Bluetooth is gone

[NJD]

I bought my first Mac, a new aluminum Macbook, in October. It's been working great since then with just one exception. The friggen Bluetooth. The problem was minor; annoying, but minor. If a Bluetooth mouse was connected when I closed the lid to let the computer sleep, it wouldn't wake up from it's sleep. I would just end up with a black screen and would have to power it down manually and start it up again. I tried this with a few Bluetooth mice and got the same result, so I just started to turn off the mouse before I closed the lid and avoided the problem.

Today, I was just browsing the internet when I got an error message that said I had to power down my computer and restart it. So I did, and when I got back to my desktop I got another message that said OS X had some problem and noticed things were kinda screwy. For starters, the keyboard shortcuts were all messed up. If I pressed the increase volume button, the dashboard would show up, etc. I also noticed that the Bluetooth icon on the top bar was gone and my mouse wasn't working.

After about a half hour, the keyboard shortcuts magically fixed themselves, however the Bluetooth still hasn't appeared and the Bluetooth Setup Assistant is nowhere to be found. I did a TM backup a few days ago so I decided to just restore the machine from that point. Still no luck. I'm starting to think this is a hardware issue, but I wanted to see if anyone else had this problem before I run off to the Apple store.

 

[Eidorian]

Did you check under System Profiler for Bluetooth?

 

[NJD]

Did you check under System Profiler for Bluetooth?

When I select Bluetooth under Hardware, it says "No information found".

 

[Eidorian]

When I select Bluetooth under Hardware, it says "No information found".

Ouch, I think you're right that it's a hardware problem. The loss of it might have even caused the kernel panic in the first place.

 

[NJD]

Ouch, I think you're right that it's a hardware problem. The loss of it might have even caused the kernel panic in the first place.

That's what I figured. So what am I looking at in terms of repair. Do I have to send this sucker back to Apple? If so, how long do they usually take to fix it?

 

[Eidorian]

That's what I figured. So what am I looking at in terms of repair. Do I have to send this sucker back to Apple? If so, how long do they usually take to fix it?

I'd take it to an Apple Store if you can. If you're lucky it'll take a few hours if not it might get lost in the repair system and take a few weeks.

 

[NJD]

I'd take it to an Apple Store if you can. If you're lucky it'll take a few hours if not it might get lost in the repair system and take a few weeks.

Bleh. Well, at least the closest Apple store is just down the street. I'll give it a shot tomorrow. Thanks for the help.

 

[Nermal]

I've had Bluetooth disappear occasionally but it's almost always recovered by rebooting. One time I had to reset the PRAM, so give that a go (reboot while holding Cmd-Opt-P-R and let it chime three times).