Kensington Bluetooth USB Adapter Reviews
Computers November 2nd, 2004I bought my first Bluetooth USB adapter from Best Buy last night so that I could sync up Outlook with my new Audiovox SMT5600.
I got the Kensington Bluetooth USB Adapter only because it was all they had in the store.
This device stinks. The driver is not signed which means XP doesn’t play nice with it. Also the software is extremely slow and seems to be consuming a lot of CPU. The worst part though is that the signal strength is horrible when the phone is sitting on my desk at just 6 feet away.
August 13th, 2005 at 8:35 am
After 38 years of computer life, I have never been pissed enough about a product to post a review until now. Yesterday (12 August 2005) I had the misfurtune of purchasing a Kensington USB Bluetooth adaptor. After opening the package, I discovered that the drivers were not in the WinXP cache and had they had no Microsoft signature. It took me 7 tries that resulted in hangups before the application even loaded. There were also WinXP SP2 issues identified. There is no support offered on the Kinsington www site, at all. The software is 3rd party, published in 2003 and not supported by the company, as they have merged with another that offers no support either The dogma stated that the unit is USB 2.2; it was not found until I put it in a USB 1.1 port. I have finally got my PDA to sync via Bluetooth but I can get no additional application to configure. I will be de-installing this little monster, returning it to the vendor for a refund and willpoint myself in the direction of a unit that has is properly supported by its manufacturer. DO NOT EVEN CONSISDER THIS PRODUCT!!!
October 27th, 2005 at 11:11 pm
Wow… here I go looking for drivers for this thing cause I can’t find the CD in all the packed up boxes we have… and I run into these 2 posts. I’ve been looking for the drivers and found nothing!!!
November 16th, 2005 at 2:17 pm
yup. Same thing here. What a piece of sh#%!
Do NOT buy the Kensington bluetooth adapter unless you just love to waste away your life on fruitless tasks.
P.S.– The 800 is also useless and frustrating.
December 23rd, 2005 at 11:56 am
I just bought this Kensinton Bluetooth USB adapter yesterday evening and attempted to install it for hours, figuring I’d missed something because I was tired. This morning, I found this site after I called their 800 number and found they were closed for a “company holiday”, then Googled for drivers. This piece of junk is going back to the store this morning.
December 26th, 2005 at 3:16 am
this things sucks my ass so hard!! no drivers if you loose the cd. fuck this piece.
December 27th, 2005 at 1:30 am
After two days of struggling with this device, I came across your site. Unfortunately, I still owned one of these devices, and because it was a christmas present, returning it wasn’t an option. I’ve actually been able to successfully make it work. I’ve blogged about it. Basically, remove the Kensington drivers and install the MSI driver only (not the bluetooth stack). Use Microsoft’s stack. It’s been working for several hours very successfully now.
January 5th, 2006 at 9:47 am
Ian - thank god you blogged about it cuz i followed your directions and links and only installed the device driver not the MSI WMI bluetooth drivers and it works like a charm. Used it this morning driving to work and it was great talking to my GPS. Thanks. Paul
January 10th, 2006 at 2:07 am
hey i got the kensington bluetooth usb adapter model #33085 and saw that you guys needed drivers well i just got this and have the driver cd. if you want i can send anyone an iso of it so they can burn.
just email me at bob92553@yahoo.com and have the subject bluetooth adapter
later
January 23rd, 2006 at 5:53 pm
robert,
did u try installing the new drivers and did it work ? just let me know before i take the li’l sucker off the package..
January 27th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
that MSI driver is the solution. Getting rid of the crap kensington software/drivers and updating the driver for the adapter(through device manager)definitely did the trick (and then using the xpsp2 BT stack). Also..as mentioned elswhere in these forums, activesync 4.0 helps with the bluetooth sync. (download that from microsoft). Anyways, just wanted to say that Ian’s solution worked for me, and thanks Ian for posting the info! my BT mouse and phone (SMT5600) are connected beautifully and smooth.
-chad
January 29th, 2006 at 12:45 pm
The MSI driver works magic, I have been working with it without problems, thanks for the tip
February 7th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
I tried the MS driver - BTDongle.inf and XP doesn’t recognise it as having any info for the 33085, how exatly did you guys get it to work???
