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HP Recommended

Last Tuesday (9/17/2013) my system was updated via Microsoft's automatic updates.  There were 22 "important" updates.  After the updates were completed and I rebooted my HP ENVY Spectre XT Ultrabook CTO 13t-2000 laptop, I noticed that the network status icon in the right-hand side of the Taskbar (a "stairstep" icon) had a blue "doughnut" or circle on top of it and my Ultrabook was non-responsive (e.g., it appeared to "hang" and I could not launch msconfig.exe).  After about 15-20 minutes, the blue "doughnut" over the network status icon disappeared and the Ultrabook connected to the network.

 

Prior to Microsoft's 9/17/2013 updates my Ultrabook did not display the above behavior.

 

I contacted HP support and over the course of 2 days had 3 different on-line chat sessions.  The upshot of these discussions was to start my Ultrabook in "Safe Mode with Networking" and then use the msconfig.exe program to disable *ALL* the system services and reboot my Ultrabook.  After the reboot, the problem behavior described above did not reappear and some, but not all, of my system services were automatically re-enabled.

 

I re-enabled each of the remaining disabled system services one-by-one and rebooted my Ultrabook each time.  I was able to successfully re-enable all but one of the system services, namely the "Bluetooth Device Monitor" service, without having the system display the above problem.  Re-enabling the "Bluetooth Device Monitor" system service caused the above behavior to reappear.

 

My Ultrabook is running the Windows 7 Pro 64-bit operating system.  The "Bluetooth Device Monitor" file is found in my "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Bluetooth\devmonsrv.exe" (and its file version is 2.0.0.130).

 

None of the other PCs (all Windows 7 Pro 64-bit systems), iPads, iPhones, or MacBooks in this house have any problems booting and connecting to my network.  Therefore, I think I can safely rule out the router, modem, etc. as potential problems.

 

Has anyone else seen this problem witht the "Bluetooth Device Monitor" system service?  Does anyone have suggestion for resolving it?  Can I leave the "Bluetooth Device Monitor" system service disabled (what is it used for...my Bluetooth mouse works just fine with this system service disabled)?

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who can provide answers to these questions.

 

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
HP Recommended

 

 

I have solved the problem!!  Here's the solution...

 

The "Intel PROSet Bluetooth Driver" that the HP support tech asked me to download and install would not install as described in my previous posts.

 

I checked Intel's download center for the "Intel® PROSet/Wireless Bluetooth Software for Windows 7" (https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=22860) to see if there was anything available and found the driver file version 3.0.1304.

 

I downloaded the "BT_3.0.1304_s64.exe" file from the Intel website and then ran it after it downloaded to my laptop.  The installer asked me if I wanted to replace my existing Bluetooth driver (version 2.0.15.30150) with a newer one (version 3.0.24.40063).  I clicked "Yes" and the installer successfully completed the installation process.  I then rebooted my Ultrabook laptop,

 

After the laptop restated, I checked the Device Manager to confirm the driver update:

 

9-20-2013 8-15-22 AM.jpg

 

 

Then, using the msconfig.exe program, I re-enabled  "Bluetooth Device Monitor", "Bluetooth Media Service", and the "Bluetooth OBEX Service" system services.  After that, I rebooted my Ultrabook laptop.

 

The laptop rebooted and quicky found the and connected to my network.  The problem that I described in my original post did not reappear.  So I'm going to mark this message thread as "Accept as Solution" and close it.

 

I hope this information can help others who are experiencing the same problems.

View solution in original post

17 REPLIES 17
HP Recommended

I have the same problem.  It was locking up the entire computer.  Occasionally you could get into the Task Manager but everything was uselessly slow and I couldn't even shutdown or restart.

 

I'm in an enterprise environment with several EliteBook Folio 9470M.  This problem showed up with 2 users at the same time.  It took me all day of trail-and-error troubleshooting to isolate the prolem to Bluetooth services and turn them off using MSCONFIG.

 

Here is a good tutorial on using MSCONFIG and troubleshooting problems with services.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-troubleshoot-your-windows-with-the-msconfig-utility/

 

Booting in a different profile worked OK for a while but eventually the problem appeared there.  Only booting in Safe Mode  worked.

