So what are the benefits of this stack over the Toshiba one?

Also in step 5 you say "you should be able to find the Sony Alps device"??? Isn't the ALPS device the touchpad???

Gary

 

I had two problems with the Toshiba stack:

1. It was a PITA multi step procedure to connect a mouse every time I wanted to use it.
2. Motorola Phone Tools wouldn't work with the Toshiba stack. I later found out that MPT needed to be tweaked somewhat even with the Widcomm stack because it's not quite Vista ready. So maybe it would work with the Toshiba. Who knows.

I just know that after having Widcomm on my previous notebook, I decided after the first day that I simply couldn't live with the Toshiba software. It would have been enough to make me send this thing back.


I just rechecked, and the License Patcher does indeed identify the bluetooth device as "Sony ALPS Bluetooth Device (VID=044E)."

 

on step 4, vista said it was unable to find driver software

i directed it to the unzip folder that i downloaded for the SZ one

is there something i have to do to those files since theyre for SZ and not FZ?

 

Grrr. I thought those were the right ones, but they might not be since I downloaded stuff from a bunch of different places. I'll zip the folder that works and put in up on Rapidshare so everything is in one place. Stand by.

 

The files are all here: http://rapidshare.com/users/79IN7K

 

kay i finished installing the widcomm drivers, but i still can't get setpoint to register the v270 mouse.

*sigh* even just connecting through widcomm, the mouse still lags some in games.

also, the bluetooth stack wants to connect to hands free audio... i dont have a headset or anything, so i dont know why it's doing that. are you getting that problem?

 

I tried this last night with my SZ-330, and couldn't get the bluetooth network driver and com port to work. Rolled back until I have more time to mess with it

 

Sorry about the v270 mouse. I can't offer any help there.


As for the audio, I set the "Audio Gateway" and "Headset" services to start up manually instead of automatically. You can find them in the Bluetooth Configuration under the Local Services tab.

 

update: i notice less lag and interference with widcomm when i do wifi intensive downloads, still somewhere lags during gaming, but i am still working on getting the logitech drivers for the v270.

i would recommend using widcomm, it's more reliable and more convenient as an application.

 

Hi - Thanks for all the information. I have installed the WIDCOMM Stack and downloaded the modified sz drivers. However, when I go to Device Managers and try and update the drivers by point at the modifed SZ driver folder, it just says that it can't find drivers. I have downloaded different versions of these drivers, but vista can never find them...

Is there anything I can/ what am I doing wrong. Any ideas?

 

is this thing also works with windows vista and sz600's