Suddenly Macbook Wifi has got weaker and dropping out...

I've had this challenge as well; for me it started about 3-weeks after I got a replacement MacBook. My previous MacBook had a Intel wireless adapter and the new one has a Broadcom wireless adapter. In my experience the Broadcom adapters have been poor so my initial thoughts were to fault the Broadcom. My wife's MacBook has an Intel adapter, we could be in the same room and she would not drop her connection but yet my "New" MacBook would. So after fighting with this for a few weeks, I reloaded the OS and it seemed to stabilize. Although it's now stabilized I do notice better performance with the Intel adapter, and have thought about finding a replacement Intel MiniPCI adapter to replace the Broadcom.

Do you have RealPlayer installed by any chance?

http://www.lockergnome.com/hackonia/2009/01/01/realplayer-causing-wireless-netwo rk-issues-on-macs-only/

Can ANYONE please say if apple knows about this problem? It's annoying me.

I am happy to read this issue which i thought until now was an ISP issue and kept calling up my provider to resolve it. However this issue seems to be isolated to my macbook as my iphone, itouch and windows system connects to wireless without any issue..Hope someone can come up with a resolution for us..

I have the same problem!

My MacBook will connect, but it's not reliable. Compared to other computers (including an iPhone), the MacBook's connection to the base station is much weaker. This is a recent problem. This same MacBook has connected reliably for years.

As a strength test, I put the MacBook at the same location as another computer, ran Airport Utility and looked at the "Wireless Clients" graph. Consistently, the "Signal" and "Rate" were much lower for the MacBook than the other computer.

I've brought this into the Apple store twice now. They even sent it off to Apple and they replaced the main logic board and the Airport card. Still, the problem persists.

I've tried different channels, changing all sorts of settings, but nothing has helped.

Bark!

Just got off the phone with AppleCare -- the options are (1) taking it in to get the airport card replaced, or (2) downgrading to the OS 10.5.6 to see if that's the problem.

They mentioned if they get an influx of calls regarding the issue, they can take action -- so call them up to complain...!

Well, my Airport card has already been replaced.

I took my machine into work and had the network guys there test it. They have all sorts of diagnostics because they maintain several wireless networks throughout a building with over 500 people.

They are pretty sure it is a hardware problem. My machine showed a much weaker signal than typical (about 30db lower) for a laptop. We got a couple of screen captures (press Option when you click on the Airport menu option to see info about the current connection) which I hope will prove the point. Having my machine make an ad hoc network ("Create Network…") worked, but that too was far weaker than typical.

I've got an appointment with the Genius bar (third trip for this problem!) on Friday. I'll report back.

(Side note: I certainly hope they still consider this to be under AppleCare. The first two visits were made before my AppleCare expired. And the replacement parts are supposedly guaranteed for a year.)

Bark!

barkofdelight wrote:
Well, my Airport card has already been replaced.

I took my machine into work and had the network guys there test it. They have all sorts of diagnostics because they maintain several wireless networks throughout a building with over 500 people.

They are pretty sure it is a hardware problem. My machine showed a much weaker signal than typical (about 30db lower) for a laptop. We got a couple of screen captures (press Option when you click on the Airport menu option to see info about the current connection) which I hope will prove the point. Having my machine make an ad hoc network ("Create Network…") worked, but that too was far weaker than typical.

It's affected too many people to just be a hardware issue.
It's either an OS upgrade or another Mac program that was updated using "Software Update"


If someone has the time they could download the 10.5.7 "Combo" updater and install it over their system. This will not change anything except possibly upgrading a few of files that were missed (yes, it's possible) by Apple's Software Update.

pancenter-

How about just booting off of the install disk? Would that be a valid test?

Or maybe someone on this discussion has a dual-boot machine?

Bark!

barkofdelight wrote:
How about just booting off of the install disk? Would that be a valid test?

Or maybe someone on this discussion has a dual-boot machine?

Bark!

Anyone with an external drive with Tiger, or a Leopard version prior to 10.5.6 (just to be safe) could try setting up a new network connection.

pancenter-

I've booted into my Windows Bootcamp partition... and the problem persists.

I visited the Genius Bar this morning. The technician opened up the lid of my machine, looked at the "radar" icon in the menu bar and immediately said, "oh, you're not getting a strong enough signal. It's probably the antenna. I wonder why they didn't replace that when they replaced everything else."

So now my machine is on its way back to Apple Central.

I'll report back after it is returned.

Bark!

[PS: Anybody have any idea how an antenna of a MacBook can go bad? It's just a piece of metal inside the case, right? How would it break?]

Pipe Hitter wrote:
I've had this challenge as well; for me it started about 3-weeks after I got a replacement MacBook. My previous MacBook had a Intel wireless adapter and the new one has a Broadcom wireless adapter. In my experience the Broadcom adapters have been poor so my initial thoughts were to fault the Broadcom.

The Broadcom adapters work pretty well actually, I have one in a PC laptop and it will pick up signnal several rooms away. I'm guessing for most people it's an Apple wireless driver update that's affected so many users. It's not the first driver problem Apple has had with Broadcom, there was one three or four OS revisions ago that hosed audio badly. Audio would distort unless the wireless driver was disabled. I wonder if there was an included firmware update (in 10.5.7) for the internal wireless, that would explain the macbook's poor connection in both OSX & Windows.

pancenter-

can't say whether this works or not - but it might be worth a try.
BTW I'm getting this same MB prob in tiger 4.11 but not with the same system in the same room with an ibook - go figger

http://www.justin-cook.com/wp/2007/04/11/how-to-fix-your-macbook-wifi-connection -that-keeps-dropping/