 

The services I turned off were;

Bluetooth Device Monitor

Bluetooth Media Service

Bluetooth OBEX Service

 

I dont know if any one or all of these services is the problem but I turned them all off and things are OK for now.  The

users are not using any Bluetooth devices so I have not checked if Bluetooth is working or disabled.

 

I scanned for malware and viruses but I did not find anything with the current definitions.

 

One thing I noticed - the "publisher" of the Bluetooth services on the updated computers (the computers that had the problem) was listed as "Intel Corporation".  I looked at another computer that had not had the software update.  On that computer the "publisher" was listed as "Motorola".  Not sure if that means anything but it's a curious data point.

 

It seems like a new problem.  I'll leave these services disabled until a fix shows up.  Wont be holding my breath until then, tho.

HP Recommended

Hello,

I've had this problem as well, but on a non-HP laptop (running Windows 7 Home 64-bit). While it was working perfectly fine on the 17th, the problems began on the 18th. I attempted a number of system restores, but this did not solve the problem (a reboot would cause it to come back). After this, I tried the clean boot method and this narrowed down the problem to the "Bluetooth Device Monitor," which I have disabled for the time being. It is definitely not a network problem, because my laptop has refused to work in numerous locations with internet capabilities (i.e. home, school, work).

I noticed a few irregularities caused by the bluetooth device monitor issue, and they include:
- disabling my ability to right-click
- hangs on shut down/restart
- turning off my antivirus
- any program I am able to open becomes unresponsive after a short period of time

Functionality returns, like you said, after 15-20 minutes but the problem kept coming back until I disabled the bluetooth device monitor. Unfortunately, I do not know what the bluetooth device monitor does (I don't use any bluetooth products either), but having it disabled has not affected my laptop in any noticeable way. It might be best to bring this to the attention of Intel since they are the manufacturers of the service.

Hopefully we are not the only ones with this problem and some more knowledgable people can provide some insight on this issue.

HP Recommended

This problem is very difficult to diagnose.  There is no obvious indication that the problem is with the Bluetooth Device Manager.  It is easy to "fix" or "work-around" once you know what the problem is but the difficulty is in discovering the source of the problem.  

 

The symptoms initially appeared to me as if there was a network or WiFi problem.  You will see the blue spinning ball at the Wifi signal strength system tray icon, you cant get into the Network and Sharing control panel, most everything application is not responding/locked-up and you cant shutdown or restart.  However, starting in Safe Mode with Networking was OK.

 

It is only when you start in Safe Mode and go through the process of disabling and isolating the non-Microsoft services that you can find this problem.

 

I'm sure many people are having this same problem right now and are utterly lost.  There is not obvious description of the problem that you can search for that will lead you to the root cause in the Bluetooth Device Monitor and the "work-around" described above. 

HP Recommended

Exactly the same thing happening here on an HP ProBook 4540s. As per the people above, system restores did nothing, and it took a lot of debugging via msconfig to narrow it down to the Bluetooth services - disabling these also 'solves' the problem for me.

 

Thank goodness it's not just me 🙂

HP Recommended
HP Recommended

Appreciate all who have weighed in on this problem.  Here's a couple of additional points that I did not include in my original post:

 

As soon as the rebooting problem appeared (as described in my original post), I tried a couple of things before I contacted the HP technical support group.

 

The HP Support Assistant that came with my Ultrabook has a feature to check for "Updates and tune-ups".  I performed this check and the HP Support Assistant reported back that there were no updates available for my computer.

 

I also ran the Windows Update program, and it also reported back that there were no updates available for my computer.

 

After running the HP Support Assistant and the Windows Update program, I contacted the HP technical support folks and utiized their on-line chat feature to see if they could solve this problem.

 

During the 1st on-line chat session I had with an HP technician, she could only suggest that I change a power management option on my wireless adapter ("Allow compter to turn off this device to save power").  That didn't fix the issue.

 

During the 2nd on-line chat session I had with a different HP technician, he wanted me to return my Ultrabook to HP for repair.  That didn't seem to be the right direction to go and I told him this.  He then instructed me to disable all the system services and reboot my computer (as I described in my original post).