February 18th, 2006 at 5:35 am
this is where i uploaded the driver cd
http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=593685
user name is drivers
password is all
February 21st, 2006 at 8:36 am
No problem on Apple iBook. (Panther) Plug and.. well.. done.
Sorry Windoods, I feel ya, I’m setting up now on an XP system ( >No problem on Apple iBook. (Panther) Plug and.. well.. done.
Sorry Windoods, I feel ya, I’m setting up now on an XP system ( >
February 21st, 2006 at 3:47 pm
Wow, I have never bought a crapier product then this kensington bluetooth dongle. I mean everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The installation was troublesome, I couldn’t adjust the volume for my headset from the control panel, it couldn’t detect the adapter in the usb port. It is overall, a piece of junk. If you can’t return it, you might as well just melt it down and sell it as a plastic pellet to recycling companies.
March 1st, 2006 at 4:11 pm
I hope every one who owns of of these ****ty devices checks out Ian’s blog. I have had one of these sitting in my desk for almost a year because I hated the kensington drivers. The MSI drivers are the only way to go.
March 2nd, 2006 at 11:26 am
kensington drivers are here ftp://ftp.kensington.com/BT/ for anyone that needs them. same problem with XP SP2–won’t recognize device–go with the msi.
March 3rd, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Can anyone tell me which MSI driver works for Windows 2000? I’ve downloaded two different MSI drivers so far but my computer is still unable to detect the bluetooth device.
March 5th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
i also have the bluetooth adapter but no CD….they have drivers available at the following site…im downloading it rite now…hopefully it works…leme know if it works for u guyz
ftp://ftp.kensington.com/bt
March 6th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
I tried using the MSI driver (pointed it to the directory containing the *.INF) but it says it cannot “find the necessary” software. Can someone help me out?
March 9th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
I installed the MSI drivers as per the blog, but nothing else (ie the SP2 BT stack) installed afterwards. So I have a crappy little 30385 that gets detected wonderfully, I can pair it with my headset, but there is no audio gateway or any service to use. I’ve sent the request for help into kensington, we’ll see what happens. By the sound of it - not much will happen. All I want to do is use a BT headset, and be able to change the gain. Sounds like some of you have accomplished that. My situation right now:
- MSI drivers installed.
- My device is detected when I insert it
- I can paor the headset
- there is no audio gateway, network or any other service.
Any ideas?
March 10th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
Nothing from Kensington works right.
March 14th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
I tried installing hard the Kensington Bluetooth adapter model 33085 but I kept getting the license errors. I wish if Kensington could have included the license with the software itself.
March 19th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
I am getting the license error BS too even though I am installing from the CD thaat came with the dongle. Did you find a solution Tom?
April 5th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
I bought the Kensington 33348 model. It comes with the xp software for it, is fast, and connects up to 7 devices. It works great with my Razr phone and my iPAQ PDA. Good buy, I recommend it.
April 11th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
I found this ftp by calling india yayaya
ftp://ftp.kensington.com/bt/
if you cant login this will get you there!!!
http://tinyurl.com/7746p
ENJOY!!!
April 13th, 2006 at 3:27 am
I just bought one of these a few hours ago (33085) driver installation was a little buggy (error dialogs re: needing files from windows CD that I ignored.) But other than that it worked with my new Motorola RAZR phone that I also just got.
Already wirelessly transfered an MP3 to my phone.
Rather painless. I’m using the latest version of Windows Media Center. Not sure why everyone else is having so much trouble. I paid $59.99 CAD at best buy. Sounds like a rip off though. I think I’ll return it and look for a better reviewed product to replace it with. Suggestions?
April 24th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
I’ve have the Kensington USB 2.0 (model 33348)for a couple months. The CD has the WIDCOMM 4.1.0.2400 drivers exactly as given at the FTP site above.
All worked well, but I don’t use the dongle that often.
Today I tried it after a month of inactivity, and it no longer works. Uninstalling and re-installing the drivers didn’t help from the original CDROM, and some guy in India with Kensington is sending me a new dongle, but I don’t think it is the hardware (I could at least get it to light up with the MSI stack).
My theory is that some Microsoft auto-update over the last couple months killed the Kensington driver and Kensignton doesn’t know what’s going on.
Tom L.
