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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

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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

Apr 22, 2012 6:33 AM in response to neil74

Just to add my tale of woe too.

I bought mid-2011 27" iMac 3 weeks ago and have experienced exactly the same as most people on this thread.

I`ve followed most of the fixes people have suggested and ended back to square one. Intermittant wifi dropouts. Apple (Japan) arranged to have it serviced. It was picked up this morning and is being sent to the US.

From what I`ve read, I`m not very confident of this being resolved.

Can we try ways of publicising this fault to perhaps stop others from falling down the same rabbit hole?

Any ideas?

Apr 22, 2012 8:31 AM in response to neil74

That my I idea to I posted on some other forums the same idea, like the iphone 4 apple will not react until it's public. 😟


Nobody seems to care. I read on another forum mountain lion doesn't fix this problem so we are all stuck.

😠


I'll apple but even more if they fix this airdrop doesn't work if your wifi is not enable so no interaction between your imac and macbook. ℹ


People make it more public.

Apr 23, 2012 2:26 AM in response to neil74

Ok I've had the same problem for some time.


Strange things is my iPhone and iPad are connected on the same network and they work perfectly.


I range the supplier which I bought the iMac from.


I applied a cmd + alt + P + R


Turn off the iMac and when it starts up hold these 3 buttons down for 3 chimes.


This restarts all the iMac's internal prefences without messing up your personal settings.


This seems to have fixed the problem.


I applied this trouble shoot this morning so I will test it for a couple of days.


But it's working like a charm for the time being


There must be some sort of bug in the system somewhere.


An update to fix this would be nice please apple?????

Apr 24, 2012 4:22 AM in response to neil74

I'll ad myself to this discussion because I'm having the same Wifi problems. Tried everything, but nothing seems to work. I have an iMac 20" mid 2007 with no wifi problems and a iMac 27" mid 2011 who drops the wifi on a regular basis. Both are running 10.7.3 with the latetst updates. Even did the wifi update from Apple. Yesterday tried osx Atheros 3.2 kext patch, but also no luck. iPhone 4 and iPad 1 also have no problems. I'm certain it hasn't anything to do with the router, I'm convinced it's the iMac. Frustrating!!! 😠

Apr 24, 2012 11:59 AM in response to neil74

Hello,


I'm having the same issue, and despite two long calls with AppleCare, I was told nothing else could be done.


I have now hooked up an Airport Express hoping this wifi signal is not lost. I have read what others wrote about this 'solution' and the interference problems. I have no other choice to be frank. I'll report back in a week.


I work from home to an internet connection is vital, and a wired connection is not possible. It would cost too much in wiring and I hate having wires trailing all over the place.


Best wishes from London.

Apr 25, 2012 1:17 AM in response to Vishal Vora

Good morning,

Usually when I start work my wifi connection would have dropped overnight, but since hooking up the AExpress to be the home wifi, things are running nicely, and fast too. Its probably too early to say at the moment but I think this solution might have worked, for the time being. Hardly a solution though, at least I had a spare AExpress N around to help.

Will keep you all posted of my progress.

Apr 25, 2012 6:52 AM in response to neil74

Guys


FIX!


Looked at router, was G only Switched to N only.. fixed everything, we couldnt connect for longer then 5 min and this is a new thing as of last week. nothing else has changed except normal software updates.

Two imacs in the same office both lion both same problem, everyone else is fine. I honeslty can't handle how fast the internet connect is now...my hair was blown back.




Try it!

Apr 25, 2012 8:55 PM in response to neil74

Add our family to the list of disappointed buyers of the 27" iMac. We bought ours a month ago and have had nothing but problems with the wi-fi. I have an ethernet port available, but only if I make the huge investment in time it will take to move my router, modem and cables to the other OLDER computers with working wi-fi. However, I refuse to accept that as a solution given how much money I've spent on this NEW computer.


This is the 6th ACTIVE Mac in our house (3 others sit in the basement in retirement), we own 2 iPads, 4 iPod touches, 5 iPod nanos, 4 iPhones and 3 Apple TV's. For the first time in my life I heard my wife say something negative about an Apple product. Her qoute: "I HATE this computer."


Please fix this Apple.

27" imac wifi problems (intermittant)

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