 

The morning after I finished the 2nd chat session, I went back and re-enabled each of the disabled system services, one-by-one with reboots between each.  As described in my original post, this isolated the issue to the "Bluetooth Device Monitor" system service.  So with this piece of information I contacted HP again and began the 3rd on-line chat session.

 

During the 3rd on-line chat session, the HP technician gave me a link to download the "Intel PROSet Bluetooth Driver" (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-108425-1&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en...=).  I downloaded the SP58693.exe file and installed the package on my Ultrabook.  Then I ran the package's Autorun program which launched the installer, but at the end of the installation process (as the progress bar indicator was 95% or more complete) the installer reported that it could not restart the "Bluetooth Device Monitor" service.  The only options the installer presented to me were to Retry or Cancel.  The Retry option repeated the exact process again and once again reported that it could not restart the "Bluetooth Device Monitor" service.  So I clicked the Cancel button and the installer rolled back all the changes.  I tried to run the installer again as an Administrator, but had the same results.  So I was not able to update the "Intel PROSet Bluetooth Driver".

 

Next, I went to the Intel downloads website where Intel has the "Intel® Driver Update Utility" which can automatically interrogate a remote computer to determine which, if any, drivers have updates available (http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect).  This website tool reported that a newer version of the "Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235" driver was available (version 16.1.5.0).  Since my Ultrabook had the version 15.2.0.0 driver and it sounded like this driver might be involved with my issue, I downloaded and installed the newer driver.  The only other drivers that the Intel driver discovery tool found didn't seem related to the issue I described in my original post so I didn't update these two drivers (the "Intel® HD Graphics 4000" driver and the "Intel® Wireless Display Software" driver).  After updating the "Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235" driver I then re-enabled the "Bluetooth Device Monitor" service and found that the problem behavior still existed.  So updating the "Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235" driver didn't fix the issue.

 

At this point, I have disabled the "Bluetooth Device Monitor", "Bluetooth Media Service", and the "Bluetooth OBEX Service" system services.  Other than that, I don't know what else to do to resolve this issue.  At least it is good to know that other folks are experiencing the same issue after the latest automatic updates from Microsoft.  (I did ask the 3rd on-line chat technician to pass the entire thread of all 3 of my on-line chat sessions to HP's central technical support group because I felt that other users would be having similar problems with their computers.  Hopefully he did this and the HP "guru's" are going to look further into this issue.)

 

In my original post, I asked if anyone knows what the "Bluetooth Device Monitor" service does (and as Many_Devices also pointed out in one of the replies to my original post, also what the "Bluetooth Media Service" and the "Bluetooth OBEX Service" system services do as well).  I've poked around the web (Google and Bing) but have not found much in the way of a functional explanation...just some very high-level (product marketing?) information.  I would really like to know what will be the impact to the function of my Ultrabook laptop if I leave these 3 system services disabled.  Does anyone know?  As I noted in my original post, my Bluetooth mouse works just fine even with these 3 system services disabled.

 

Hope this additional information is helpful to anyone facing this problem.  I would like to hear back if anyone "cracks this nut" and/or if anyone can provide a functional explanation as to what these 3 system services are meant to do.

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

HP Recommended

For the record...my current Bluetooth driver is "Intel Bluetooth Driver" (version 2.0.15.30150).

 

When I attempt to install the "Intel PROSet Bluetooth Driver" that the HP technician aske me to download and install yesterday (see my previous post), the final dialog box that was displayed before the installer rolled back the installation process was this:

 

9-20-2013 6-56-37 AM.png

 

This happens even when I log into the Administrator account on my Ultrabook laptop.

 

Also, the installer had two initial options:  (1) Repair and (2) Remove.  There was no "Install" option.  The installation package included a installation instructions document ("install_repair_remv.htm") but it didn't mention any special privileges that are required to complete the installation process, or mention what (if anything) should be done to remove the existing "Intel Bluetooth Driver".