April 27th, 2006 at 6:50 am
Try using this link to disable microsoft BT drivers, and allow you to use WIDCOMM stack.
http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2005/07/05/bluetooth.html
April 29th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
download the drivers at my site:
http://allthingstech.blogspot.com/2006/04/kensington-bluetooth-adapter-k33085.html
I wasted too much time looking for the drivers to install on my laptop.
May 19th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
i won’t buy kensington again because of this. you can’t download the driver from their site. what kind of support is that? you can’t even find the device on their list and they don’t list canada as an option under countries. if the driver works from your site mythbuster then thank you very much. i’m going to go there now.
May 20th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
AAAAAAAAAAgh!
I’m in Canada, the Kensington site doesn’t even recognise it as a country.
I’m taking this back…no amount ot playing and tweaking can get it to work. I simply cannot believe stores stock this!
May 21st, 2006 at 8:57 pm
Mine worked until my computer crashed now i can not get it to reload.
May 22nd, 2006 at 12:10 am
I have to add to this list of unhappy users. Where are the drivers on the Kensignton site? I found the FTP site from another posting but the driver locked up the PC. Not impressed. Time to head for the garbage can. Dont waste your money or time on this hardware. The software isnt there.
May 26th, 2006 at 1:23 am
Canada is a country?
June 4th, 2006 at 9:24 am
I’ve had this kensington bluetooth adapter for quite a while now… Actually a couple years for my v600 and now my e815… I’ve never had a problem until now as I plugged it into my XP box rather than my Macs… I’ve used it on a powermac, iMac G5 and a couple different powerbooks with never a problem and never even loaded any drivers… plugged it in and accessed by phone and synced them… Hopefully some of these posts with help as I only need to hack my e815.. Kensington seems to be a company that designs for mac and then ports to windows as an afterthought… most companies do the reverse..
June 12th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
June 12.. tried getting drivers for my 33348 BT. The FTP link STILL doesn’t work!!!
June 14th, 2006 at 3:20 am
i have tried everything…i FINALLY have bluetooth places/devices again but i try to do anything with it and the damn thing isn’t found. i think its totally fried….what a waste of money. piece of cr@p.
June 17th, 2006 at 8:16 am
I just bought one and I cannot get it to work. All these negative comments are true. Disgraceful that BestBuy would stock such junk.
June 28th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
I downloaded the msi and unziped it but don’t know how to make it go where it is supposed to go from there
July 10th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
does anyone know some good software to actually use my bluetooth device (33348) to transfer the pictures from my phone to my PC? the kensington software said that my phone does not support their file transfer service. i have a motorola E815.
July 19th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
brandon,
your phone may be locked by Verizon and does not allow file transfers. You may want to look at howardforums.com for solution.
July 23rd, 2006 at 2:03 am
I bought Kensington USB Bluetooth Adapter. While installing the CD, I got a message on the screen.It says ”please insert the CD 1”. I looked at the box to see if there is any other cd :))) Ofcourse, There is no any other CD. I search the net, there is no softare to install it. Finally, I ended up on this site.
Thanks to Mythbuster. The software on his/her site at least downloads fully but didn’t work on my laptop either.It’s trying so hard to crash and not recognize the device.
I’m a patience person but enough is enough. I hope I don’t break the “CD 1″ and throw the damn device to the garbage until the store opens again this morning.It is already 2am.I’ve been with the device more than 4 hours. Don’t waste your time to figure out what to do with the Kensington product. Return it while you can.
July 31st, 2006 at 9:44 pm
Hey guys, I hate to be the dissenter, but I figured I’d give the Kensington software a shot for my (33085) Bluetooth Dongle before trying to hotwire it with something else. I was surprised, but it worked just fine with the original software. I’m running Windows XP Service Pack 2. Maybe they’ve updated their driver CD?
Anyway, it’s good having these guys help out by posting/blogging about troubleshooting issues.
August 4th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
For the Dongle part No. 33348 this is the driver…
ftp://ftp.kensington.com/bt/KensingtonBTW%204.0.1.2400.zip
August 13th, 2006 at 1:45 am
I went through hell with Kensington support via email. Their support personnel were Indian, and even their written English skills were poor. This made communicating effectively with them a challenge.
During one exchange I was told to download the drivers from their FTP site at the following
ftp://ftp.kensington.com/BT/
Note that if you go to the top level at:
ftp://ftp.kensington.com/
you will not see the “BT” directory listed at all! It’s a hidden directory. Once inside, you can see the contents of the directory and download them.
