Bluetooth speakers: 'Allow a Device to Connect' greyed out

chigwells · 01 May 2013

Hello!

I have searched through Bluetooth articles and couldn't find any relevant answers. I have a HMDX Jam bluetooth speaker and cannot connect it to my Sony Vaio W7 HP (2012) laptop via Bluetooth, although it connects with the line-in cable no prob (screenshot 1).

The speaker connected instantly to my Android tablet, so I know the speaker is functioning correctly.

The problem seems to be in 'pairing'. When I connected the speaker to my Asus tablet, it asked for the pairing code, which I entered in, and the combo were up and running.

When I attempt to connect the speaker to my laptop, it is recognized but I am not asked for the 'pairing code'. I also see that when I right-click on the bluetooth icon in the taskbar, that 'Allow a Device to Connect' is greyed out (screenshot 2). I presume that is why the pairing code dialogue box is not opening. As you can see from the screenshot, I have ticked the 'Allow Bluetooth devices to find this computer' tick-box.

When I double-click on the speaker icon in Devices, I get the message that the operation failed to initialize (screenshot 3).

Also, when I took screenshot 1, I firstly tried to send it via bluetooth from my phone to the laptop, it failed. The devices are 'paired but not connected' and after three attempts I gave up and got the cable out.

I have attempted to put as much relevant info here as I can think of. I would also like to add that I have virus troubles at the momernt and am in the process of posting a thread in an Anti-Malware forum, although I haven't started that yet.

Many thanks in advance.

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chigwells · 05 May 2013

Hi again,

Well its been a couple of days since I posted the above. In the mean time I continued to search for help elsewhere, and in fact have been able to resolve the issue.

It turns out W7 is not very well adapted to Bluetooth. I found a few other similar posts, reading through the replies the concensus seemed to be that W7 is good for keyboards and mice but not much more. As I say I'm only going on what I've read as replies to similar problems.

The solution appears to be to download Bluetooth driver software from the following link, Bluetooth Software Download | Broadcom

I tried this and Bingo, works straight away. Have to say that it's not ideal, still haven't got the devices to pair, ~~so it's a manual connection each time~~. But at least I can now use the speaker as intended. Edit: I was wrong, after a reboot I switched on Bluetooth and the speakers connected immediately. So I'm very happy!

Interestingly, on the Sony own Youtube video on how to connect your Bluetooth device to a Vaio laptop, the 'Allow a Device to Connect' command (when you right-click the Bluetooth icon in system tray) was greyed out as well, so it appears its not a settings issue as I suspected.

I think the real solution it to get in touch with Sony support and/ or HMDX Jam, which I'll do in the near future. At the moment I'm happy to have the speaker play via Bluetooth so I can get on with more pressing issues.

Thx, Chig