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Beware before installing with Vista

The product works (eventually) and is low priced and is tiny. But, before you install it, please consider the following. Customer care by Iogear is horrendous.

The first hurdle is bad instructions. Step 1 for Vista says you MUST insert the device. Then step 8 says DO NOT insert the device. 8 is correct, by the way.

Still, the included ver. 5 drivers do not work with Vista. When you contact the vendor for help, they’ll tell you where the ver. 6 drivers reside. They’re marked 221 thru 321 so you think they don’t work with the 421, but they do. Oh, you need the revised instructions, too. By the way, the included disc says nothing about the software version. You have to watch for it after launching setup.

So, get ver. 6 drivers or later, get the latest instructions, and don’t plug in until the drivers are fully installed in Vista.

I asked if the drivers were necessary since Vista wants to provide its own, and tech support said yes, you need to install them.

I tried tech support’s live chat. They pointed me to newer instructions that said to wait before connecting, but they said nothing about the ver. 5 drivers and Vista incompatibility. After wasting 2 hours installing and uninstalling, I emailed to tech support. I wrote at midnight and when I got up bright and early, I had a URL for the proper drivers and instructions. The final installation was flawless and the device works fine.

Update (9/6/2010): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen.

The featured review for this product, IOGear USB 2.1 Bluetooth Micro Adapter GBU421 Electronics, was written by BikeStrong.

The average rating for this item is 4.7 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.