Hope this helps someone else unlucky enough to have purchased a Kensington USB Bluetooth dongle.
August 28th, 2006 at 9:00 pm
August 31st, 2006 at 7:25 pm
Answer to all your worries , buy a TARGUS Bluetooth Adaptor With EDR.
September 9th, 2006 at 12:39 am
September 22nd, 2006 at 5:07 am
I wish I searched Google before buying this but it was an impulse purchase at Best Buy with a gift card and now I’m in another country, so returning it is not an option. I haven’t been this frustrated since I bought a Lexmark printer five years ago which had software not certified by Microsoft.
I can not get my Palm Tungsten to sync via bluetooth because I can’t create a serial and comm port. Every time I try Windows launches the Find New Hardware Wizard, which fails. I have version 4.0.1.2400 of the software on the CD, so downloading it from the above-listed sites probably isn’t going to help. I’ll try Ian’s suggestion of installing the MSI driver only.
For anyone looking into this device, look elsewhere. Anyone who just bought it, return it for a better-supported device.
Oh, btw, even if I get this thing to work with my Palm Hotsync, it does not support Internet connection sharing with a wireless connection. That seems to be a major limitation for a LAPTOP adaptor. Even in my home my laptop uses wireless. So I have to physically plug it in to share the wireless connection with my Palm? Is this the case with ALL bluetooth adaptors?
September 22nd, 2006 at 6:39 am
I can’t install the MSI driver. I uninstalled the Kensington software using Add/Remove programs, and rebooted.
I plugged in the adapter and the Found New Hardware wizard came up. From the “Common Hardware Type” list I chose “Bluetooth Radios” and on the next screen chose “Have Disk” and pointed to the downloaded and extracted driver (”BTDongle.inf”). I received the following error message:
“The specified location does not contain information about your hardware.”
Can someone post the exact steps for installing the MSI driver?
Also, folks should also post their frustrations at CNET.com and other high profile review sites so that the company gets the message.
September 28th, 2006 at 7:37 pm
Now that Kensington has had their Bluetooth USB 2.0 model out for a while now (model 33348), can anyone comment on its reliability vs the old, terrible model? I originally had the old model, and eventually just threw it away as it was too late to return it (same problems listed by everyone above). However the new 2.0 model might work better. (?)
If people could start specifying which model they have when they post, that would be great.
September 29th, 2006 at 2:31 am
At some point one has to decide whether it’s worth one’s time to keep struggling with this adapter. I have the Kensington 33085. I am an advanced user, and have spent hours upon hours over the past several years getting this adapter to work.
Are there some drivers that work with this? Yes, but they may not enable all of the features one would want (such as headset functionality). It’s odd but true; some drivers work for some but not for others.
The bottom line that if you can’t get this dongle to work for you after one or two tries, it’s not worth your time.
I will never purchase another Kensington peripheral again, and will warn others from doing so.
RTM
October 29th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
FWIW, I just got the 33348. Courtesy of Howie’s kick-ass instructions above, I got it up and functioning for ActiveSync with the Treo 700w, which was really the only reason I bought it. Had a lot of trouble the first go-around for setup, but I think my error was trying to initiate the connection from the computer, rather than vice-versa. I’ve only had it running for a few hours, but so far, so good. I’ll post with other experiences as they happen…
greg
November 5th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
WOW., quite a lot of disatisfied customers.
I’m baffled why as I usually have lower than average results., MY experience with this product has been SUPER.
EACH installation on my brothers PC/Mothers Laptop/My serious PC & my toy PC have been seemless.
Pairing with my bluetooth headsets, my cellphone(s…yes I have several) and wifeys has been seemless.
Range is good enough for me. Tonight I went to take a DUMP streaming winamp audio 2 rooms away with my H300 Moto BT headset. Connections., are awesome., File Transfer (OBEX) is GREAT.
STABILITY is great???? I’m utterly baffled that so many of you guys got a crappy unit.
oh well.
I want to know if this dongle has A2DP support??? anybody? Bueler?
November 26th, 2006 at 12:40 am
Hello. I recently purchased a Bluetooth dongle and have similar problems to those mentioned in this article, and found this while searching for drivers (CD came scratched).
