Nessa4189
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: airport won't turn on

Our home wireless router wasn't working on my macbook pro, it has full signal strength but is unable to load a page. Cable company replaced modem and we have been working with our router company, DLINK to fix our problem.

After trying a million things with nothing working, he had me under system preferences>network under the list of :airport, ethernet, bluetooth and firewire, click on airport and hit the sign at the bottom of the list.

Now the airport is deleted and so I hit the sign to add another airport. It adds another one, but can not connect to any wireless stations: at school, my two jobs or at home. The status says off, so i hit turn airport on, nothing happens. Also up on the menu bar under the airport signal, you click on it and says airport: not configured and that is your only option.

I called applecare and they suggested reinstalling Leopard, which i was using and hopefully it would reappear. It didn't...

Any suggestions as to how to get my airport back and working? Thanks!

MacBook pro, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Mar 4, 2008 11:29 AM

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Nessa4189

Q: airport won't turn on

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  • by kcravey,

    kcravey kcravey Mar 24, 2008 8:50 PM in response to Nessa4189
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 24, 2008 8:50 PM in response to Nessa4189
    I have same problem. I just got my macbook pro in mail today. I am new to apple so I am sure I am doing something wrong. I tried to connect to my network and it says "click here to turn on airport" I click there and it still isnt on.

    I also got the time capsule to go with it. It can only recognize the time capsule with ethernet. Once I try to connect wirelessly it says "click here to turn on airport" and we repeat.

  • by Numoro1,

    Numoro1 Numoro1 Apr 9, 2008 6:23 AM in response to Nessa4189
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 9, 2008 6:23 AM in response to Nessa4189
    I have this same problem. I work primarily on 3 wireless networks.

    - Office #1: Certificate Authentication with Linksys WAP and Windows 2003 Server
    - Office #2: Netgear Wireless Router with WPA2-PSK
    - Home: Airport Extreme (Draft N) with WPA2-PSK

    If my MBP is unplugged, Airport will almost always turn off and not respond when trying to turn on. I am about 50/50 when it is plugged in. All three locations you can see the airport connect, then with no notice it just turns off. I have to restart my computer to get it back on. Sometimes I have to restart 3 times to finally get the Airport to stay on.

    I have tried resetting the SMC. This has been a problem since when I got the MBP with 10.5.1, and did not get better when I upgraded to 10.5.2. I hope someone finds an answer soon, this is certainly not what I paid for.

  • by DanStone,

    DanStone DanStone Apr 29, 2008 11:45 AM in response to Numoro1
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 29, 2008 11:45 AM in response to Numoro1
    My Macbook Pro Airport card would not turn on. The solution from Apple Care was to flush out (refresh) the Locations - to get the machine to overwrite a corrupt locations files essentially.

    (1) From the Apple menu go to System Preferences > Network;

    (2) Click the drop-down menu next to "Location:" and then "Edit Locations..."

    (3) Click the + to add a new location and make up a name for it and click "Done";

    (4) From the Locations drop-down list select that new location and then click "Apply";

    Hopefully that will do it. Then you can delete the new location you created and go back to how things were before. Sort of a virtual enema for the locations list on the computer I guess

  • by jmac2020,

    jmac2020 jmac2020 May 13, 2008 8:31 PM in response to DanStone
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 13, 2008 8:31 PM in response to DanStone
    Same problem, here. Just got my new macbook pro today with Leopard -- and airport WAS working earlier today, but then suddenly my Time Capsule was disconnected somehow while I was copying a file to it (simultaneously it was backing up my new mac) and since then I have had to plug directly to the ethernet to connect to the net. Other Macs here are able to connect. I tried the locations trick (deleting automatic location, making a new one etc) but no luck. When I try to start Airport, it stays off. I will try some things and update this site if I make any progress. Anyone else?

  • by jmac2020,

    jmac2020 jmac2020 May 13, 2008 8:40 PM in response to jmac2020
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 13, 2008 8:40 PM in response to jmac2020
    Ok I restarted, and now Airport is working again. I guess we will see if that lasts. I will unplug the power and see if Airport continues to work. (When it didn't work, I noticed that I had booted WITHOUT the power plugged in.

  • by jainaman86,

    jainaman86 jainaman86 May 13, 2008 10:58 PM in response to Nessa4189
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 13, 2008 10:58 PM in response to Nessa4189
    i have the same problem, let me try the location trick and check if it works

  • by jainaman86,

    jainaman86 jainaman86 May 13, 2008 11:18 PM in response to Nessa4189
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 13, 2008 11:18 PM in response to Nessa4189
    the location trick worked. thnx

  • by jmac2020,

    jmac2020 jmac2020 May 26, 2008 7:52 PM in response to jainaman86
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2008 7:52 PM in response to jainaman86
    I am still having the same problem.. only when not plugged in to power.. the location trick only works temporarily for me -- I add a new location, hit apply, close Network Prefs., reopen Network Prefs, and delete the old location. Then, only after I restart the Macbook Pro will the Airport work again, but sometimes only for a few minutes and then Airport inexplicably turns off again!

    I do not seem to have this problem when plugged in. This is only my third week with my new Macbook Pro and I am so frustrated. Any suggestions or updates on this topic?

  • by jmac2020,

    jmac2020 jmac2020 May 28, 2008 3:11 PM in response to jmac2020
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 28, 2008 3:11 PM in response to jmac2020
    Anyone have any ideas? I am still having this problem. I am in Canada and there is no Genius Bar in my city to bring it to.

    Is there a different forum I should post this to?

  • by Richard Cartledge,

    Richard Cartledge Richard Cartledge Jun 17, 2008 2:45 AM in response to jmac2020
    Level 2 (449 points)
    Jun 17, 2008 2:45 AM in response to jmac2020
    I have exactly the same problem too, the deleting locations only works for a minute. Have reset PRAM to no avail, and reset PMU to no avail.

  • by dazzasimmo,

    dazzasimmo dazzasimmo Jun 26, 2008 3:31 PM in response to Nessa4189
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 26, 2008 3:31 PM in response to Nessa4189
    just a quick observation... nobody has mentioned that they are running 10.5.3? Maybe try updating to that?

  • by melissajenna,

    melissajenna melissajenna Aug 30, 2011 7:37 PM in response to DanStone
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 30, 2011 7:37 PM in response to DanStone

    I'm running 10.6.8 and had this exact problem. Your instructions fixed it! Thank you SO much for sharing!

  • by ShereefHany,

    ShereefHany ShereefHany Feb 3, 2013 6:45 AM in response to Nessa4189
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 3, 2013 6:45 AM in response to Nessa4189

    Another post on the mac support forums worked like a charm. Caution: you will lose all your profiles for wifi connections you had in the past.

    The correction was simple.

    Go to the Mac HD, library, and then preferences, and then move the systemconfiguration folder onto your desktop and restart the machine.

    An error will appear on the first restart asking you to restart the machine and then everything will work fine.