Bluetooth devices' driver won't install  

My HP notebook was recently reinstalled with Window 7 Professional 64bit. Now it won't share files with my Samsung galaxy S5 via bluetooth (and vice versa). When pairing the 2, Windows states "device driver software not successfully installed".

Windows support suggests the problem is with my device (phone) and I should download the driver directly from the manufacturer's website. I tried sharing to a friend's phone (S3 mini), with whome I'd successfully bluetoothed files prior to Windows reinstallation = same problem persisted as with my phone, which indicates to me that the problem lies with Windows.

Can someone please help a girl out?

Does the Notebook's Wi-Fi work? I've seen several different brands where the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth worked together as do my HP and Dell Notebooks, turn the Wi-Fi off and my Bluetooth mice quit working. I use Bluetooth nano-size adapters in a USB port on my Desktops.

MissAB said:

My HP notebook was recently reinstalled with Window 7 Professional 64bit. Now it won't share files with my Samsung galaxy S5 via bluetooth (and vice versa). When pairing the 2, Windows states "device driver software not successfully installed".

Similar problem here, with Lenovo W530 laptop failing to connect correctly in Bluetooth mode to my Galaxy S4.

However... there is a product named PdaNet+FoxFI which is designed to allow the phone to share its Internet access capability with the laptop, through a USB cable connection. This is called "USB tethering", and allows you to get to the Internet with your laptop by using the Internet access of the phone. In a sense, the phone is like a modem+router, and the laptop is "wired" to it... but through a USB cable (plugged into the phone, and a USB port on the laptop) rather than through an ethernet cable from router to ethernet jack on the laptop, or wireless connection from laptop to router.

Note that this "USB tethering" method of using your phone's Internet access for your laptop is similar to how WiFi Hotspot functionality on the phone works in a wireless way. But Sprint requires a $20/month fee to activate this phone WiFi capability, whereas USB tethering uses standard functionality present in all Android phones.

Anyway, as part of the PdaNet product it includes MTP connection drivers (that get installed on both PC as well as the phone). This allows Windows Explorer to then see the phone (both phone storage as well as SD card storage) when you connect it with the USB cable. There are no drive letters assigned with devices that connect through MTP as the Android phones do, but as long as you can use Windows Explorer to access the phone you can use drag/drop to transfer files between phone and PC.

I talk about all of this because if you weren't locked into only being willing to use a Bluetooth connection between your S5 and PC, but would accept a USB cable connection, then the MTP drivers provided with PdaNet+ will provide what you're looking for here, which is to be able to share files between phone and PC. And you'll be able to do that using Windows Explorer, thanks to these MTP drivers and the USB connection.

Thanks to all for advice. I reinstalled a few versions of bluetooth drivers & software from HP website. After a few hit and miss attempts my laptop's bluetooth is working fine now.

@ICit2lol It has happened twice that a laptop/pc wouldn't recognise my phone via cable. The solution was removing and reinserting the sim.