MacOS – Bluetooth Not Available – Mid 2010 Macbook Pro

bluetoothhardwaremacbook promacos

I have a 13" mid 2010 Macbook Pro running 10.8.3. For some reason, I started it up the other day and my Bluetooth is now for some reason unavailable.

I've had this problem in the past, and if my memory serves me correctly the only way to get it back was just to let it come back on it's own. However, it's very annoying that this happens apparently no reason and this is just not good enough.

I've tried the following:

Restart, shut down, suspend/resume cycles
Reset SMC
Reset PRAM
Deleted any Bluetooth.plist files in ~/Library/Preferences
Verified permissions

And nothing has worked. Any suggestions?

Best Answer

I reviewed a similar problem with the same model on the MacRumors forum and the original poster responded that it was definitely a hardware issue. In researching parts to see if you could fix this yourself -- in case you are out of warranty -- I found that the Bluetooth hardware is part of the display assembly. This means you'll need to replace your display. The part itself is about $500 at iFixIt and the fix is consider "difficult."

The only other suggestion I saw mentioned was to re-install OS X, but I would lean toward a hardware issue.

Good luck!

Related Solutions

MacOS – MacBook does not sleep when lid is closed

A lack of wake reason entries suggests your Mac is never fully sleeping. The sleep mechanism has started but never completes.

Use the following Terminal command to view a detailed log showing your Mac's power history:

pmset -g log

You will see a list of entries in form:

 * Domain: applicationresponse.slowresponse
 - Message: PMConnection AirPort configd plug-in com.apple.powermanagement.applicationresponse.slowresponse 1399 ms
 - Time: 13/03/2012 12:27:53 CET 
 - Signature: AirPort configd plug-in
 - UUID: AB482838-2D6E-0000-0000-14BF53E20000
 - Result: Noop
 - Response time (ms): 1399

Look out for applications that may be keeping your Mac awake and active. Applications and other processes can keep your Mac awake if they are providing a service, such as file sharing or remote access. However, processes should be forced asleep after 30 seconds on lid close.

The behaviour you are seeing suggests a kernel extension or IOKit problem. User level processes can not block sleep when instigated by the user.

Do you have any utilities installed that install kernel extensions (kext)? These might include screen recording or audio capture tools; utilities than need low level access to your Mac.

Bluetooth unavailable with Yosemite 10.10.3

Try these commands on a terminal window to unload and reload the driver:

sudo kextunload -b com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport

sudo kextload -b com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MacOS – MacBook does not sleep when lid is closed

Bluetooth unavailable with Yosemite 10.10.3

Related Question