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No AirPort card installed!??

Hi there to those nice enough to try and help me! Did an erase and install (and zero HD) two days ago on my 1st generation MBP and everything worked fine till today! My Airport suddenly seemed to freeze and I was unable to turn it off. I ended up re-starting to then be presented with the error saying no AirPort card installed! Its also not in the sytem profiler! I have read through the other topics on here already and someone suggested deleting the old airport and making a new one, but I can't make a new one as it is not in one of the services! Please help!!

Regards,
Pym, Owner Gamerswl.com

Message was edited by: Pym Cantellow

Posted on Feb 17, 2008 7:49 AM

162 replies

leah_80

Level 1

0 points

Jan 9, 2011 12:28 PM in response to leah_80

Just wanted to check back in here to let you know that it's been nearly a month and a half post-airport card replacement and everything is still working great. So in some cases it must be just the card.

Lassiter

Level 1

0 points

Jan 10, 2011 10:42 PM in response to Pym Cantellow

I just wanted to add to the discussion that the same thing happened to me yesterday on my late 2009 MBP. I raided the forums and found this one, and tried most of the suggestions to no avail. After six hours of diagnostics, testing, resets, repairing, etc. I finally gave up and concluded it must be a hardware fault.

Thankfully ethernet was still working so I was using that today and accidentally left my macbook in unplugged. It completely ran out of battery, and so when I realised this it took several minutes after being plugged in for it to startup. Once it did, the calendar was set back to pre-2008 and all my passwords were forgotten, but lo and behold- my airport was merely not configured rather than not installed. It then would register an IP address, but after one more restart it is now working fine again.

If you come across this you may very well have a hardware fault, but it seems even the software faults are not always solved by predictable means! This seems like a pretty big problem for far too many people though (based on the amount of forums around covering it!).

GregPT

Level 1

0 points

Jan 12, 2011 11:28 AM in response to Pym Cantellow

I have a refurbed early 08 edition MBP and for the third, maybe fourth time in a little over a year I'm taking it in (Friday) to the store to assumingly have the airport replaced. I'm having the same "no airport installed" issue that everyone else is having. In between the times that it just shows up (or lack thereof) as uninstalled it randomly just does the same thing on wake ups or fresh starts. It's getting really frustrating and aggravating that the same issue keeps repeating. I'm in PT school and my MBP is my must have tool for classes and everything. I have had few complaints but this and for the most part have loved all my Mac stuff since switching but this is driving me nuts. I'm hoping I maybe get the kind of excellent service I saw at least one person mention in getting something beyond just a fix. If I'm going to just keep having this recurrent problem I would hope I could talk some one into considering a full MBP replacement. I can't turn around every 2-3 months or more to take it in for service, especially now because of my constant use of it.

Jan 18, 2011 9:41 AM in response to doenen

I'm having the same problem, ie getting the "no airport card installed" message. It seemed to come about when I'd tried installing Windows 7 via bootcamp. I'd tried most of the troubleshooting steps I'd found online and ultimately swapped in a blank hard drive and installed a fresh copy of SL from the disk that came with my laptop. Now I'm not seeing any airport connection available at all. Nothing in the bar at the top of the screen and when I open system preferences, and then network, I see just enternet and firewire as my options. I tried clicking the plus to add an adapter and the only options are ethernet and firewire.

Hardware problem??

If that's the case, is the wireless NIC part of the main board or something I can reseat or replace?

4DOS/4NT

Level 1

0 points

Feb 11, 2011 3:56 AM in response to Pym Cantellow

The same thing happened to me after I backed up time machine a few weeks ago, the airport icon read 'no airport card installed'. As it was under warranty, I took it into the Mac Store and told them what the problem was. After it had $900 worth of repairs to it, I got it home, and within half an hour the same thing happened again. What's going on apple?

Sokysox

Level 1

0 points

Feb 12, 2011 3:22 PM in response to Pym Cantellow

I just had to register to post cause I'm so grateful for the advice. This issue has happened to me twice. The first time I just deleted the library/preferences/SystemConfiguration folder and that helped.

Several days later and after I upgraded to 10.6, it exhibited the same problems. This time the above fix did not help. I tried almost every other fix on this thread until I came across the repair disk permissions. This did it for me. Thanks so much!

1MRVP

Level 1

0 points

Feb 22, 2011 5:45 AM in response to vashka0310

If I just touch my laptop and move it a little, I lose the internet connection or if the laptop is on for about 10-15 minutes, I lose the connection ! I need to reboot it a few times & out of frustration,shut it down for 30 minutes..I get the net connection the next time I reboot until the process repeats..

To verify/repair Permissions,Disk Utility says that there is a hard disk error & to back up..

PRAM/SMC resets did not help..SMC reset does not help me get back the keyboard light too..

Nothing seems to help & Apple's getting rotten.

Mar 11, 2011 4:13 PM in response to Pym Cantellow

I had same problem with my MBP - SMC reset worked a treat first time. Thanks everyone....

Mar 13, 2011 7:17 AM in response to mtbike139

Command option P R worked well for me too eventually.... I had tried it once at first but it didn't work.

I started by going to Library > Preferences > SystemConfig > anything with network or airport in it, I used command Delete. Then reboot. Once restarted it did not work still, but this clears out all of your saved system information (so make sure to get your passwords etc before trying this). I rebooted again using the Command Option P and R trick and this completely sorted everything out! Back to normal!

Bevoburn

Level 2

205 points

Apr 29, 2011 9:19 PM in response to alexandragc

I had the same problem with my 13" Intel MBP. Oddly enough, i did the "Resetting the SMC for Mac Pro, Intel-based iMac, Intel-based Mac mini, or Intel-based Xserve" section of the article (even though this is a Macbook) followed by going to System Preferences > Network and deleting the airport from the list. Then i restarted the computer again and it worked. I did run Disk Utility before i did the above steps for about 5 minutes (then stopped it) so i'm not sure if the restart process of the article fixed it or the breif time reparing disk permissiongs fixed it. At anyrate, im happy that this was easily fixed.

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

Jun 10, 2011 3:49 PM in response to 4DOS/4NT

Hi there, I've had my airport card change twice, and still I have the same problem. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it doesn't. And it is frustrating when you need it to work (which you expect of Apple), and it doesn't! 😟 Anyone know a lasting solution to this? I would take it to the store again, but is it possible it is not the card?

Jun 21, 2011 2:46 AM in response to Kisforkat

Hello this worked for me: also read my thread...

Just press gently on the black plastic hinge cover of your MBP!!!!!

It'll sort the connection issue, at least for a while.

Cheerio!

Dra1010

Level 1

15 points

Jul 2, 2011 6:35 PM in response to Pym Cantellow

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!

Jul 28, 2011 7:54 PM in response to Pym Cantellow

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???

CatHat

Level 1

0 points

Aug 13, 2011 7:47 PM in response to paulinefromkatonah

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

No AirPort card installed!??