DO ORIGINAL AIRPORT CARDS IN GENERAL "WEAR OUT" AFTER LONG SERVICE?

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DO ORIGINAL AIRPORT CARDS IN GENERAL "WEAR OUT" AFTER LONG SERVICE?

HI..I picked up a used Airport Card for my old Imac Graphite a little over a year ago. Worked fine until a few weeks ago and now its temperamental as all ****. sometimes cuts out for hours or all day, then fine for a few days.Mostly not working now.

Its NOT the base unit ( Airport Extreme) because I can get the router's signal from a hundred feet away, even outside the house ( confirmed with my iPod Touch).

Do the old cards just go bad? Is that why there are so many for sale on "E-PAY"?
If so, would most of you go with another recycled card?...OR............

Do these new antennas from places like "After The Mac' that look like Flash memory modules offer improved service & reliability?

Help, please and thanks again!

(2):iMacSEDV(OS9&Tiger)/iMac24"Intel 2.4GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Sep 3, 2009 5:15 PM

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Answer 1

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MacinNW_Brent

Level 1

94 points

Sep 18, 2009 10:27 AM in response to Gregory Proios

Gregory,

Yes, all electronics can wear out. The reason that there are so many original Airport cards available is that there are no new Macs that can use them.

Did you upgrade to Snow Leopard (10.6)? If so that is the probably cause of your issues. The 802.11 b & g ABS is not supported by the current Airport Utility. I assume that applies to the cards, also, althought this is the first problems I have heard with the cards.

The b & g ABS need Airport Admin Utility with ended with 10.4. Although I had not problem using AU with 10.5 and was able to change the settings in 10.5 with no problems. The move to 10.6 broke the compatibility for many.

Rather than hold my breath waiting to see if a fix or work around becomes available, I just took delivery of a AEBS and am about to see how it plays with the older b/g Airport Cards in my 2 G4 Macs.

Sorry that I can not offer you a fix.

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Answer 2

Nov 16, 2009 12:14 PM in response to MacinNW_Brent

Thanks for replying. I am running running 10.4 in this OLD IMac graphite (original CRT, SEDV model running at a 400mhz but with an upgraded HD and max ram which is only 1gig in these old machines)....so its not an issue with Snow Leopard, obviously. Of the three Macs I have only the newest, a MacBook Pro running 10.6. This old Mac is the least used in the house now but it has the bulk of my iTunes personal library in it and I still use it almost exclusively for that in conjunction with an outboard cd burner.

The weirdest thing about this is that the Airport Card works fine when this iMac starts up after being shut down say at least overnight. But once it warms up, signals start to gradually fade away as the strength bars become fewer and fewer. Sometimes this does not happen at all, although rarely. "Works intermittently" would be the best description and its quite annoying. Guess its time for another replacement from "EPAY".

Thank you again for trying to help!

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