Q: MacBook Pro constantly losing wireless connectivity

Finally! All I had to do to solve the nasty wireless connection drop problem was to remove "RealPlayer Downloader" from my personal account login items. I had read about this solution in this forum in the past but had never bothered with it because I did not believe I had ever installed a "Realplayer Downloader". I was wrong, it was installed as part of a larger package when I upgraded my RealPlayer software several months back. Further, I was not up to removing all RealPlayer files as had been suggested was required in some contributions. Since then, everything has worked flawlessly and I did not need to leave 802.11n and I did not have to remove all RealPlayer files.

For the less tech-savvy, like me, here is my stab at a step-by-step how to diagnose and resolve the problem:

(1) Under the Apple, select "System Preferences..."

(2) Within "System Preferences...", go to the fourth row, which has the heading, "Systems" and select the first icon from the left, which is labelled: "Accounts".

(3) Once inside "Accounts", click on "Login Items".

(4) If you have a item called "RealPlayer Downloader" (may not be precisely correct about title as I have vapourized mine), it may well be the source of your MBPs problems. (Diagnosis.)

The cure:

(5) Simply click one time on"RealPlayer Downloader" to cause it to be highlighted, then remove it from "login Items" by clicking once on the "-" (the minus sign) that sits just beneath the sentence that begins with: "To hide an application when you log in ...". Please note that "clocking on the hide checkbox will accomplish nothing for you. You must remove the item from Login Items, not just cause it to be hidden at startup.

(6) Restart your computer.

(7) start enjoying your MBP wirelessly again.

Thanks ThomasG and Seppfett.

Greg

My three month old MBP dropps internet connections like crazy. On my old Linksys 54gs it wasn't so bad, it only happened ocationally but now with my new Linksys 310N it's literally only a matter of between 5 and 20 minutes before I lose the connection. This has happened at two different locations and with two different routers which is what led me to search online to see if the problem wasn't with the routers but was with my MBP, it's good to know that I'm not the only person experiencing these problems BUT, when will we have a fix? Oh, and this happens both in OSX AND in XP if that helps. Its actually easier to fix in XP, most of the time disabling the wireless and turning it back on works, sometimes it doesn't though. So... anyone else have ideas on how to fix it or is this something that Apple is going to have to fix, and will they update the bootcamp info for all of us running windblows for games and other essential programs :)???

Well, due to a few people making claims that the Real Audio download manager was causing the problem I just removed it and rebooted. I also just placed a couple of phone calls on my iPhone while sitting next to the computer which last week would kick it off line 98% of the time. I'm still up and running just fine.

I'll give it the next few days and see what happens and will check back to let everyone know.

Thanks,

glenn

HI Guys, Well same problem downunder in Australia. It is weired. The Only place I have trouble connecting to is at home where I have the state of the art apple wireless setup. ie. Latest Airport extreme and airport express. I have at least 8 other devices connecting both wirelessly and by ethernet to my apple network with absolutley no problem but my 2008 model 17" macbook pro suddenly began to have issues about 2 months ago. Sometimes it work and others not at all but most often it drops out so I turn airport off and back on again and sometimes this will connect me again but only for 30 to 60 sec. It also is having major problem both with sharing files and web surfing. However all this time the wifi menu show that I have full strength to my network. The other strange thing is This mac pro has no issues with any other wireless network that I use (and I use a few!!!!!!!). So where's the conflict, it has sure got me beat. I have tried the pram thing but I have not tried the first part ie, moving the aiport to the top of the network list. Please apple bring back my joy, I love my Mac.

Hi Cyber, May I ask where did you read or hear about the Real player download manager being the possible problem. And if it is the problem is everyone here running Real player?

If you read the threads here there have been a number of people making this claim. I didn't think it had anything to do with it so I kept testing other things. I'm still not 100% convinced but I will tell you that I could consistently knock my MBP offline by making a telephone call while sitting beside it and that hasn't happened since I removed it. If you look up just a few entries above where I posted you'll see another guy that gives specific instructions as to how to remove it but its worth a shot.

