Windows 8.1 can't remove existing paired Bluetooth device nor connect new one

Question

I have a surface pro 3 with windows 8.1 and currently installed microsoft sculpt touch mouse and creative inspire 2 sound system.

I have bought a new bluetooth microsoft sculpt mobile keyboard. The keyboard is not recognized by my surface. It is recognized by a friend's surface.

Why ?

So I've tried to uninstall all my bluetooth devices and when I do so from the device manager, than remove them from bluetooth seetings, making sure ghost related devices are removed too, they still reappear, even if those devices are off.

Why ? How can I reset my entire bluetooth configuration ? How can I have my surface recognize my keyboard ?

(all simple solutions have been tested : rebooting, disconnecting, changing battery, put the devices close enough... and as I said, the keyboard is working fine on another surface which had no other bluetooth device)

EDIT : I tried that too, without success, everything re-appears : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5964685/how-do-i-totally-delete-reset-bluetooth-settings-in-windows-7

Answer 1

Wow, I finally found the solution. It's crazy the time we can lose for such basic services.

From : http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/63589-63-cannot-remove-bluetooth-mouse-devices-window

Go to START icon and type in services.msc and select services.

The dialog box that opens has a long list of stuff but look for BLUETOOTH SUPPORT SERVICE. Double click to open. Make sure it is AUTOMATIC. Go to the LOG tab. Choose THIS ACCOUNT and type in LOCAL SERVICE. A list of password (a 15-dot string) would appear. Delete all the password in the PASSWORD and under CONFIRM. Choose Okay.

It will ask you to restart the service. Once restarted, turn on your bluetooth adaptor again. Put your mouse in pairing mode and add the mouse. It works perfectly!!!

Answer 2

I was able to completely remove (and re-pair) a Bluetooth headset in Windows 10 that kept re-appearing despite trying to remove it using Bluetooth settings/devices and printers/device manager.

The paired Bluetooth devices seem to be permanently stored in the registry below the following branch:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BTHPORT\Parameters\Devices

Under this, you have one to several 12-digit device keys which represent the devices, like:

“00024c02b458” (which is a Bluetooth headset).

Use Registry Editor (regedit.exe) to delete the device key for the problem device and then reboot your computer; after this the paired device will be gone. You can find the correct device by double-clicking the “Name” value associated with each device, which shows the (binary!) device name in plain text.

You can also export the branch to a file for backup by right-clicking on the key and selecting “Export”.

Note: the error message I had in the event log was:

Event Id: 16/Source: BTHUSB: "The mutual authentication between the local Bluetooth adapter and a device with Bluetooth adapter address (xx:xx:xx:xx:xx) failed.”

Answer 3

None of the suggested answers are simple or effective. There's a simple short video here (less than a minute) that actually is both. It took me all of five seconds to remove the device permanently (I was in Administrator mode--not sure if that makes a difference). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsWtM6J7Dy8

1. Open the Device Manager
2. In the "View" option menu activate "Show hidden devices"
3. Look for the device in under "Bluetooth", right click and select uninstall

Answer 4

using win 8-1 32bit on a asus vivotab note 8. i had the same problem for 2 days and your solution did not solve it for me (bluetooth keyboard would always reappear) however: what did solve it was first disabling the keyboard in device-manager and second do a real restart shutdown /r via execute or command line... then when it restarts the keyboard would still be on the bluetooth list in the win8.1 metro bluetoothmanager but now it can be removed from the list and reconnected and work properly

kind regards gspeet

Answer 5

Deleting the device from registry or from hidden devices did not do it for me. Finally, the btpair tool as outlined in this answer below helped me unpair my device and re-pair again:

Windows 10 Bluetooth device won't connect after windows reset

• Download and install btpair tool from here
• Open shell with elevated access
• btpair -u
• Try to pair device again

Answer 6

This fixed it for me:

1. Removed Bluetooth dongle.
2. Removed remanent device entry from Device Manager.
3. Open Administrative command prompt.

4. Execute command:

   sc delete bthport
   

5. Re-attached Bluetooth dongle, Windows automatically installed the driver.