My adapter is of a make different different from Kensington, so I do not know if it should work, but I downloaded the first driver package posted here (hosted on driverguide.com). The installation program seemed to recognise the dongle (as ISSC USB Bluetooth Device), but whenever I attempt to activate the “Start using Bluetooth” option, it keeps asking me for a license file. What gives?
December 28th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
Does anyone know what the security code is for the Kensington Bluetooth Adapter? I can’t pair my computer with my printer without it.
January 2nd, 2007 at 4:08 pm
FYI - Kensington model 33348 - the USB 2.0 model works great with the supplied drivers on Windows XP SP2… with one catch. When the installer asks you to insert the BlueTooth device (the 33348) - DON’T - just hit cancel and let the install finish as is. This is the opposite to what the Kensington instuctions say to do.
Once the install is done, then insert the 33348 into a USB port - and everything works fine. It seems the installer does not complete a total install when the USB adapter is inserted in the middle of the install process (when the installer asks for it that is)
January 20th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
When trying to follow the instructions above to get my Blackberry 8100 Pearl connected via bluetooth to my laptop, nothing worked…that is, nothing worked until I copied the Microsoft files from my wife’s computer to my latop. I had installed the Widcomm drivers that came with my Kensington 33348 bluetooth dongle and could not get the computer to use the MS BT drivers no matter how hard I tried. The method I used to fix the issue was to copy all of the bt*.* files from the \windows\inf and \windows\system32 from my wife’s computer and copy them into the appropriate folders on my laptop. I also had to modify the bth.inf file in the \windows\inf folder. Below is the modification to the bth.inf file;
[Kensington.NT.5.1]
Kensington Bluetooth EDR Dongle= BthUsb, USB\Vid_047d&Pid_105e&Rev_0000
Kensington Bluetooth EDR Dongle 2nd line= BthUsb, USB\Vid_047d&Pid_105e
I made it look like the other lines.
I had to reinstall the Blackberry Desktop Software, but it fully sync’ed and I was able to use my Blackberry as a modem through the Bluetooth connection.
Hopefully, by posting this, someone else can benefit from my efforts.
February 25th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
i am looking for the drivers for this USB blue tooth device, i had purchase it and now i can not find the CD that came with it, i was hoping that the company would have the drivers listed, but i can not find them, if any one has them please email me at jack@jackearl.com thanks, or 1 800 559 1959 my name is jack
March 14th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Well, after reading, searching and more reading i download the msi software and stack.
when i start my bluetooth places i get script errors.
uninstalled and installed the broadcomm and still getting script errors… anyone else?
March 22nd, 2007 at 10:44 am
I gave it my best - 3 days of pure hell trying to get the Kensington USB Bluetooth 2.0 adapter to work with reliability on a clean, fresh Windows XP install (SP2). I could get my Treo 700wx to sync (eventually), but as soon as the connection was halted by me, it would not reconnect, no matter what I tried. I discovered removing the Kens. device and reinserting would usually work, but only after having to pair the devices again, choosing services, etc. Not my idea of a good setup, and certainly not what Bluetooth is all about. Decided after reading this website, and perusing over the issues others have had, and further web research, I would nix the Kensington and try the recommended Belkin. A few more $$, but after getting it home, going through the software installation and connecting on the first go, I made the right decision. It worked so well, I decided to get another (from eBay) for my laptop. The Belkin supposedly has VISTA drivers now (see their website)… so we’ll see how well that install goes (laptop has VISTA).
Others have had great success with the Kensington. I didn’t, and can only recommend going with the Belkin if you’re trying to ActiveSync with your Treo 700.
-Rob
April 6th, 2007 at 12:41 am
the default pairing security code is normally 0000. If you are asked for a code on one side of the connection enter any numeric code. Normally the other device will then prompt you for the code and you enter the same code at that prompt. The devices should authenticate and pair if the codes match.
April 16th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
The device is fine, the software is buggy in windows. I use the device with my FC5 Linux distro and it works as expected. The driver/software crashes my Windows XP computer
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:59 am
I have been using one for about a year. The earlier drivers were pretty puny but the latest driver (at least that I have) Widcomm 5.1.0.3100 seems to be good enough. It recognizes my head phone, my Treo, and my laptop easily enough. You have to acknowledge that a device is asking permission to connect, and viola, there it is. I have had NONE of the problems others have had. Had it running initially on a Dell Optiplex 280, XP sp2, now on a Optiplex 745 XP sp2.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Yup… POS for sure. Here I was for 3 hours on my day off trying to connect with my Motorola S9 and no success at all. Kensington sucks!
