You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

27" imac wifi problems (intermittant)

I really wish Apple had email or online support...

I have a 27" i5 imac that I bought just before Christmas, I had lots of problems with the wifi on it, it would not connect and when it did it was very slow, all while my macbook and iphone in the same room showed full signal and a fast rock solid connection. I rang Apple support, it took ages but they were very helpful and eventually we solved it and in the end it seemed to be WPA that was the problem and whilst I was not happy switching to WEP it seemed to work so I went with it.

Fast forward a month or so and I have started having problems again, it is fine when I boot but as the day goes on it gets slower and slower before finally refuses to connect at all. I am wondering if this could be something over-heating but in truth I am puzzled.

Anybody else having issues?

imac i5 27" and macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Feb 21, 2010 3:11 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 21, 2010 5:31 PM

I am having the same exact problem. Bought a 27 inch iMac about a month ago, the wireless connection was a little slow off the bat, but then I was able to fix it. Recently after turning it on the signal is picked up fine for about 15 minutes and then all of a sudden the airport can no longer pick up any wireless network. Meanwhile my iPhone and MacBook have no issues. I called apple support and they had me complete a litany of useless diagnostic tasks - emptied my cache, did a hard reboot, repaired disk permissions , etc. None of it helped. Seems it's a hardware issue. Anyone know if this is a known issue with this model? I'm afraid the airport card itself may be defective in some way.
443 replies

Feb 16, 2012 12:57 PM in response to neil74

This is just based on my experience and might not be the same for everyone but, is this maybe a bluetooth related problem?


Fact: when I restart from sleep via bluetooth devices such as keyboard and mouse it drops the wifi connection. But if I use the power button on the mac all is cool!


Fact: my bluetooth keyboard and mouse are dropping off more and more frequently.


Fact: my connection also drops off every now and then when I leave my mac for say 10 mins or so the connection drops again. I can't attribute that to bluetooth at the moment but I am suspecting it might be based on the above.


Come on Apple!

Feb 16, 2012 9:08 PM in response to neil74

So I had downgraded my wifi driver and the wifi worked perfectly for a week or so. But then I installed the OS update and recently it has been bad again. Would the OS update upgrade the driver again? Anyone know?


My original post when I got it working:

This solution that Paul31 suggested seems to have fixed the problem for me (and it is VERY easy):

Has anyone tried this:

http://rys.pixeltards.com/2011/09/04/osx-lion-wifi.html

how to vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtxRfFAh8Pg


basically downgrades your wi-fi driver from 4.x to 3.x The theory is that the 4.x driver has a bug that causes the issue.

Feb 17, 2012 3:30 PM in response to Makhs117

Can't even find what you are talking about...are you on 10.6 or ? I'm oin a quad core i7 Late 2009 iMac, 12 gigs of RAM, OS 10.7.3....


So I went to about this mac - more info - then I have a choice of Overview Displays Storage Memory - ?


So I went into Overview - System Report - Newtork - Airport...


but there's noting I can change in there...


?


Sick of this problem. Why would they make a machine that wakes INSTANTLY from sleep, the fastest computer I have EVER had for that, onlhy to spend 30+ seconds searching for the ONLY WI-FI NETWORK IT HAS EVER CONNECTED TO. Totally dumb. Reminds of the stupid **** Windoze used to do.


Cameron

Feb 20, 2012 6:31 AM in response to neil74

I purchased 27 Inch Imac in Dec. Since I took it out of the box I have had the same problems dropping the internet connection.

Sometimes the green wi fi led is on but there is no connection.

I have to turn it on and off and this goes on all day. when I wake it up in network mgr says Cable Unplugged ( It is wireless); Configure ipv4:off click on wi fi no network selected. I select my network, and am connected. Few minutes later it drops it. I have a windows Desktop and Laptop and never have this problem. Same router.

Feb 23, 2012 3:11 PM in response to Andreas Carlsson

The advice on that video worked for me for the most part. I have a late 2011 27" and the video said it would probably only work on late 2009 models. The only issue I have been having since is that I occasionally have to reconnect when waking the computer from sleep, but that problem is infinitely better than dropping the signal every five minutes. I'm glad someone finally came up with a temporary solution until Mac can come up with something better. It's very sad to me that we are more likely to get a fix from some random techie than from any of the highly qualified genius' at mac. Thanks for the $2000 Leapster mac.

Feb 25, 2012 12:23 PM in response to DeSinge

Yes, I can confirm that my iMac (iMac12,2) after applying the update does in fact reconnect to my preferred network after waking from sleep via bluetooth. I tested sleeping multiple times before the update and then after and it's night and day.


One very important note:

The update will not apply if you have followed the guide to downgrade your IO80211Family.kext. You must first replace the downgraded driver with the original v4 driver for the update to work. You can do so by pulling the file off your Time Machine backup if you have one and placing it on the "Kext Utility" just like you did to downgrade in the first place. Same procedure works for upgrading it back to normal. Once you upgrade, restart your iMac, reconnect to your network and run Software Update. It immediately will find the small update. Update, restart, and voila, you can now use your iMac properly.


Side note: If you are pulling the Lion IO80211Family.kext from your Time Machine, the file is located in your "latest" backup, under "Macintosh HD\System\Library\Extensions"


PS...

I did, in fact, use the downgraded kext and experienced the exact same issue for the duration of using it. For my iMac12,2, it made no difference whatsoever. Just throwing that out there.

27" imac wifi problems (intermittant)

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.