I cannot get the Bluetooth dongle supplied with my FTC kit to work on my Windows Vista PC. When I plug it into the USB port it tries to install but fails. Viewed in the Bluetooth hardware devices it says "This device cannot start. (Code 10)". All attempts to find/download/install a new driver fail.

It does work on two other Win XP computers, so I suspect this is a compatibility issue with Vista. I want to use it on the Vista computer (HP Pavilion dv6000) as this is a laptop that I am able to bring to meetings and competitions.

Any sugggestions?

I have vista and it works, so it may be your crudware (software that you don't want that comes on your computer) that is causing the problem.
Either that or you need to install SP1.
Btw I am using a gateway P-7811 FX

It also works for me, on an Aspire 3680

if your laptop has built in bluetooth you might want to try that first.... or disable that bluetooth so you can use the dongle stand-alone

If you're having issues with anything hardware related in the kit, let LEGO Education know.

Thanks all for your responses. After a hiatus I am getting back to this. It seems Vista can be ruled out as the problem.

I uninstalled all the robotics software and re-started from the beginning, trying both the computer's integrated Bluetooth and the supplied dongle. In both cases, the computer connects via Bluetooth to the robot, as evidenced by 'seeing' the NXT in the Bluetooth control panel. However, the RobotC software cannot connect to the NXT. When I try to download programs or control the NXT through the joystick control. I get an error message that says "Failed to open Communication link to NXT brick".

Any further suggestions? I will also report this to Lego tech support. Thanks.

Your NXT's memory is full. Reformat it and then try again. It happened to me once...

A few things you can try.

1a. Reset the bluetooth via the menu on the NXT: Bluetooth - Reset
1b. Reset the bluetooth by pulling the battery on the NXT while the NXT is powered on.
2. Reset the NXT itself by holding down the button in the hole nearest to the USB adapter. You'll need a tiny screw driver or a lego axle to reach down there. Hold the button for 10 seconds until you hear a faint clicking sound from the NXT.
3. Delete all names from Windows Bluetooth connection history.
4. Disabled your internal bluetooth. Windows cannot operate with two bluetooth adapters (I believe it'll ignore the second one.

Keep us updated.

There is a command to "defragment" files in the NXT file sytem. Defragmentation is required when the has many small chunks of available space between used files. None of the small chunks (i.e. free memory) may be large enough to store the user program you're trying to downloaded. And, unlike a PC with disk, user programs need to be stored in a single large contiguous block of flash memory.

The "Defragment" command moves files around in the NXT flash to pack them together without intervening free space so that you end up with one large contiguous block of free memory. The "Defragment" command is found on the "NXT File Management" window. You can access it via the mend command "Robot -> NXT brick -> File Management".

However, this is not likely the cause of Bluetooth problems.

I just got a new computer with windows vista(it's a compaq laptop) how do i tell if it has bluetooth on it.
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Limberly,

Can you give us the model name/number of the laptop? Most modern laptops have BT built-in.

Regards,
Xander

In my experience, bluetooth with the NXT is sort of random. Also, I have an HP laptop with built in bluetooth that basically does the same thing no matter what I do (NXT-G or RobotC).