No AirPort card installed!??

Regarding Airport Issue...

Just had this problem on my 2007 MacBook Air running OS 10.6.8

The Simple Fix for me was to shut down the computer and then hold the Power Button

for a few seconds until I heard a rather harsh startup tone...

Airport came right back, everything's good now.

I don't know what happens with this Power Button Hold Reset, but it worked!

Good luck,

Mac Musician

Apple should address this anoying Wi-Fi thing, what ever you thing about regarding problems with Wi-Fi. I have done everything possible, resseting the PRAM and SMC, trying to restart services by command line using the terminal, checking for errors with the OS assistant, booting on safe mode, switch on the Mac Book Pro without battery, tighning up the screews inside the laptop, disconnecting components and put them back, cleaning contacts on the mother board and so on, reinstalling the OS and even formating the whole hard drive and start with new OS without any others installed applications or programs. No matter what you do the Wi-Fi is not available randomly even when your OS is not hibernating. Do not try any of this. After have spend some weeks reading and reading about this problem I want to give you an advice, just leave you laptop with the annoying problem and just restart the laptop every time you do not have the wi-fi available. Do not waste your valuable time.

I do not even feel safe to take my MBP to an Apple shop or support center, mine is out of warranty and after reading so many posts of people taking their laptops to Apple centers and wasting so much time and money in reapairs, going back to the reapir center so many times for the same thing, they do not have any solution.

Like all of you here, the airport on my Macbook pro released in late 2010 just disappeared two weeks ago. Not a big deal, I thought, as I have had this problem many times before and each time it would always come back after I applied all the tricks picked from the internet. My luck ran out this time. No matter what I did, including opening the case to disconnect the battery, the airport remained elusive. So I had to make a trip to the Apple store Genius. They said the airport needed to be replaced for about $45. Ok, I can swallow that. So I left the computer there. A day later, they called to tell me that it still didn’t work after a new airport card was installed, and they need to replace the antenna for about $18 extra. Fine, go ahead. And then they called again – it still doesn’t work and a Logic board needs to be replaced for about $450 in the store (faster) or $300 sent to a repair center (longer). I declined as I figured I’d rather buy a near new similar model for about $600 from Ebay. But before that, I decided to try a new cost solution – a Wifi USB adapter. I first picked up a $9.99 one from Fry’s but it didn’t work. I then increased the investment by $10 more with another one. After a few try, it worked! Now it works as good as the airport, if not better. In case you want to know what it is, it’s the IOGEAR Model GWU625. I learned it has to be USB 1.1 compatible to work with Mac. Mine is compatible with all the USB specs. So to be safe, just pick one with a wide USB compatibility.

One caution, all these USB adapters come with mini CD disk, which doesn’t work with the Macbook built-in CD drive. So you’d better have an external mini-CD compatible drive available to install the driver.

Good luck!

I did almost the same you did. I did not go to the Genius Mac Shop after reading all those posts I felt dissapointed and I tried to figure it out a fix. I reached the solution to the problem after interchanging a piece of bus cable between a MacBookPro 13 2011 and mine with the same characteristics.

So I went to a shop to buy that piece of bus cable and now my laptop work fine. The piece of bus cable was the one going from the wifi antena to the board. this piece is about 10cm of lenght.

Thanks for the tip. Since it's working with the USB adapter, I will just leave it. I'm afraid I might cause damages along the way if I try to replace an internal part. But I was quite disappointed that why those geniuses couldn't figure out simple ways to fix it as we the armatures.

So hopefully you guys can shine a little light on my problems here. My brother gave me his late 2007 MBP duo core b/c he had the black screen. Took everything apart, used the heat gun on the mother board to reset the video chip set and I'm now on the computer. Only problem now is that the airport card says no hardware installed. It worked prior to the screen going black my brother informed me. I have since installed upgraded RAM (not sure if this matters) and a new airport card with still no luck. I have done most everything listed here.. PRAM, SMC resets, terminal -detectnewhardware, boot from CD, and still haven't been able to get anything. Now not sure if this is the way it comes but this A1226 the left usb doesn't have power... Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again everyone ahead of time.

Bottom line: my WIFI problem was fixed after I replaced the cable connecting my wireless card to the motherboard!!!

Although the the causes of the problems can vary depending on each specific case, I suspect that many people had the same problem as mine!

Keep reading to find out more details.

Like many of the folks who came to this forum, I had the WIFI not working problem for almost half a year! Here were my symptoms:

- At the beginning, my WIFI would suddenly stop working after awaken from sleep, the WIFI icon on my Macbook Pro became empty without any bars. The wifi would not restore no matter what I try, unless I restart my laptop. After a few days, the WIFI would stopping working in the same way even when it was not sleeping.