Post back if you have it installed and whether it fixed you...

Thanks,

glenn

Let me just make it clear that Real player - whilst it may be causing problems for some people - is not the only culprit. I have never installed Real player, yet I still have these problems... I did notice that my iPhone would make things worse, however turning it off is only providing a temporary solution - eventually the problems will creep up again....

Well, I was figuring that to be the case but hadn't heard of anyone saying they didn't have it installed. So have you checked your login items just to be sure its not there? Its something that got stuck in there on me without me knowing it. I didn't think I had it either. Its also something that got added a few months ago, which aligns itself with when my problems started.

Again, I don't know why this program would be causing the problem and I can absolutely agree that the MBP wireless ***** when compared to the cheaper MB that my wife has as well as Dell systems that friends have and myself have. I wish they'd make our more expensive notebooks work properly, but at the moment I do appear to be working as well as I was before. I'll post back if things change.

Thanks for the info,

glenn

The problem is NOT realplayer. I don't have it installed and it is nowhere on my computer. This problem is experienced in both OSX AND XP. It also seems to be becoming more and more prevalent. It happens on multiple routers using multiple setups (B,G,N)(WEP, WPA, WPA2) This is a problem with the computer itself, either hardware or software but NOT a third party app or equipment problem.

Ok, Perhaps we have multiple problems with the same symptoms. I can tell you that I've been up now for 2 days and using my cell phone around my computer which was a near guarantee that it would drop the connection. I had tried all the reboot, reset steps listed on this thread with no luck. I removed Real Player Download manager from my startup items and everything has been working perfectly since.

Obviously there are other problems because it shouldn't be possible for a 3rd party software program to break your wireless connection anyway, but I'm back to running at the moment. Just wanting to let others know that might have that thing installed.

Good luck and I'll check back if it breaks again.

glenn

nordster68 wrote:
Hi Cyber, May I ask where did you read or hear about the Real player download manager being the possible problem. And if it is the problem is everyone here running Real player?

Nope, never have had Real Player on the MBP and still having the issue...

Well I found it hard to believe but when you are desperate you will try anything. You are my hero Cybercrypt13. I have had no problem for the last 24 hours. I put realplayer 11 in the trash and restarted and wallah no more problems. I was just about ready to throw my MBP through something. Not that I am a violent guys but enough was enough. Anyway it is all smiles here now. Thanks for everyones input but especially cyber's. As for not everyone having the same problem ie. not using Realplayer. I had a thought that maybe there is other internet based software that have similar protocols to realplayer and that might explain why other people are having the same problem but with out having realplayer loaded. This is a wild guess. The thing I find the strangest is that it only seems to affect MBP's, I have lots of other macs running wirelessly with realplayer 11 running on the same wireless network and none of them have problems. I wish everyone the best with there MBP's and their wireless issues.

Yeah, Like I said, the MBP still has the same problem as before since it should be impossible for a software program to cause this type of an issue. You are probably correct in that there may be yet another application that causes the same type of problem but removing RealPlayer from my startup apps has definitely fixed my issue here. I have been up 100% for 3 days now.

glenn

One thought I forgot to add is that I have had realplayer for a while and did not use to have this conflict. I suppose it depends on you point of view but I believe the conflict is from Mac os updates not from having loaded realplayer. For me the conflict never used to exist until I update leopard. So it would seem that REAL need to get up to speed with leopards updates and update there own software to rectify this situation. It is so obscure that I even wonder if REAL knows this problem exists. Has anyone mentioned this to REAL.

Ps. Still up and running. So Cool.

PPs. I still think one of the most strange things about my whole experience is that I only had the wireless problem with my own apple network at home and only with my MBP. Anywhere else I went the MBP wireless worked fine, whether I had realplayer loaded or not. But I can not argue with result, ever since putting realplayer in the trash and restarting my internet and network issues are over.