Dell Inspiron 17 3737: install Bluetooth device on Windows 7 (64-bit)

I have to admin that I have not tested the Bluetooth device with my former Windows 7 installations on the Inspirons 17 3737, so I thought that the WLAN problem was the only one – that was false conclusion. The problem with the Bluetooth device was, that smartphones or other notebooks could perhaps find the Dell Inspiron 17 3737 (or even could not find it!), but paring was impossible!

After some people told me that Bluetooth does not work and if I know a solution, I tried to install Bluetooth on a foreign notebook via TeamViewer, but it failed – I must say, we had not too much time! But today I received a further Inspiron 17 3737, so I had a machine and the time to test! And here is the solution, I found:

1. After installing Windows 7, install the WLAN device as described here and connect the notebook to internet.
2. Go to device manager and press Scan for hardware changes. Windows will install Intel device Intel(r) Management Engine Interface.
3. Restart
4. Download Dell Wireless 1705 Bluetooth Software 8.0.1.305 (189.9 MiB, 704 hits) and extract it to e.g. C:\Drivers\bt-software
5. Go to C:\Drivers\bt-software and execute win764.exe. Follow the setup wizard and do NOT restart. In my case, Windows installed some more hardware devices after the setup, so wait for this. If this does not happen, go to device manager and press Scan for hardware changes.
6. Restart
7. Download Dell Wireless 1705 Bluetooth Driver 8.0.0.226 (6.2 MiB, 513 hits) and extract it to e.g. C:\Drivers\bt-driver. (Yes, I know, this driver is actually for Windows 8, but it works!)
8. Go to device manager, right click on Generic Bluetooth Adapter and select Update driver… – this will start the Update Driver Software wizard.
9. Select Browse my computer for driver software
10. Select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer
11. Click Have Disk… and navigate to folder where you extracted the archive, e.g. C:\Drivers\bt-driver\win8-64bit
12. Double-click on atheros_bth.inf and press Ok
13. Select Dell Wireless 1705 Bluetooth in list and press next
14. Now you have to accept that the driver should be installed, although the driver is not signed – I have it from www.atheros.cz, so I trust!
15. Close the window and everything should work as expected :)

I don’t know why both, the software and driver, is needed. I thought that a driver is integrated in the software setup, but the device did not work after installing. Even when only using the driver, the Bluetooth device did no work. After installing both… TADA… it was done – but don’t ask me why ;)

Driver Download

Device: Dell Wireless 1705 Software
Version: 8.0.1.305
Download: Dell Wireless 1705 Bluetooth Software 8.0.1.305 (189.9 MiB, 704 hits)

Device: Dell Wireless 1705 Bluetooth Driver
Version: 8.0.0.226
Download: Dell Wireless 1705 Bluetooth Driver 8.0.0.226 (6.2 MiB, 513 hits)