How to Reproduce the Problem
- On Mac OS X 10.9 download the driver bundle for Windows through Bootcamp Assistant and put it on a USB stick formatted as FAT (MS-DOS)
- either:
- install Windows 7 from an ISO image
- restore a Windows 7 image from another MacBook Pro using WinClone (this the route I've taken, but I suspect the problem will occur anyways as I've seen this issue pop up through Google and there is no reason it would work otherwise)
- once Windows 7 starts, try installing the Bootcamp driver by running setup.exe in the Bootcamp folder of the USB stick you created earlier
- the installation will go on for a while and then fail saying that the Bootcamp drivers are not designed for this machine
- restart Windows and through the device manager you'll find under "other devices" that the Bluetooth USB Controller has an exclamation point on it
Problem
The Bluetooth driver bundled by Bootcamp Assistant has a defect and will fail to install. You can also verify that the Bluetooth driver is not installing correctly, by running AppleBluetoothInstaller64.exe in the folder BootCamp\Drivers\Apple on your USB stick and you'll get the message that the driver is "not needed (No device for update present)".
Solution
First of all let me give a little disclaimer: ONLY A TECHNICAL PERSON SHOULD DO THIS!
Ok, let's begin.
- use a good decompression tool like WinRAR to extract the file BootCamp\Drivers\Apple\AppleBluetoothInstaller64.exe into a folder (the exe is just a self-extracting archive)
- in that folder, edit the file AppleBT64.inf with a text editor
- under the section titled [Apple.NTamd64.6.1] add the following line
Apple Built-in Bluetooth=AppleBt, USB\VID_05ac&PID_8289
- save your changes
- now go to the device manager, right-click on the Bluetooth Controller with the exclamation point and select "Update Driver Software"
- select "Browse My Computer for Driver Software"
- browse to the folder that contains the inf file that you modified (e.g. BootCamp\Drivers\Apple\AppleBluetoothInstaller64), make sure "Include Subfolders" is checked and click next
- if the fix worked, Windows should tell you that the Bluetooth Driver was installed successfully
- wait a few minutes! You should now see a little baloon pop-up on the tray saying "Installing Driver Software" and after a minute or so your Bluetooth controller should be working correctly
- restart Windows. On restart the OS may discover and install additional devices related to the Bluetooth controller
Example AppleBT64.inf
Original
; for Windows 7 only
[Apple.NTamd64.6.1]
; No action
; OS will load in-box driver.
Modified
; for Windows 7 only
[Apple.NTamd64.6.1]
; No action
; OS will load in-box driver.
Apple Built-in Bluetooth=AppleBt, USB\VID_05ac&PID_8289
Why does the fix work?
- when you go to device manager and check the hardware IDs of the Bluetooth controller (properties->Details->Hardware Ids), you find that hardware descriptors for it are: VID: 05AC and PID: 8289
- there is no mention of this hardware ID in the inf file and that is why Windows can't match the driver with the hardware
- I checked the Bluetooth Controller on an earlier late 2012 MacBook Pro with Retina Display with Windows 7 installed, and the hardware descriptors are specified correctly in the driver (05AC and 8286)
Conclusion
This is clearly a defect with the BOOTCAMP driver bundle for the late 2013 MacBook Pro 15". I also found other people mentioning this issues through a Google search, but no one had found a proper fix yet. I hope Apple will implement a proper fix to save big headeaches for others trying to run Windows on this otherwise excellent laptop.