July 15th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I purchased mine and could never use it, I am finally throwing it out right now. BUT I WILL NOT BUY ANYTHING ELSE FROM KENSIGNTON. That’s the price they will pay for their lack of support, I don’t care if owners changed. NO KENSIGNTON FOR ME.
July 24th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
S9 exactly…. k33085
win xp sp2
paired successfully with-> krzr k1m(OBEX, DUN), e815(DUN), v710(audio gateway, dun)(all verizon), bluespoon ax2 hfp hs, bluespoon spider a2dp hfp hs, samsung wep150 hfp hs, moto 850 hfp hs, palm tx, Dell axim x51v wm5 a12 english widcom hack .50 (replaced over ms bt stack) BUT
CANNOT GET a2dp to work with Sony s9… only shows hfp
YET s9 pairs successfully and f()s w Dell Axim widcomm stack…….. WTF!?!?
on xp with kensington driver - notice that terrible reception across all paired devices even when
July 24th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Hey I bought a kensington 33348 Works great with XP! I had no problems with it there at all, but I recently upgraded to vista and can’t seem to get it to work at all. if anyone can help please email me at styx.rulz@yahoo.com
August 18th, 2007 at 8:19 am
I bought a kensington 33348
Works OK with XP! , but I recently upgraded to vista and was impossible get it to work .
If someone know a solution please send me e-mail
September 10th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
What an absolute piece of crap! I’ve had this thing for 3 months and couldn’t get it to do squat with XP. Bought a new laptop with Vista. Now, it lights up in the USB port but Vista can’t recognize it. I’m taking a hammer to it and mailing it back to Kensington.
September 13th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
I got this thing two days ago and have been frustrated with it ever since. I wish I’d read the posts here. Same story — trying to use it with Vista on a laptop. Had it mostly working last night for awhile, if I held my mouth just right and waved a dead chicken over my computer. Now it is not working at all. It lights up in the port, shows up on the device manager, but won’t pair with my headset at all. I think it was a big fluke that it ever worked at all. Yes this is definitely a piece of shit. Can anyone tell me of a USB BT dongle that they have used with Vista that DOES WORK (without doing handstands or strange contortions)?
September 19th, 2007 at 2:47 am
It’s definitely a handful, but with a full moon & the correct alignment of the planets you can get this little thing to work pretty well. I use it with my XP pro desktop, XP home desktop & my vista premium notebook with a variety of accessories, but there are definitely bugs. For example it knocked out the wifi on my vista pc on the first install, the A2DP is funny with all systems. I think I ended up using a different driver with vista, so i’m gonna try to locate it again & post the link
September 23rd, 2007 at 12:42 pm
October 10th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Rory PLEASE post the link you used to get yours to work. us other Vista users are having a tremendous time getting use out of this product
November 1st, 2007 at 4:18 pm
i need drivers for windows vista to instal bluetooth 33348
November 5th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
I also have a Kensington BT Dongle and it sucks. Nothing but trouble. I also have one of their “locks” except it sucks too and is so hard to use that I’ll probably never use it, the key gets stuck in it etc. Kensington 0 for 2
November 12th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
i have used the kensington bt dongle for years now, and it has never given me a problem. why are you guys having so much trouble?
and the support is great from kensington!
I use both pc’s and mac’s and am well versed in all aspects of computer technology…
so, what happened?
why can’t so many of you use this correctly?
hmmm…
November 27th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
The Kensington 33348 BT dongle SUCKS. Specifically - I CANNOT get it to work with my Plantronics Pulsar 590a bluetooth headset when plugged into a usb port on my Toshiba laptop running Windows XP home sp2 and I have tried EVERYTHING. I’ve been on the phone to Kensington’s support twice today (several other times too but I gave up); and it’s not hard to get someone on the phone who speaks good english - but the first guy I spoke to who left me dloading the latest s/w (Kensington’s website doesn’t tell you that you have to manually rip out the old s/w before updating and the updater will just tell you that you already have the latest s/w installed which is bullshit) who I made promise that he’d recorded everything we’d done in his database so I wouldn’t have to start all over again if I had to call back - DIDN’T. So when I called back, there was no record of the half an hour we’d spent. This time I demanded a supervisor who wasn’t any better technically than the first tech and had to promise to call me back while he went to research the situation.
