Bluetooth Firmware Updater 1.2: PMU solution; 10.3.6 requirement; iBooks?

PMU/SMU reset may help "revive" Bluetooth On Wednesday we covered a few isolated reports of issues with the recent Bluetooth Firmware Updater. Although most users have had no problems, a few have seen complete loss of Bluetooth functionality -- their Bluetooth devices will no longer connect to their computer and the OS X Bluetooth menu bar icon is grayed out, indicating that Bluetooth has been disabled. Reader Casey Common received a helpful tip from AppleCare:

"[The Bluetooth firmware update] went fine last night, but when I booted up this morning my Bluetooth was gone. No icon in the menu bar, and running the Bluetooth setup assistant gave me 'No Bluetooth hardware found' (despite the fact that it was [shown] in System Profiler). I called Apple phone support, and they helped me fix it by opening up the iMac and pressing the 'SMU' (formerly PMU) reset button on the logic board. Upon starting up, my Bluetooth was back. (A caveat: They warned my NOT to press the SMU button twice, just once. They said pressing it twice can damage the logic board.)"

We can confirm that this is generally an effective "fix" for issues where your computer no longer recognizes its Bluetooth hardware. Several times over the past year, our PowerBook G4 has "lost" Bluetooth functionality and a PMU reset has fixed the problem each time. You can find more information on resetting the PMU on PowerBooks and iBooks from this document. Information on resetting the SMU on newer Power Mac G5 models with built-in Bluetooth can be found here. For older Power Mac G5 models, you reset the PMU via a button on the logic board; see your computer's manual for more information.

Update requires OS X 10.3.6 Several readers have pointed out, and we found out ourselves over the holiday, that Bluetooth Firmware Updater 1.2 requires Mac OS X 10.3.6. If you've avoided installing the 10.3.6 Update because of some of the issues reported here, you won't be able to install this Bluetooth firmware update.

iBooks, too? Reader Robert Douek asks a good question: "Apple refers to this as a firmware update for internal Bluetooth modules on the PowerBooks and Power Macs, but makes no mention of iBooks. Is this just an oversight or does it not apply?" Indeed, the documentation for the Updater states, "The Bluetooth Firmware Updater is for D-Link USB Adapters (revision B2 or later), and Apple internal Bluetooth modules on PowerBooks and PowerMacs."

As we don't have an iBook with an internal Bluetooth module here at MacFixIt, we can't test this. If any MacFixIt readers have attempted to update the internal Bluetooth module in their iBook, please drop us an email at Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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