Fix For Bluetooth Mobile Phone Pairing On Slower Windows 7 PCs

When you try to pair your older Bluetooth mobile phone from within Windows 7 running on a lower end processor such as Intel Celeron or AMD Sempron, you may come across a situation wherein the pairing is not successful. Microsoft has acknowledged this problem, and provided a possible resolution for it.

According to Microsoft, this problem occurs because of the difference in PIN generation that happens on Windows 7, and your mobile phone. By default Windows 7 generates 8 digit PIN codes. Your mobile phone may be generating a 4 or 6 digit PIN, depending on the region and Bluetooth version.

One way to recognize this problem is that you will not be presented with the ‘Select a pairing option’ step in the Bluetooth pairing wizard of Windows 7.

Workaround:

Initiate the pairing process from your mobile phone, instead of Windows 7. Manually pair the device with Windows 7 using the 4 or 6 digit PIN given by your mobile phone.

[via KB2018487]