 

I contacted HP on-line tech support again this morning to see if they could help me successfully complete the "Intel PROSet Bluetooth Driver" installation process.  The technician suggested that I update my BIOS (even though it currently is the up-to-date BIOS version F.25) and then he suggested that I re-install Windows 7 from scratch.  Since I didn't think this was the direction to go, I exited the chat session without making these changes.  (I have no reason to believe that my BIOS is corrupt or that my OS installation is corrupt.  Both of these suggestions appeared to be "hail mary" approaches that didn't seem appropriate.)

 

So my frustration level is growing...

HP Recommended

 

 

I have solved the problem!!  Here's the solution...

 

The "Intel PROSet Bluetooth Driver" that the HP support tech asked me to download and install would not install as described in my previous posts.

 

I checked Intel's download center for the "Intel® PROSet/Wireless Bluetooth Software for Windows 7" (https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=22860) to see if there was anything available and found the driver file version 3.0.1304.

 

I downloaded the "BT_3.0.1304_s64.exe" file from the Intel website and then ran it after it downloaded to my laptop.  The installer asked me if I wanted to replace my existing Bluetooth driver (version 2.0.15.30150) with a newer one (version 3.0.24.40063).  I clicked "Yes" and the installer successfully completed the installation process.  I then rebooted my Ultrabook laptop,

 

After the laptop restated, I checked the Device Manager to confirm the driver update:

 

9-20-2013 8-15-22 AM.jpg

 

 

Then, using the msconfig.exe program, I re-enabled  "Bluetooth Device Monitor", "Bluetooth Media Service", and the "Bluetooth OBEX Service" system services.  After that, I rebooted my Ultrabook laptop.

 

The laptop rebooted and quicky found the and connected to my network.  The problem that I described in my original post did not reappear.  So I'm going to mark this message thread as "Accept as Solution" and close it.

 

I hope this information can help others who are experiencing the same problems.

HP Recommended

Here is my response to HP's follow-up survey request...

 

"Please refer to the HP technical support on-line chat session logs (Activity IDs 60656342, 60678570, 60728062, and 60811199).  In particular, please review my closing comments to the HP technician that you will find in my last on-line chat session (Activity ID 60711199).

 

During the course of these 4 on-line chat sessions with HP's technical support group, I was advised to (1) change a minor power management option on my HP ENVY Spectre XT Ultrabook CTO 13t-2000 laptop computer's network adapter device, (2) send the Ultrabook back to HP for repair, (3) update the Ultrabook's BIOS, (4) reload/restore the Windows 7 operating system to its original factory state, and (5) remove and replace the Ultrabook's Bluetooth card.  These suggested courses of action ranged from trivial to extreme and none of them had anything to do with the eventual solution.

 

I finally resolved the issue on my own after posting the issue to the HP Support Forums website (http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Lockups-Freezes-Hangs/Bluetooth-Device-Monitor/td-p/2950799).  If you read through that posting you will see that other users are experiencing similar problems.

 

My experience with the on-line HP technical support group was much less than satisfactory.  I purchased an HP ENVY Spectre XT Ultrabook CTO 13t-2000 in July 2012 and it has warranty coverage to July 2014.  This is a "top-of-the-line" laptop product from HP, but HP's technical support response lacked technical expertise (note that there also was no subsequent issue escalation to other HP higher-level technical support resources that might have been better able to resolve the problem).  I don't understand what value I'm receiving from having a 2-year warranty, other than the privilege of speaking to an HP technical support person.  In the end, HP's technical support group: (1) lacked diagnostic troubleshooting capabilities and could not determine the cause of my problem, (2) failed to escalate the issue to more experienced/capable resources, (3) did no follow-up to confirm my issue was resolved, and (4) didn't seem concerned that four discussions with various on-line technical support people could not solve the problem.  HP's technical support group rightly deserves a failing grade for its performance.

 

I would encourage you to contact me if you would like to discuss these comments and my experience further."

 

Maybe my survey comments will have a positive impact and HP will tighten up its technical support organization.  Their approach was either a "throw it against the wall see if it sticks" attitude or a "hail mary" attempt to solve the problem.  Neither approach requires much "technical" expertise and none of the HP technical support people seemed to have the tools or experience to adequately troubleshoot and completely resolve my Ultrabook's problem.

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