Q: Update Mountain Lion 10.8.5 Macbook Aluminium 2008 can't used Wifi (can't on wifi)

Brody how can it be a hardware issue if everything worked until I upgraded the software 30 mins ago?

Underlying hardware issues can crop up during updates.  This is why I always recommend backing up your data before doing any updates.

I updated yesterday/today to 10.8.5 - I have two partitions on the drive in my MBP (March 2009 model, 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo, 8GB of RAM), and the partition with 10.8.5 is the 680GB one, which has bout 200+GB free. I have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 on the 320GB partition.

I went to a local Panera Bread Company tonight, and when I tried to restart on their WiFi, when I turned it on (from the menubar), the signal meter only shows "Airport: Looking for Networks..."  When I tried to open Network Preferences, clicking on the "Turn On WiFi"/"Turn Off WiFi" doesn't help, and when I try "Other Networks" and try to browse available networks to select the Panera one, there are NO choices in the browse window.

However, when I rebooted into the Snow Leopard partition, it finds the network(s) just fine and can access the WiFi. So I believe that rules out hardware. (Apple System Profiler does show the Airport and the network it's connected to...). I even checked Little Snitch Configuration's settings to see if  something had inadvertently been changed recently - no sign of anything  new. So rule that out.

So to me, the problem is more likely software, and the only new software in the past couple of days is Mountain Lion 10.8.5.  ML 10.8.4 had been working fine with WiFi or Ethernet network connections until today (both at home and at work).

Going to re-download 10.8.4 (if I can find it in the Apple downloads) Not so great 

I think Apple should have worked on this one more before releasing it on its users.

Little Snitch may be causing a problem. If it doesn't like something in 10.8.5's firewall setup, it may send a bad signal.  As it is there are others in the 10.8.5 wireless threads reporting no trouble with WiFi.  Which says it is not 10.8.5 alone.

10.8.4 is available here in combo, but it may not overwrite all the necessary files.  You may need to ask the App Store to make 10.8 available for redownload if you didn't backup the installer.  This is why I always recommend cloning before installing updates.

I am also having the same issue, it won't even let me turn on the wifi

I downloaded the 10.8.5 Combo update and installed it, but haven't tested it on WiFi yet (I use Ethernet connection at home with my MBP connected to the router.

So far, no sign of problems, from Little Snitch or otherwise. I will post once I get time to check 10.8.5 on WiFi at work (in the morning). I suspect that the problem may be that the Software Update (MAS) version doesn't play well with the late 2008/early 2009 MBP.

Hopefully, that may help someone else to narrow the choices in their own troubleshooting more.

Today (at work), restarted under my 10.8.5 partition on my MBP, checked some settings under Network (configuring new WiFi setup in there, added 'new' WiFi setup to Network yesterday, but unable to successfully test at home last night). My 10.8.5 (which was done using the 10.8.5 Combo Update downloaded manually from Apple Support Downloads, **not** the Software Update download that gave me problems earlier) partition appears to be working fine with the office WiFi now.

I would suggest that anyone having the troubles I had been having with connecting to WiFi, go download the 10.8.5 Combo Update from Apple's Support Downloads page (do a search for 10.8.5 Combo, if needed) and install it. And as AB mentioned, back up **first** (which is one we all should know, but it's easy to forget...).

Hope that helps someone with the problem.

The combo update worked for me with my late 2008 macbook. Thank you so much for your help, really didn't want to do a clean install...

I have the same problem. It will search and search for networks.

If I remove the wifi under network and reboot. Add the wifi back under network then my wifi will work for that session. If I reboot it reverts back to search for networks continuously.

This happend right after the 10.8.5 update.

I also read to try and install the 10.8.5 combo update, wifi worked durring the frist reboot but then reverted back to the way it was after.

Is your MBP the Late 2008 model, Hockey930? And what happened when you installed the 10.8.5 Combo Update?

Thanks!

same problem here ... it resolved itself once, then reappeared yesterday again .... resolution seemed to be to disconnect power source, shut down for full 3 minutes and restart .... doing that on both occasions seems the answer .... I had also been connected to ethernet but that does not seem to matter to all this

I want to thank Apple for the chance to waste a full day or more of time with this silly WiFi thing -- please hang the engineer that said "send the update out" by his thumbs and whack him 100 lashes for ME ....

10.8.5 combo did not fix it ... did that and it was same same ....

I am late 2008 MBook aluminium ....

best to all of ya

I had this same problem. I fixed it by reseting the PRAM.You can go to this apple supprot page for details on how to do this. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

My wife´s old Macbook Late 2008 has same issue.

After updating 10.8.5 wifi stopped working. Tried to reset PRAM, re-installed combo update, tried with new user account.. nothing.

Wifi works in Recovery partition. So this is definitely a software issue.

I have had the same problem with a Late 2008 Macbook Pro.

Wifi stopped working after upgrading to 10.8.5. Neither the PRAM resent nor resetting the System Management Controller helped. Reinstalling the 10.8.5 Combo update would work until I rebooted once, not a long term solution.

WHAT WORKED:

Boot into Recovery Mode (Command+R at startup).

Restored OS 10.8.4 from Time Machine

Boot into Safe Mode (Shift at startup)

Applied 10.8.5 incremental update: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1675

Now I have 10.8.5 and Wifi works, but I don't know what caused the original problem. I also don't know if all of the above steps are really required. Another thing to try would be to Boot into Recovery Mode and try "Reinstall OSX" which doesn't require Time Machine (although it's always good to backup before doing any system maintenance).

The Wifi problem came back after a few reboots. It's NOT SOLVED. Sorry for the non-solution.