I can get a connection to happen w/my laptop in a number of ways/profiles such as the “hands-free unit” one, but when I make the “Stereo Audio” connection, I get a seconds worth of sound and then nothing, or it may cut in and out sporadically. If I choose the “Bluetooth Hands-Free Audio” option under Sounds and Audio Device Properties from the control panel, I can get sound from iTunes, but it’s shitty and monaural. This is where I left it with the support supervisor.
All I can say is that I’ve spent far, far too much time on this ridiculous POS. My headset BTW is an absolute dream unit which I use with my Treo 650, PocketTunes and Softick’s A2DP profile driver. F*uck Kensington.
I’ve heard about MIS drivers but I can’t seem to access them anywhere out there. Any help if this might be a viable solution would be appreciated!
December 7th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
hello, hello tell me I need drivers for windows vista to instal bluetooth 33348.if anyone can help please email me at ronni79_2000@hotmail.com o ronni79_2000@yahoo.com
January 17th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
I have FINALLY gotten a somewhat helpful response from Kensington tech support regarding the Kensington K33348 Bluetooth dongle. Here is a quote from them:
Dear Robert:
Thank you for contacting Kensington Technical Support.
I understand the concern. I apologize for any inconvenience. We support Win Vista with 32 bit operating system. I regret to inform that the model # 33348 and other Bluetooth adapters in Kensington are not compatible on Win Vista 64 bit operating system.
If you need further assistance, please feel free to reply to this message.
Regards,
Mohammed Abdul Sami
Kensington Technical Support
Apparently Kensington bluetooth adapters are not 64 bit compatible. This explains why I was able to get it to work with my friends laptop, but not my own PC (that were both running vista)
I am agitated that there website does not specify anywhere (that I found) that it is only compatible with 32 bit platforms, but at least I finally got an answer from them.
January 20th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit
Kensington 33348
Plug in the device, cancel any driver installation.
Go to device manager, and click on properties for the “Unknown device > Bluetooth EDR dongle”. Click the details tab, and choose hardware ID for the option. The shorter entry should end with PID_105E. If this differs, it may still work, so write it down.
Open C:\windows\inf\bth.inf with notepad
(make a backup of this file first)
scroll down to below ;— Device section - Start —
find “Blutonium BCM2035″, it should be the 6th entry.
Replace the PID_xxxx with PID_105E, or whatever your hardware ID specified.
Save the file.
In device manager, right click the EDR dongle device, and choose update driver.
Choose the option to search for the driver yourself and dsiplay a list of all known drivers. Choose bluetooth radios, then Broadcaom and Blutonium BCM2035 for the device. It should install 3 or 4 devices, and you’re set to go.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
OK MINE IS GOING BACK .. SORRY FOR THE CAPS, BUT IF IT DRAWS THE ATTENTION OF ANYONE READING THIS POST IT’S WORTH IT.
I’VE SPENT 5 DAYS SCOURING THE INTERNET FOR DRIVERS FOR THE KENSINGTON 33348. I’VE BEEN IN E-MAIL CONTACT WITH BOTH KENSINGTON AND BROADCOM, NOBODY TOLD ME THAT THIS DONGLE WAS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH VISTA X64 AND I’M CLOSE TO SUEING KENSINGTON FOR FALSE ADVERTISEMENT.
THIS DEVICE DOES NOT WORK WITH VISTA 64BIT!! DO NOT BUY IT.
Blah.. Stupid people rule the world. The rest of us just have to live in it.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
UserNotFound,
The above instructions for Vista 32-bit do not work.
All that happens is that Vista recognizes it as a BT Radio.
The sound profile are are denoted as not working.
It’s absolutely DUMB, DUMB, DUMB that Vista does not suppport Stereo A2DP…this is like the basic thing is should do.
It really should not be this hard.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:31 am
SUCCESS!
YES! IT WORKS! STEREO BT WITH KENSINGTON 33348.
Had to uninstall completely. Then just plug in.
Let Vista do it’s stuff.
