Q: MacBook Pro constantly losing wireless connectivity

So to summarize:

You were seeing trouble with your WiFi, punctuated by occasional:

"Hardware not installed" problem.

Sometimes a reboot would solve the problem, sometimes it couldn't.

and this was your troubleshooting procedure:

opening my macbook pro while it was running, and carefully disconnecting the wireless antennas and the wireless cable one by one.

It turned out that I only [completely] lost my wifi when the wireless cable was disconnected; WIFI signal was weak but existent when all antennas were disconnected.

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What model MacBook pro do you have?

Did you ever run Apple's "Wireless diagnostics";  or leave the WiFi monitoring built into it running?

I had the Apple Store replace the wifi/bluetooth card in my Macbook Pro Retina, and I have not had any of these problems since. 

We have 2 MacBook Pros in the household, both on our wireless network.

The husband's MBP, after months/years of wireless connection, has just today started dropping the wireless connection.  Run Network Diagnostics, it reconnects for 20-45 seconds, then drops again.  Repeated numerous times.

All other devices on the network, including my MacBook Pro, maintain connection.

Doing basic troubleshooting, I've noticed that my MBP (that keeps connection) is running OS X 10.7.5.

The husband's MBP is running 10.6.8.

Is it worth updating to attempt to fix this connection problem?

Penman61-

So far, there does not seem to be a clear correlation. If anything, later versions Of Mac OS X may get worse.

If you are not actively using Bluetooth, turn it off.

Make sure all your USB cables are certified for USB-2 (they should have a colorful little tag). The ones that came "free" with a device you bought are often "lowest-Bidder" cables, andmay not be properly shielded.

Too far away from your Router may cause your Mac to constantly recompute the "best" connection, and attempt to switch (or just get confused). Users stuck in the 2.4GHz band (under Channel 15) with more than a few neighboring Networks may have this problem a lot.

Some users' computers may have disconnected internal antennas, or a bad internal WiFi cable (usually accompanied by occasional "No WiFi hardware found" messages.

LIke many on here I am don't have the luxury of trying to make this work.  Until I have enough cash to pay the Genius Bar guy enough to finally figure this out, I have to use a band-aid..  For $15 I have got internet again, but I know it isn't a permanent solution.  But at least I have wifi access again!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EZV8ZJI/

OK, Dec 2013 MBP. Bought on Amazon 3 weeks ago. Last week it started losing connection as described above. This coincided directly with my purchase of a cheap (non-Apple) Ipad Bluetooth keyboard. Having tried almost all of the fixes described on the net without sucess, I eventually realised by myself that the drops occurred most frequently (but not exclusively) when I tried to enter a search term on the aforementioned keyboard. I switched the thing off and I have now had one week of uninterrupted internet access. I know that this is probably not a fix for most of you but it is certanly a reality for me. There appears to be some kind of Bluetooth conflict with the Mac's internet connection.....but, hey, I am no expert. Just thought it was pertinent to the discussion.

Same here. I turned off Bluetooth and the connection seem more stable

hmm...I've just been googling for this, as I bought a second hand 2010 MBP 2 months ago. I absolutely love it, and at home I have no issues at all, and use the Apple magic mouse via bluetooth.

I have recently taken up a new job away from home and stay in a b&b hotel during the week with free wifi. Connects fine, but has a habit of just dropping out of connection, whilst keeping the wifi status connected!

It is really infuriating, especially when streaming sky go, so as not to miss latest things etc and it just bombs out!!

I'll try turning bluetooth off as mentioned above, but that means not being able to use the mouse...and as said, I've been using the mouse for 2 months at home and had no issues...just with this new router connection (which I don't have access to)

I haven"t turned bluetooth off on the MBP. I am still using the Apple trackpad wirelessly with no problem. The issue seems to be with the non-Apple keyboard. Once I switched this off at the device level I had no problem with the wireless connection to the internet. The Trackpad is the only bluetooth device I have connected atm and it functions perfectly. Hopefully the same will be true of your 'Magic Mouse'. Perhaps the conflict is only with certain 3rd party bluetooth devices (possibly phones and other pc's as well). Worth checking out I guess in case another device is causing the interference. Good luck! 

Bluetooth uses the same part of the spectrum (the 2.4GHz band) as inexpensive Routers, baby monitors, some portable phones, microwave ovens, and interference generated by cheap USB cables.

It is not just a coincidence that turning off Bluetooth can improve some situations.

Some hope for you guys - I might have something here...

I have recently bought a Macbook Pro Retina 15" at the Apple Store (May '14).

Before the MBP 15" - I had a MacBook Air 13".

I have the latest Airport extreme connected to a 170MBPS high speed cable connection.

The airport extreme is well and centrally located and has worked perfectly with my older 2013 MacBook Air 13", the iMac 27" of my son, my iPhone 5s, the iPhone 5 of my wife, the iPod of my son, plus 3 iPads.

All worked perfectly...

Until I replaced my Air with the MBP 15"...

That's when I started having the WiFi intemittent disconnect problems.

What I experienced:

- While browsing the internet - I suddently would not be able to surf or send mail

- The browser would indicate "resolving host" and that's the end of it...

- The Wifi icon looked fine - not disconnted - yet there was no internet on the MBP

- The iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac all continued to work fine - the probem was isolated to the MBP

- If I disconneted WiFi and reconnected - it started to work again - for about 5 or 10 or 15 minutes and then again the disconnect

- When using the Airport utility during the "disconnect periods" I noticed the LAN indicator (the one near the icon of the router) was Green but the WAN indicator (the one near the globe) was orange - however this was obviously isolated to the MBP - the WAN was perfect for all other devices

Sometimes, after a while - maybe 5 minutes - suddently the WAN would turn green and I could surf again on my MBP - so the problem was really mysterious.

And then of course - it would stop working again ... and so on and so forth...

This drove me nuts... so I started reading and bumped into this thread.

For days I tested various fixes and most didn't work at all (or at least didn't improve anything).

What I tried and didn't work:

1. Changing the DNS on the router to the Google public DNS and to the Open DNS

2. Changing the DNS on my wifi network setting on my MBP to google or opendns

3. Turning off Bluetooth

4. Changing the channels on the 2.4 bandwidth (I tried all channels - nothing helped)

5. PRAM reset

So as you can guess I was super frustrated.

And then I bumped into this post:

http://howtoapple.com/mavericks-wifi-issues-fix/

- I believe this post solved or at least so far seems to have helped

What I have done from the link above:

1. Set Service Order

2. Delete System Configuration Folder

And .... wow ... a major improvement - or in other words ... so far...touch wood ... no more "resolving host"

I can finally work for many hours on my MBP

I realy hope this helps!

Deleting the System Configuration Folder, will this delete the new home location ?

I'm not sure - I simply followed those two steps.

Thanks

I do think that it helped

So far this has been a MAJOR improvement for my WiFi stability. I was about to toss this MBP in the trash, but your tips regarding the Service Order and deletion of the Configuration folder has been a godsend and given my MacBook new life!!

THANK YOU!!