- After have had this problem for a while, I started to see the "Hardware not installed" problem. Sometimes a reboot would solve the problem, sometimes it couldn't. Many folks attribute this to a software or OS problem, but to me, since my WIFI would suddenly stopping working while everything else was normal, it seemed more like a hardware problem. The "Hardware not installed" message was also supporting my guess.

- Nonetheless, I tried everything I could to solve the problem, including lots of software- or OS-wise resttings. None of them really worked. Some of them seemed to work after retbooting, but it was unclear if those were due to the reboot it self or not.

Finally, I happened to read some posts regarding the WIFI cable that was connecting to my motherboard and the wireless card. Several people got the problem fixed after replacing the cable. But as many had pointed out, this could be due to either the cable, or the wifi card. I therefore tested my wireless card while it was functioning, by 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 lost my wifi when the wireless cable was disconnected; WIFI signal was weak but existent when all antennas were disconnected. This was the same too my bluetooth as well, despite that my bluetooth never had any problems. So after those tests, it appeared to me that it was my cable that was causing the WIFI problem, especially the "Wireless card not installed" problem.

So after so much frustrations with different types of wifi USB dongles (none was compatible with 801.1X enterprise authentication), I decided to replace the wireless card cable. I bought one replacement cable from eBay, and followed the instructions on iFixit.com. After replacing the cable, my wifi was recovered and I have not had any problems for 3 months since then!

So bottomline: it is very likely a loose cable issue rather than a software issue for most people. Replace your wireless cable or, in a worse scenario, your wireless card, then you will likely solve the problem.

Good luck everyone!

I had WIFI not working problems as well as other hardware problems. My final problem was a faulty portable USB hub. I removed it and never had another problem. My recommendation is to check all external connections.

Hope this helps

I can confirm that my problem was the Airport Bluetooth Flex Cable as well.

(MacBook Pro 15", early 2011 model, OSX 10.9.3)

My airport card gradually stopped working to the point of showing "not installed".

After spending days of doing *everything* software related, checking and cleaning the connections,

it was a $17 replacement on Ebay.

(or you can take it in the Apple Store for parts + labor)

hope that helps!!

This has been the most frustrating thing since I got apple products, just ordered the cable part and hope this will fix my problem too... Is hard to belive that one internal cable can go bad just like that and apple has no advise on this...

My airport suddenly disappeared and read a couple of the posts on my phone I couldnt remove the battery because it is an updated macbook, after restarting the computer normally about 4 times. I took it off the outlet and shut it down, I then held the power button (~ 10 secs) until it rebooted and my aiport was back and working. Hope this helps.

After banging my head on the desk repeatedly, trying all the solutions mentioned here, I decided to take the plunge and open the machine.

Because the problem was intermittent, I deduced that it was a connectivity issue.

I found this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQZ_rG9VpHk that showed how to open the macbook pro.
As soon as he got to the part about the wireless card (about 6:15) I realised what the problem was.
The card is connected to the board with a plug just above the fan on the right. I noticed that although it was plugged in, it wasn't completely pushed in.

So I just gave it a small push to properly seat it in it's slot, and that was that.I am now hooked up and happy!

Hey there,

Machine: MacbookPro '13 early 2011 i5 2,3 GHZ

In 2016 i'm still facing this issue,

I got some factors which maybe influence the situation,

- When I open or close the lid and the Macbook will go to a 'sleep' and I wake it up again the problem is over.

- When I restart the machine, the problem vanished

- When I preform a full PRAM reset it solves the problem

Sometimes, the problem is stubborn and I need to preform a restart over and over again.

And occasionally I don't get the problems for days.

But today I got the problem several times.

Are there still people who are facing this problems, or people who really solved it?

Please help me out,
Laurens

Hey there,

Machine: MacbookPro '13 early 2011 i5 2,3 GHZ

In 2016 i'm still facing this issue,

I got some factors which maybe influence the situation,

- When I open or close the lid and the Macbook will go to a 'sleep' and I wake it up again the problem is over.

- When I restart the machine, the problem vanished

- When I preform a full PRAM reset it solves the problem

Sometimes, the problem is stubborn and I need to preform a restart over and over again.

And occasionally I don't get the problems for days.

But today I got the problem several times.

Some knowledge, I opened the Macbook and released and replaced the connections, which didn't help much in the long term.

Sometimes my macbook recognizes the bluetooth, but mostly it doesn't.

So I'm wondering should I replace the cable or the airport-card, to solve my problem?

Are there still people who are facing this problems, or people who really solved it?

Please help me out,
Laurens

This was the winning solution for me. Thanks so much for posting.

By booting from the original OSX Install Disk, I was able to achieve a WiFi Connection and thus determine the problem was software related. So I reinstalled the Original Mac OSX and then upgraded to a more stable version. Then I installed all the Applications again. All is well. Let's hope it stays that way.

Mid 2010 MacBook Pro Unibody