No AirPort card installed!??

I had this problem as well on a Mac Book Pro, and the Genius Bar detected a bad Logic Board. It was bad but it did not solve my problem of no airport card or sound card failing from time to time. But I found the problem to be a faulty usb hub that knocked out those units. I replace the hub and that took care of my problem. So I suggest that you check all of your added hardware, usb is controlled by the Logic Board as well!

I just think it's adorable that since 2008 and dozens of posts here with the exact same ******** issue not one apple "genius" has logged on to offer a comment or help or suggestion or hint or even moral support for sucha widespread and annoying problem... Yeah. It's happened to my kid's laptop today after picking it up from the "geniuses" who "fixed" it (but failed to log onto their wireless internet with it to test it OBVIOUSLY!) and after the darned thing working wireless no problem for the past couple years it comes home with a problem it didn't go to hospital with.

Ya know, we're a big Mac family, have been for years... But this is ridiculous. It kind of makes all the jokes the PC folks make about Macs seem reasonable...

And NOTHING of all the suggestions has worked yet... I'm about to try a full backup and clean reboot... Something I only thought would be necesary on a PC... Ugh..

How many more years before a Mac employee comments on this thread???

I wish some one could help me. I haven't been a macbook user for long. I've had my MBP for a little over 2 years. I'm getting an error that I have no airport card installed and can't get on the internet. If I restart my computer, it doesn't fix the problem. If I turn off my computer and reboot it, it doesn't fix the problem. If I turn off my computer for about 15-30 minutes, then it will work, I'm back on the internet. But once I close the lid to my mac, if I open it back up, low and behold, same problem. No airport card installed therefore no internet access. This is driving me crazy. I don't know how to work on MACS. I do not have "Apple Care." The silver casing on the back of my screen is coming looose. I paid almost $2K for this piece of junk. *** gives here? I hate windows too, don't get me wrong, but I can work on a Windows computer, Not a MAC. What do I do. If I call Apple. They will want over $300 + to help me fix this problem. Help. I'm currently doing the repair disk permissions now to see if that helps. As I don't know where the battery is to do what was talked in previous post regarding the - command, option, p and s. Some one please help me. this is driving me CRAZY!!

Thanks, Carol in Texas

Hi all,

MBP 13 2010, had this annoyance since almost the beginning.

No permanent repir seems to be available, I have now changed my HD and installed Lion.

All fine for A week at least, but once again the card 'disappeared' ie: impossible to turn it on.

This happened again after closing the lid and putting the MBP to sleep.

I gently 'massaged' the dark plastic cover under the hinge an restarted: and Airport Card is back!

(Seems that the antenna cable (nap) for the AP card runs trough there)

I'm happy that my MBP operational again but amazed that Apple does not aknowledge this problem?

Ok if repair was attempted and you just install lion then you have a system corruption that was transferred with lion. I would do the following

Remove the System configuration folder from Mac hd/Library/Preferences folder and then restart machine

Then go to network preferences and reselect your network.

teppdude2,

So, clean install will not help, that's what you mean? Because, I'm ready to clean install after a thousand troubleshooting tried included what bradley169 mentioned, still the same!

teppdude2 wrote:

I gently 'massaged' the dark plastic cover under the hinge an restarted: and Airport Card is back!

(Seems that the antenna cable (nap) for the AP card runs trough there)

Could you please give me some idea how you do that and I'ld like to give it a try on my MBP 15", thanks and appreciate!!

Hello,

You will find somewhere (don't have the link handy) pics of an opened MBP.

So you'll see that tha antenna cable for the Airport card runs by the hinge up the frame of the screen.

If our prob is 'connectix' oxydation or coming loose, maybe just touching it gently re-establishes the connection.

So that would be done 'externally' trought the dark plastic cover on the hinge at the base of the screen.

Also I believe that once the motherboard has "lost" contatc with the card, you'll have to run any of the 'routines' that happen at boot,-or such as reset pram relaed stuff...or plain reboot.

That worked for me!

I'd almost hope that it's only that kind of simple connection prob, a connection that becomes loose after a while.

If that's really the case: the remedy would be easy next time Apple or whoever opens your otherwise BELOVED MBP 15!

I cross my fingers for you 😉

teppdude2,

Thanks to your prompt reply!

So, did you mean I might need to open up the unibody as the link below http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing-MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Unibody-Late-2008-and -Early-2009-Airport-Card/6274/5 to "touch gently" to the connection?

Nope,

I suggest that you don't open if you're under some warranty.

I could 'feel' the cable and the connection close to the hinge side. Maybe that would be enough to reconnect all the points?

If you feel like doing it: follow the instructions in your link, buy an air/aerosol to clean the connections etc..

I'd suggest you start by just exerting little pressure through the dark plastic.

And reboot.

Tell me if that worked.😎

Thanks! :D Btw, I've try tO disk repair with MBP Original Installer, the airport card now c'ld be able to turned on! Strange!! I suspected the system files might be corrupted. Do you think a clean install will helps? Installer Disk (Leopard), SL in standalone Disk. Which to go?

Iwe tried it all, am Lion right now. (all reinstalls of SL, reset combos etc...)

As i said earlier Lion worked fine for a week, until -on closing the lid- the card disappeared again.
Been probing the card cable through the plastic and now it's back.

I'd suggest you 'normal' install (keep your files) Lion and go from there. You can buy Lion online, no need for disk.

See what happens, if corruption is gone...

Then try the physical probing of the card, maybe it's a strange mix of all those factors.

PS: do not get afraid if your Mac acts kindof funny for a couple of hours after install (it's doing some 'private' indexing behind the scenes) once that's done, Lion's a breeze, I love it.

Help!!! I had no issues with my Mac Book Pro for the last 2 years, It was all working fine. I had gone to Goa for a business trip for a week and I used the cable for the internet and when I got back to Mumbai and tried using my Wi-5 it says NO AIRPORT CARD. I tried copule of things but i just can't get the Airport card.

Hello Sunny,

The only cure to this i have found working is simply exerting pressure on the black plastic cover on the hinge of the screen.

For exemple yesterday "No Hardware installed" (this is what it says on Lion) showed again.

I pressed the black cover and rebooted: the card was there !

It seems that this could be caused by a simple physical connection that becomes loose?

Even though i have now this solution, I think Apple should address this prob since it seems quite widespread.

That's cool, Haaa...

Unfortunately, I c'ld not log into SL, in fact, it still in panic kernel situation. Try to Safe Mode, still Panic Kernel. So, I can't do anything like software update!

What s'ld I do in the next now? Repair by using SL installer?

I have the same problem. i'm using a 2011 version of macbook pro with os x lion running on it. i reset my SMC and PRAM, opened the computer and nothing was popped out. please help me.

MacBook Pro 2011, OS X Lion (10.7.1)