How to pair a Bluetooth mouse with my laptop

Hey there! So, I just got this Genius NX-9000BT Bluetooth mouse as a gift, but I’m having a bit of a hard time getting it to pair with my laptop. It's a Dell XPS 13 running Windows 7...

Basically, whenever I try to "add device," this is what happens, and nothing moves at all. The window just sits there like this for hours ...

When I check the Device Manager, it looks like this. If I try to remove those items with the exclamation marks—you know, uninstalling them—it seems to change to this, but then it pretty much reverts right back to this and I end up right back where I started 🙄

Anyway, I've been messing around with this for about two hours now and haven't made any progress, so yeah. If anyone happens to know what might be going on, or if you have any suggestions or maybe a specific program I should use to install the drivers, I'd really appreciate the help 😁

Perhaps you should try borrowing a Bluetooth dongle and running it through that; it is entirely possible a specific protocol is missing from your current setup. (Or perhaps you just need to actually turn it on 😁 ... merely a joke)

I don't really have anyone I can borrow one from, so I guess my only real option is to just go out and buy one myself. For $20, I saw there was one available, so maybe I'll just give that a shot 🤷

You occasionally run into these USB sticks on Craigslist for $6.75 cheap. It just occurred to me that they might be encrypted, which means they won't work right out of the box 😵
Before you commit to buying one, there are a few things to consider—try plugging it into a different USB port or testing it on a completely different computer. You really need to be certain the system actually recognizes the drive is present.
Did you actually put a battery in the mouse? It sounds like a ridiculous question, I know, but even the best of us have been there.
It is also possible that the device needs to be paired with the mouse first before it can establish an R/T connection and signal its presence to the PC...
I have one laptop where a specific USB port acts up intermittently; I can read files from a stick, but saving anything to it is impossible...

The NX supports Bluetooth 4.0, and so does your Inspiron.
It really looks like you're just missing those Wi-Fi/Bluetooth drivers on your Inspiron.
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en...laptop/drivers

Check this out, they say:
https://us.geniusnet.com/supports/nx-9000bt

14. Is NX-9000BT is compatible with BT3.0/2.1/2.0 device as well?
Answer

NX-9000BT does not support BT3.0/2.1/2.0 devices.

15. How do I know whether my laptop is compatible with BT4.0 devices?
Answer

1. Check Device Manager 2. Click Bluetooth 3. if the content shows Microsoft Bluetooth LE Enumerator, this means your laptop supports bluetooth Smart product.

Here's the driver for the NX and Windows 7 32/64 bit:
https://drivernew.com/?p=13668

And here's the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth controller AC3160 driver straight from Intel:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/pro...reless-AC-3160

Specs-wise, that AC3160 supports BT4.0
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us...s-ac-3160.html

I mean, I don't think those drivers are really the main issue, since my phone won't even show up when I try to connect via Bluetooth. But what am I supposed to do when you go to the Dell website and see like 14 different Bluetooth drivers? I'm no genius, so I have no idea which ones to wipe out before reinstalling everything. 🤷

Jack Cook7, regarding those NX drivers—it’s basically just some little utility meant to find devices, whether it's a Genius keyboard or a mouse, but nothing. It's just a total wasteland in there; nothing is actually working. 😵

here is what pops up when I click that Intel link. I was honestly thinking about just wiping the whole drive and doing a fresh install of Windows 10, especially since I've got this SSD I want to swap into the laptop's DVD slot to hopefully get things running. It’s just super frustrating when you can't get something this simple to install.

I must offer a correction regarding my previous errors; I just went to double-check, and it turns out the mouse is entirely self-contained. It doesn't require any specific code or password for the Bluetooth connection to become visible.
It would be much more efficient for you to simply resolve the issue with a reliable Bluetooth dongle.

Adam Williams2 said:Honestly, I don't even care about those drivers right now because the thing won't even pick up my phone when I turn on Bluetooth! It's driving me nuts—like, if you go to the Dell site for Bluetooth, there are like 14 different drivers listed. What am I supposed to do? Delete everything I have and start over? I'm not exactly a rocket scientist, you know? 🤷

Jack Cook7, regarding those NX drivers... it's basically just some tiny little program meant to find devices, whether it's a Genius keyboard or mouse, but nope—nothing. It's like a total ghost town in there, absolutely nothing is moving. 😵

Here's what pops up when I hit this Intel link. Man, I was actually thinking about wiping the whole drive and doing a fresh install of Windows 10 since I've got this SSD I want to swap into the laptop where the DVD drive used to be. Hopefully, that fixes things. It's just so incredibly frustrating when you can't get something this simple to work.

Just a simple question: did Bluetooth ever actually work for you at all?

Because from what I can tell, it looks like it hasn't been working for a while. I mean, first you'd need to get a "classic device," like a phone, to connect before you even worry about special stuff like a mouse.

Since you're on Windows 7 and the support has pretty much hit its Lifetime limit anyway, it’s probably smarter to just upgrade to Windows 10 (or whatever else) first, then tackle these little hiccups. Just watch out for the licenses, and keep in mind that some Windows 10 drivers might not play nice with hardware that's more than 5 years old. Basically, you might solve one massive headache only to run into another one. But hey, you'll have to deal with that sooner or later regardless.

I don't think I've ever actually used it, honestly. I haven't really had any reason to pair anything up before 😁

But it really should be working if I have it, right? But yeah, this junk just won't cooperate 😁

I'm not even totally sure anymore, but I guess my laptop is less than five years old. I'm guessing based on when I moved over to Windows 10 since it runs great, kind of how I figured out when I switched from Windows XP 😁

Ever tried hooking up your phone?