Q: MacBook Pro constantly losing wireless connectivity

I am having the dropping wifi issue and none of the recommended actions have worked for me. Running a MB 2.4GHz C2D w/ 10.5.4 using wifi is hardly possible.

From my perspective a hardware issue can be ruled out because I tested wifi running linux and it _works like a charm_.

Here is how I tested wifi using an Ubunty 8.04 live CD:

http://mattzz.dyndns.org/twiki/bin/view/Projects/MacBook

Best,
/Matthias

I've been reading this thread and it doesn't seem anyone has really come up with a solution. I never had problems with the wireless on my MBP until this last update that came out a few weeks ago. Now my Internet connections are dropped throughout the day. I use a D-Link router, and like I said, perfect up until a couple weeks ago and now I want to chunk this thing out in the rain.

I tried the PMU reset and that didn't help at all. 2 minutes after getting rebooted it lost the connection. My last attempt was to set my router to only G network and so far I've been up for an hour. The problem is that mornings the thing is terrible but throughout the day it seems to improve. It doesn't drop ever 3 minutes and might run all day without a problem only to kick me off the next day 50 times. So I'll post back in a few days and see what this does for things.

APPLE NEEDS TO ACKNOWLEDGE ITS CUSTOMERS!!!!

I love my Apple products but am growing to hate the Apple Company. I do not appreciate being ignored anytime there is a problem and it makes it worse when they still have the nerve to send me email after email about how great their stuff is.

glenn

Actually didn't have to wait days. It's already lost its connection so neither the PMU reset nor changing the router has helped me. So we went from never having a problem to having constant problems in the last few weeks and I would have to assume the major reason was the last update Apple released.

Anyone submit any other useful ideas that I haven't seen? Lots of info on this thread.

Thanks,

glenn

I've been dealing with this for over a year, and have sent my MB Pro back to Apple many times under warranty. I've spent hundreds of hours on the phone and installing various versions of the system and firmware, and Apple's even swapped out my Airport Extremes and Expresses plus given me a brand new laptop replacement.

The ONLY thing that works is a new airport card. But you may have to try out many before you find one that's reliable with YOUR particular MB Pro.

Really? I talked to Apple the other day and they told me I had to take my computer up to them to test for a few days before they'd even replace anything. If all of us are having the same issues then why are they not just replacing the cards and letting us come back home with the computers?

Thanks for your info,

glenn

Does anyone know of a way to get through to Apple that reloading the OS is not the answer to 90% of the problems we have? I've sent 2 friends to Apple to by Mac Pro's. Both had problems with Logic and Apple has made each reload their OS's to fix the problem and neither got fixed. One reloaded 5 different times and in both cases it ended up being hardware related issues.

I've had to reload my OS twice already because a rep told me to do it and neither time did it fix anything at all. I have tons of software on my Mac and reloading is not an option, yet I'm being told that before I can get any hardware replacements I have to reload the OS. Trying a new rep now to see if the story changes but so far been through 3 and all said the same thing.

glenn

Phone-in Apple support is different from Apple Store support. You've got to jump through a lot more hoops at the store, plus sign a document that you might be liable for a $100 "diagnostic fee" even though it's under warranty.

Stay away from the store, except to have them verify a problem (and update the case record) of an existing case number you got from the phone-in support. Don't leave your machine at the store if at all possible. Repairs are faster and better if you ship it in using one of their boxes.

Well, there lies the rub...

I'm using phone in support now. These guys are telling me the same thing to do that you guys have already listed and that I've already tried. They don't work and I'm still loosing wireless. One of you guys suggested the only way to fix it is to replace the air card, but the phone in support is telling me they won't do this unless I've reloaded my OS first.

Here is what really makes me mad about Apple. I've been on Windows for years. Bought Dell computers who do not write OS's. They do hardware! If I had this problem with Dell, they'd have already sent a person to my house and replaced everything that might be causing the problem with the computer and 99% of the time the problem goes away.

With Apple I first have to call in to support, which I do only after hours/days or weeks of trying to fix it myself, where upon 99.9% of the time I'm told I need to reload the OS. This NEVER fixes the problem for me or any of my 5 friends that all own Macs. Then after I've wasted a week of my time trying to reload the OS and the 100 different applications that I run, gotten all that crap setup again, they'll want me to send it to them. They'll reload the OS again and do diags on it where they won't find anything and then will send it back to me as ok. Then I'll send it back to them because it still doesn't work where upon they'll do more diags on it reload again and eventually they might replace some hardware and the problem will go away.

What's wrong with this picture?

I watched my friend who I suggested by a Mac, spend 3 weeks and countless hours at the Apple store trying to get them to fix his brand new Mac Pro. They reloaded his OS as well as him no less than 8 times in 3 weeks. (this somehow was necessary for them) Afterwards, they ended up sending him a brand new system and he returned his and everything has worked perfectly ever sense.

Apple might have the best products around but they have a lot to learn about how to take care of their customers. Stop acting like Steve and acknowledge there are others in the room that might have something to say.

glenn

I too have had the same problem with my MBP pretty much since day one. There's been a couple of updates for Leopard that were supposed to "fix" the problem, but nothing I have tried to date has worked. And it's embarrassing when my P.O.S. acer can connect and stay connected but my high end MBP drops the ball every couple of minutes. Apple please FIX the problem!

You say
"The ONLY thing that works is a new airport card."

How come then, that my card works fine with linux and drops wifi with MacOS.

If the card works fine with linux the hardware seems to be ok for me.

I only said that because of what I was told by another user. I agree with you that its very possible and very likely that its the OS causing the problem. My larger point was the fact that Apple Support people think the only way to fix any problem is reloading the OS instead of actually attempting to locate the problem to begin with.

100% of the time that I've called for support, before the end of the conversation they tell me to reload the OS. Its ridiculous! Fix Your OS Apple!

glenn

i bought my MBP last week. out of the box i couldn't get online for over a few hours at a time (it would work sporadically). tried everything suggested on the forums.

i took it by the apple store yesterday, and the guy there set up a side by side test with his MBP and mine, and went to http://speedtest.net

his got a speed of 10,000 (whatever the units are) and mine got about 300!!!

he said it was def an airport card issue and that i should call applecare to get a replacement. it took about 20 minutes.

i am going to call tonight.. we'll see if they send me a new computer or not.

You don't need a new computer... yet.

A new airport card could fix it. Apple replaced a few airport cards before one worked right with my MB Pro.

Did they replace your airport card without reloading the OS? And if so, what did you do to make this happen? I'm being told that they WILL NOT replace the airport card until after they reload the OS.

Thanks,

glenn

Yeah. I think that's something new.

The last time I sent mine in for a new airport card was 2 weeks ago, and I got it back with the disk wiped and a new Leopard installed. That's the first time that happened to me.

I had to use Migration Assistant to get everything back to normal from my backups.

Make sure you have a backup before sending it in!