If you see Generic Bluetooth Radio with a yellow exclamation mark in Device Manager, the Bluetooth feature probably won’t work on your computer. But don’t worry – you can easily fix it by updating your Bluetooth driver.
To fix the Generic Bluetooth Radio issue:
As the name suggests, Generic Bluetooth radio is the default and basic Bluetooth driver provided by Windows when it can’t find a proper driver on your computer. Depending on the make of your computer, Bluetooth may work or not work with the generic driver. If it doesn’t, you’ll need to update the Bluetooth driver.
Here’re 2 options for you to update your Bluetooth driver in Windows 11, 10, 8.1 and 7:
Option 1 – Manually – You’ll need some computer skills and patience to update your drivers this way, because you need to find exactly the right the driver online, download it and install it step by step.
OR
Option 2 – Automatically (Recommended) – This is the quickest and easiest option. It’s all done with just a couple of mouse clicks – easy even if you’re a computer newbie.
Option 1: Update your Bluetooth driver manually to fix Generic Bluetooth Radio
To manually update your Bluetooth driver, you need to go to the manufacturer’s official website, find the drivers corresponding with your specific flavor of Windows version (for example, Windows 32-bit) and download the driver manually.
Once you’ve downloaded the correct drivers for your system, double-click on the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions to install the driver.
Option 2: Update your Bluetooth driver automatically to fix Generic Bluetooth Radio
If you don’t have the time, patience or computer skills to update the Bluetooth driver manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy.
Driver Easy will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running, you don’t need to risk downloading and installing the wrong driver, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing. Driver Easy handles it all.
- Download and install Driver Easy.
- Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
- Click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system.
(This requires the Pro version which comes with full support and a 30-day money-back guarantee. You’ll be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All. If you’re not ready to buy the Pro version, Driver Easy offers a 7-day free trial which includes access to all the Pro features such as high-speed download and one-click install. You won’t be charged anything until your 7-day trial has ended.)
- Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
There you go – 2 easy ways to help you get the latest Bluetooth driver to fix the Generic Bluetooth Radio Bluetooth not working issues in Windows 10, 8.1 and 7. Hope this helps and feel free to drop us a comment if you have any further questions. 🙂
Hi,
Thanks for your comment.
I’m sorry that Driver Easy doesn’t work for you. The problem might not be caused by driver issues. Please feel free to contact our support team at support@drivereasy.com for assistance regarding this issue.
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Ain’t no one gonna install yo freeware f off wit dat LOLLL
Nothing work. all are banal. I tried everything from more than 20 websites…. nothing.
My mic work on my phone but not on windows 10
Yup doesn’t do a single thing for me. Been trying to figure out why Windows is refusing to use the mic in line. Every time I try to use my microphone and enable it, instead of using the mic itself.. it uses the output line. So basically anything that is currently running through my speakers will be fed through the mic line on top of it.. basically giving the whole “echo” effect and a feedback loop. Haven’t been able to find a fix for it.
I’ve tried each on of those fixes word to word and my external mic that connects to the 3.5mm jack still doesn’t work. The drivers have been updated, it is enabled, not muted, I checked Privacy and Device Manager, etc. My headset mic works, but not the mic that I want to use despite it working on other pcs/phones. Any other fix for this?
thank you so much
thank you very much. very much appreciated
if it still doesn’t work use wo_mic_driver_setup.exe and install all drivers for win 7-8-10 even if u only have win 10 only. restart pc and it should be working
Hi,the privacy settings was the problem….Thank You so much…
I have a problem with connecting 3.5mm jack. It says its not plugged in. Can u help me please.
I did everything, but it still not working.
Microphone what isnt plugged in is plugged in. It cant detect it
Hello, I have been working to get my mic to work on my windows 10 laptop, I think I got it. I have some doctors that want to use Skype and others that use only Zoom for telemedicine visits, how do I set up my Windows 10 pc laptop to allow Zoom to access my mic? Thanks for any instructions.
In my case it was the privacy setting. Thank you!
i’ve tried all of these plus more and still nothing. last week a solution worked and my microphone was fine. now its not working again. seems to me if its a window update causing the problem they should send a new update fixing the bug
Hey, I’m at the same predictment. I’ve scoured the internet, but nothing works.
What did you do that made it work? Even if for a brief moment?
so helpful. thanks
That is Windows for you! ^.^
All I have ever used on my computer is the built in mic. It was working perfectly fine, went to video chat and it suddenly no longer works. The computer says its working. It’s not. It will not pick up any sound, and I have done every type of troubleshooting I can find, including uninstalling and re-installing. STILL not working!
I’ve fixed this by finding speech/cortana/privacy settings and allowing apps to use the microphone.
Then you still need to switch between mics and set a different mic to default recording device, and then suddenly ALL mics work again.
So if you’re like me, and disabled most of the privacy settings in the last update, then you need to find the audio/mic settings deep-deep in the windows-settings about speech/cortana/privacy. Otherwise no single mic will work. (and there will be NO information about why they don’t work, f.e. because in some privacy setting, ALL mics can be disabled. Even the problem solver doesn’t recognise this.
This ^ thank you so much. I wasted 3 hours finding a solution. I really hate microsoft move on this one.
Indeed! This is the solution. I wasted 4 hours on this crazy problem.
Legendary to do this in simple if you know your mic is working perfectly fine.
Search ‘Settings’ in the search box
The navigate Privacy > Microphone, then select ‘Allow apps to access your microphone’ to ‘YES’.
(For your privacy you can still select Microsoft apps below that you don’t want to be spying on you).
This is all due to one stupid update. Thanks Microsoft 😉
This hasn’t worked for me. Help??
Thanks jono! All microphones stopped working after a windows update and this solved it!
The only solution I found, thank you! Also, my mic was already set to “Yes” but after closing the window all was ok–after months of no microphone working with Windows 10.
^^^^^this comment right here, been working on this for 3 hours and this is the comment that fixed it for me THANK YOU
Did this, I fixed my mic.
Holy crap, after 4 hours of troubleshooting & searching for answers, I FINALLY FOUND IT. THANK YOU JONO!!!
Thank you jono. It worked for me as well.
Worked for me
OMG, was about to throw my pc out the window! thank you so much!
Dude thank you! Stupid hard to find settings.
just had this problem on a buddy’s windows 10, restarted the “windows audio” service in the “services” and Booom audio working again. we tried both usb mic/headset and also an analog 3.5mm headset into motherboard audio port and neither worked until stopping and then starting the windows audio service
Thank you. Helped me alot. I was going to throw my laptop…
make sure u have allow applications to use microphones on
My mic volume slider is just stuck forever at the left side. yes, it’s unmuted. yes, it’s not a hardware problem as it works just fine on other OS. Thanks in advance!
[…] gave advice on troubleshooting your microphone setup, which can be useful for audio sync users, especially those who have new […]