iMac 27 5K wifi problems

Question

iMac 27 5K wifi problems

Hello, for the last year I'm having a lot of Wifi problems with my end 2017 27" 5K iMac. It drops the selected Wifi network and in the network preferences pane there is nothing loaded at that moment. Sometimes this is accompanied by a spinning beachball and and inoperative mouse and keyboard (bluetooth). I've tried reinstalling the OS, starting up in save mode, PRAM resets and SMB resets, removing the aftermarket extra RAM modules but nothing helps. Off course I also tried resetting the router and even a completely different wifi-router.

I suspect a failure of the Wifi/Bluetooth module but I'm not sure. I'd like to know more before I replace it.

Lately the computer even shuts down while in sleep due to a (kernel?) panic caused by the Airport driver. The reports is always the same (see below). Maybe some of you can help.

Best regards, Nik

panic report

iMac 27" 5K, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 6, 2019 7:14 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Nik Waalewijn Author

Level 1

7 points

Dec 28, 2019 5:48 AM in response to Nik Waalewijn

Oh well. Two weeks later and the problem has returned. Wifi is unable to connect and either nothing in the network preferences or a strange message in the status of the wifi. After a restart the computer is unresponsive as long as WiFi is selected. See pics and EtreCheck report. Any ideas anyone?

Report EtreCheck

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Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

141,198 points

Dec 6, 2019 7:57 AM in response to Nik Waalewijn

Please navigate to the Mac App Store and download the free version of EtreCheck OR please click www.EtreCheck.com where you will find the app. Once you downloaded the free app and created the report please post it as your reply to this message. In order to post it, please use the following link for more detailed instructions on how to correctly include the results:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250000211

We can then look for obvious issues that may be causing your problem.

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

141,198 points

Dec 6, 2019 9:44 AM in response to Nik Waalewijn

The report shows one major problem that some users fall into. Let me begin with a little education. Mac OS is EXTREMELY secure and does not benefit from nor require any third party antivirus, cleaning or ANY other "maintenance" apps. Almost all of these have the exact opposite affect that one expects, they tend to make Mac OS unstable and run slowly! Mac OS ONLY requires that it be kept up-to-date to remain secure.

Your system has CleanMyMac installed, most experienced users on these forums consider this apps malware. Please locate the developers uninstall instructions to uninstall it.

After doing the uninstall please restart in Safe Mode. ( https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262 ) Once you are in Safe Mode it may help to just restart your modem and router. After the modem and router has been restarted and are both up, then restart the iMac normally and re-test the Wi-Fi.

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

240,281 points

Dec 28, 2019 9:45 AM in response to Nik Waalewijn

Make a New Location, Using network locations in Mac OS X ...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2712

 System Preferences>Network, top of window>Locations>Edit Locations, little plus icon, give it a name.

System Preferences>Network, click on the little gear at the bottom next to the + & - icons, (unlock lock first if locked), choose Set Service Order.

The interface that connects to the Internet should be dragged to the top of the list.

 If using Wifi, instead of joining your Network from the list, click the WiFi icon at the top, and click join other network. Fill in everything as needed.

System Preferences>Network>choose interface>Advanced>Proxies Tab, make sure none are set, like for HTTP & HTTPS.

System Preferences>Network, unlock the lock if need be, highlight the Interface you use to connect to Internet, click on the advanced button, click on the DNS tab, click on the little plus icon, then add these numbers...

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

1.1.1.1

9.9.9.9

Apply.

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Answer 5

Dec 6, 2019 11:01 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Yes, you're right about this CleanMyMac app. But I installed it yesterday so it's not the cause of my problem. It is removed now, I was just curiuos if it could find anything related to my Wifi problems.

The problem with the Wifi crash is that it sometimes happens. It works okay most of the time. Next time I'm having problems I'll run this EtreCheck.

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Answer 6

Dec 16, 2019 4:28 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Okay, a little update because I hope I've found the problem.

@rkaufmann87 I did all of that. Unfortunately I was still having crashes to the degree that I could only use the computer with Wifi turned off. Only if I deleted the all the SystemConfiguration .plists (except Boot.plist of course) and did a restart it would work for a while but then the problem would come up again.

Once more I did a clean install of MacOSCatalina. Wifi worked fine during the installation but started crashing again after normal usage.

Then I started monitoring the processes in the Activity app and the Network preference pane while turning on the Wifi.

I noticed a (in red text) not responding Wi-Fi line and com.apple.preference.network.remoteservice in the Activity app and at the same time in the Network preference pane the Status was showing: <<From localizable.strings>> repeated 3 times. This is code and not a normal status message that should have been shown there.

Somehow I think that my Wifi SSID is corrupting a plist or something. My SSID was (((8))) and maybe the usage of the characters ( ) gave a problem (not with any other Mac in my house by the way).

I changed the SSID and now my computer works fine again for several days.

Is using open and close parentheses in a WiFi SSID allowed?

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Answer 7

Dec 28, 2019 9:34 AM in response to BDAqua

Hi,

Thanks for your suggestion. Not a lot of Wifi networks near my house, I see about 10 of them. However, there is a mesh network in my house using the same SSID so I turned that of for a while to check but that did not solve anything.

Even if I set up the Wifi in such a way that it will not connect to any network at all, the problem remains. Even just turning on the Wifi in that case will start a kernel_task that takes up most of my CPU time and slows down the computer. It's not the network I guess.

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Answer 8

Dec 29, 2019 3:14 AM in response to BDAqua

I've been through that procedure several times already.

Even if I remove all the network prefs, restart the computer and add a fresh WiFi configuration.. the moment I turn on the WiFi a kernel_task will start that is using almost all of my CPU power. That is happening without an actual connection to a network (no network is selected).

How can it work flawlessly for 2 weeks and then suddenly give all these problems again? Can it be a hardware problem but not picked up by the hardware test?

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Answer 9

BDAqua

Level 10

240,281 points

Dec 29, 2019 8:22 AM in response to Nik Waalewijn

In my experience Hardware tests rarely find the problem unless it's so bad you can't even run the test.

One last long shot before we call it Hardware or a borked install,,,

Try this manually in a terminal window: sudo ifconfig awdl0 down

To reverse the command, type: sudo ifconfig awdl0 up

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Answer 10

Dec 29, 2019 11:19 AM in response to BDAqua

Disabling Airdrop... nope that didn't work either.

Just placed one of my mesh routers next to the iMac and connected it via ethernet. I guess that will be the modus operandi for the rest of it's live. No more Airdrop is the only downside.

Thanx for all the tips everyone!

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