MSI Bluetooth Hack

Like it says – Ahmet Özgür Ergin

!!! ATTENTION !!!: The explanations in this article have done with my own risk. If you want to try this, it is at your own risk. So you must be a pro user and if you are a pro, then you will not have any questions at the and of the article. If you have any questions are you did not understand something, do not try this.

A bluetooth module came with my old motherboard. There is a bluetooth module and antenna in the little box which attached at the left side of the box. In the past me, my motherboard and bluetooth module were very happy. Then I get bored with my board and I purchased ABIT IT7-MAX2 rev 2.0 and I sold the 845e Max2. But the bluetooth module remained unsold.

Here I will tell how I made the module operate again…

Box

Blue

The item is this. It is one module and one antenna. But this is MSI’s marketing tactic. You will see this tactic bottom.

MSI

This is the other module like a key holder which is came from DATAGATE, an importer in my country.

I use it with my laptop at home to access internet.

I thought that these two bluetooth items are the same. The reason is here:
At the user manual of MSI’s mainboards it says: If we use the module (which one has antenna) we can not use 6 USB of Intel’s southbridge.
The boards have a part that we attach back of the case in an empty PCI slot.

At the back of this part there are 2 USB ports. These are the 5 and 6 USB ports of Intel’s southbridge. At the MSI’s port there is a blue sticker covering 6 USB port. At the manual it states: “do not remove this sticker if you use the bluetooth module”. Then I guessed that this part is definitely USB and these two modules are exactly same.

Cig

Here is the little one.

Diagram

This picture is taken from the manual of MSI 645MAX2-BLR. Here we plug the module to the mainboard with a cable. MSI puts in cover but we catch them. They give the pin assignment. In the picture as you see, the pin2 VDD3 (means 3 volt) is fake. We follow the cable and see that there is nothing for 3 volt. At the module there is a pin for 3 volt but it is not connected anywhere. We understand that the module does not use 3 volt. Then the only work for us is soldering the cables.

Diagram 1

This is USB assignment. (This is real, this is a standard – it isn’t MSIs.)

Diagram 2

On the module there are 2 connectors. One is to connect directly to the mainboard (at the bottom). The other one for some MSI mainboards which have bad design (you use a cable to connect bluetooth module and mainboard). I followed the pins and I saw the pin7 is fake too.
{mospagebreak}

Ahmet Özgür Ergin – Turkey

Here is the pin list:

  • 1 = 5 volt
  • 2 = 3 volt (fake)
  • 3 = D+(USB+)
  • 4 = Ground
  • 5 = D-(USB-)
  • 6 = Ground

    We connect pin4 and pin6 because they are same (ground). We don’t use pin2 because it is 3 volts. After this we will have 4 pins. The last thing is we will solder these 4 cables to 4 pins. We will cut a USB cable (see it below) and we solder them to the right pin (do not ask which one to which one – you can use an multimeter to learn what is red or white etc. In some cables there is no red or green cable, so you must use a multimeter or something like it to learn the cable assignments.)

    Wire

    Module

    Slot

    You can use the old serial port cables.

    Module

    Here you see I used an old serial cable for the connector.

    Module

    Now let’s make some tests. I use bemused (it is a symbian program for remote control of wimamp, media player etc.)

    Screen

    I used my phone as a remote controller when watching Divx movies.

    Now my new module has been working for 3 months. I use it with my phone. The little bluetooth is attached to my laptop and I drink my tea at my balcony while I am surfing.

    Thanks every body who read my little article…

    Ahmet Özgür Ergin – Turkey

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