by bobsav » Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:56 pm
This subject (bluetooth, included or not) comes up regularly. The S10 and S10e models sold in the US, and maybe North America, do not have the bluetooth daughterboard installed. By removing four screws in the front bottom of the netbook one can then remove the palm rest and see the spot where the daughterboard should sit, and the connector (usb) where it plugs in. The daughterboard and the connecting cable can be ordered from IBM parts (not Lenovo, by the way) at 20% of the cost of the new S10. Or, they can be ordered from China for quite a bit less. The information is available elsewhere in this forum and others. IBM sells a slightly newer version of the Broadcom daughterboard than you can get elsewhere, but nobody seems to think the difference matters for normal users. I don't know what that difference is, actually. I have ordered and am awaiting my bluetooth delivery. In the meantime I am using one of the tiny usb external bluetooth devices and it works perfectly with my bt mouse. Haven't tried the stereo headset yet. Although the installattion is simple, IT MAY EFFECT YOUR WARRANTY since IBM/Lenovo does not consider this a customer replaceable (ie. "addable") part because it involves four screws and customers are only permitted to remove two!