Bluetooth Driver not installing for Broadcom BCM4352HMB on Windows 11

[JI_the1st]

Yes, after installing the driver there is no Bluetooth device manager category. I went into the UEFI/BIOS but couldn’t find an option to activate Bluetooth. The wifi card that I had on this computer originally was the Ralink RT3290LE, and Bluetooth was not working on that card either. The Broadcom card I installed works with wifi and I can see it listed in Device manager under Network Adapters, it’s only the Bluetooth that’s having issues

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Unfortunately, I won't be able to help you with that problem.

The Ralink Bluetooth does not work on the newer builds of W10 so it not working is expected.

The Broadcom Bluetooth not working, I didn't expect that to happen either because the Wi-Fi is working.

However, there are some notebooks where when you install a Wi-Fi card not listed in the service manual, strange things can happen such at what you are experiencing now.

It's not a hardware issue since the PC identified a device that needed a driver and installing the driver made the unknown device disappear.

So, that leaves a BIOS conflict.

There is this video for an Intel card where the same thing happens on some PC's and masking a couple of pins with Scotch tape fixed the problem.

Intel 7260 Wifi/Bluetooth Card Fix

I wouldn't have any idea if the Broadcom card has the same pin configuration as the Intel card or if that would work for the Broadcom card at all.

[JI_the1st]

I tried covering pin 51 with scotch tape but nothing happened, and when I covered what I believe is pin 20 the wifi stopped working.  I’m not certain which pin is pin 20, but the pin with a red line in the picture looked similar to the one in the video you provided a link to. Can you tell from this picture which pin is pin 20?

 You mentioned that the problem may be a BIOS conflict, do you think updating the BIOS/UEFI can fix that?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

The video on the Intel card shows pin 20 on the back side of the card, and unfortunately I wouldn't know what pins are what on either card.

It's remotely possible that updating the BIOS may fix the problem, but HP has retired support for the model series.

[JI_the1st]

Do you know where else I can download and install a newer BIOS for this model laptop?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I don't know what BIOS version you have installed, but here are the info and exe links to the latest BIOS update I could find for your notebook (F.20).

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp79501-80000/sp79552.html 

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp79501-80000/sp79552.exe 

There's nothing in the release notes that indicate support was added for additional Wi-Fi adapters.

The file was written to be run on operating systems up to W10.

I can't 100% guarantee you that the file will run properly on W11.

[JI_the1st]

I downloaded and installed the BIOS update, and the file does work on Windows 11, however the Bluetooth still doesn't work, even after trying to reinstall it. Are you sure the problem is with the BIOS and not something else?

[JI_the1st]

I also downloaded and installed a program called Driver Store Explorer to see what's going on with the driver, and this is what it showed:

So it seems that the driver has been installed but the program shows that the driver file doesn't have a device name associated with it. I also right clicked the file and clicked on Open file folder location, and I saw a bunch of hex files for bcm4350 and bcm4356, but nothing for bcm4352. Maybe you gave me the wrong driver?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Yes,  I'm 95% sure the BIOS has blocked the Bluetooth from working, and unless there are pins that can be masked to turn on the Bluetooth, the problem will be unsolvable. 

[JI_the1st]

Do you think disabling Secure Boot in the BIOS will solve the issue? I also downloaded and installed a program called Driver Store Explorer to see what's going on with the driver, and this is what it showed:

So it seems that the driver has been installed but the program shows that the driver file doesn't have a device name associated with it. I also right clicked the Bluetooth file and clicked on Open file folder location, and I saw a bunch of hex files for bcm4350 and bcm4356, but nothing for bcm4352. Maybe it's the wrong driver I installed?