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Can't remove bluetooth device in Windows 8 RTM (running on MacBook Pro)

My office uses Macs but allows employees to use BootCamp to run dual environments. I was able to add a pair of bluetooth headphones without trouble, but now cannot remove them in order to re-pair.

Event viewer shows:
Removal of device node 'BTHENUM\Dev_001816064C73\a&383f14a7&0&BluetoothDevice_001816064C73' failed with error code 0x80070490.

I've never seen this happen before, and can only find references to error code 0x80070490 regarding Windows Update issues.

Ran sfc /scannow but came back clean. Any suggestions/ideas?
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I had the same problem.

Try setting up your Windows 8 system so that ghosted / hidden devices appear in Device Manager.  http://www.mytechguide.org/12179/remove-hidden-devices-from-windows/ (or see below if link has died).
  
Then, go to Device Manager, find the problematic bluetooth device, right click and hit uninstall.  Then go to Devices in Windows 8, hit the (-) sign to remove.  That should complete uninstall.

Before pairing bluetooth device again, ensure that bluetooth driver in Device Manager is Enabled.


How to display hidden device (ghosted) drivers in Windows?

By now, you already know Windows’ Device Manager (by default) doesn’t display ghosted devices. To show hidden devices in Device Manager, follow the simple steps below.

1. Click on Start to open the Start Menu.

2. Right-click on Computer and select Properties. (You can also use the keyboard shortcut Windows Key + Pause Break to open System.)

3. From the System window that opens, find and click on Advanced system settings from the left-side panel. This will open the System Properties dialog box.

4. In the System Properties dialog box, click on Environment Variables button. This will open another dialog box.

5. Now under the User variables for <YourUsername> box, click on New.

6. Type devmgr_show_nonpresent_device in the Variable Name field. Type 1 in the Variable Value field.

7. When you open Device Manager (type devmgmt.msc in Start search box and hit Enter) and select View > Show hidden devices, all the ghosted devices will be shown with their icons faded away.

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The same thing was happening to me when I was trying to remove a bluetooth mouse so that I could add a different one.

I tried the above solution presented by Angela T. as it made a lot of sense, however that still didn't work for me and the old mouse kept reappearing.

The problem I ran into was that I was using the Bluetooth Devices icon in the "Notifications" area of the bottom toolbar on the desktop (i.e. the lower right-hand area of the screen where things like time/date, volume, etc, are displayed).
For some reason trying to remove the mouse by opening the bluetooth devices window through this icon caused it to mess up every single time.

I managed to get it to work by going into the pop-up tool bar that comes up when you put your cursor into the lower right corner of your screen and clicking on "settings" (the icon that looks like a gear) and then clicking on "change pc settings" at the bottom.  This took me back to the "pc settings" window where i could add and remove devices.  Now when I tried to remove the old mouse and add the new one from here, it worked perfectly fine.

Goofy, I know, but it fixed the problem for me.

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Last updated February 16, 2024 Views 82,501 Applies to: