Bluetooth suddenly disappeared from my PC

I was sitting at my computer watching YouTube, when suddenly sound stopped coming through my Bluetooth headphones. At first I thought the problem is with the headphones, so I turned them off and on again. It didn't help. Next I thought I'd try unpairing them and then pairing them with the PC again. But when I opened the "Bluetooth & other devices" screen, all my Bluetooth devices were greyed out and it says "Bluetooth is turned off" next to each of them. There is no button to turn it on. After some quick googling I tried a few more things, but to no avail:

• There is no Bluetooth button in the "Action center"
• There is no Bluetooth switch in Airplane mode settings under Wireless devices.
• Perhaps most telling, there is no Bluetooth device visible in the Device Manager.

When I type Bluetooth in the Start bar, it finds a Bluetooth troubleshooter. I ran it several times, it says

Device does not have Bluetooth.

Blueooth is not available on this device. Please try using an external adapter to add Bluetooth capability to this computer.

I tried restarting the computer for good measure. It didn't help.

Next step that is suggested is installing the latest drivers. I'd love to do that, but there is no Bluetooth device to install the drivers for.

What should I do? Reinstall my motherboard drivers? Did the Bluetooth module on my computer crap out? Is there a way to be sure? It's an older MSI gaming laptop. Should I go buy one of those USB Bluetooth dongles?

Bluetooth missing from Device Manager means the device has failed (hardware). This has happened to me. Restart with no results confirms this.

1. Try re-seating the card if you can.

2. USB dongle is a good choice near term.

3. See if you can get the repair part. That is what I did and the repair held good for the long term.