Then run WIDCOMM update.
Then delete the BT headset device (if there) in BT places.
Pair it again, but this time, choose “no passkey” (even though your manual says “0000″)
Then within BT places, try to connect to headset (which is still in pairing mode.
You get prompted that the device wants to connect. Enter “0000″.
Viola! It works. In Control Panel, Sounds, “Stereo BT” should be the default.
Works like the shiznit!
January 31st, 2008 at 10:15 am
Grr…after working great for a day, after a suspend, the “Bluetooth Stereo” disappears from the Control Panel sounds.
Will not connect (to Stereo headset) in BT places.
(Mono Handsfree works fine.)
Man, this is really a pain. It’s not the Kensignton dongle (I think), but rather Vista and the WIDCOMM stack.
Grr…Grr..
January 31st, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Okay..so I uninstalled and tried the Toshiba Stack.
No go…it puked the install bigtime; had to due registry surgery to fully remove.
Installed the I/O Gear Widcomm stack; 6.x; not the latest, but that’s okay.
Seems to work…for now…except what is really odd is that the headset shows “disconnected” in BT places, even though it is working (Control Panel, Sounds).
Back in stereo heaven…yes!
February 2nd, 2008 at 12:44 pm
this thing is a piece of shite!
February 6th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I have the kensington 33348 and i couldnt find exaclty where to find the driver on the msi website i was wonderin if any body could give me a hand??? Or does anybody know of any software that is currently working?? If anybody could help please e-mail me at semper_fideles911@yahoo.com
February 7th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
I have never had any problems with BT Dongle K33348. Here s what I used for drivers in Vista 32-bit http://update.broadcom.com/downloads/btwinitialupdate.exe
February 24th, 2008 at 11:41 am
You morons did not install the right drivers. This device works fine.
February 26th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I’m using it with my motorola s9 headphone right now. we’ll see if it will still work down the road. This is for Vista32bit user, but I think its same for other os: use the software from the broadcom.com link, plug in the adapter, click on ask me later when the message pop up, start the software(I think you have to be online to do it), and use 0000 when put in the passkey.
March 17th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
I have had this dongle for a couple of years and used it on 98 and xp sp2 on a couple of different machines and it has always worked finr.
It is a little troublesum to install correctly.
If you have the cd, plug in your dongle and insert the cd and run. Windows will install the wrong drivers but once the installation is complete, and it is best to just let it run till all software is installed, then you should restart, go to device manager and just do and update for the driver. When it asks tell it no to search and automatic or what ever till you get to the “have disc” option. click that and get to where it asks for a location, click browse and go to the cd drive and click down till you see the driver that should be btwusb.sys and click that then run or install or what ever. This will install the proper driver and still have all the software and programs that came with the dongle.
Good luck.
March 28th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Anyone successfully try this on ubuntu linux (7.10) i’ll check the forums.. I’m trying it on my home computer (has XP SP2) and its not going too well… i accidentally broke the CD when trying to open the case. woops. i tried for a little while on my laptop, but i decided it wasnt going to work on linux and tried it on XP…. wrong idea. also, the link to the MSI drivers just brings me to the MSI home page asking for the country, i searched around but couldnt find anything. if someone could post details on how to get the MSI stack, i’d be great.
March 28th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
PROBLEM SOLVED! Apparently Kensington came up with a new and improved driver… here’s the link for it. it works (for now..) http://update.broadcom.com/downloads/btwinitialupdate.exe
April 28th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
If anyone has a Kensington k33348 that they do not want, PSE do not throw it in the trash. Send it my way! I would buy one but I am a poor man. I would appreciate it!!
(Rob) contact me at: biglizard50@hotmail.com
Tnx!!
August 15th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I was stupid emough to buy a kensington 2.0 USB bluetooth dongle. After a year my dongle operates now (Vista); however not for the purpose I intended; synchronization between my pc and my pda. Active sync simply does not work. e-mails and calls to kensington helpdesk are simply ignored.
BUY A PRODUCT FROM A MANUFACTURER WHO GIVES PROPER SUPPORT: NO KENSINGTON PRODUCT
September 11th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
OK say i have the kensington thing, and im trying to transfer stuff from my computer to my cell phone, douse anyone have anything that would help me do this? i really need help
email me if soo
jkig2k5@yahoo.com