Permanently Physically disable wireless bluetooth Mac Pro 2019 macpro 7,1

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Permanently Physically disable wireless bluetooth Mac Pro 2019 macpro 7,1

For the new mac pro 2019 machines coming into our lab, we work in an environment where I cannot have bluetooth or wifi. It's not enough to disable it via software or to “turn off” these features. We require a way to do the equivalent of “disable in bios” if it were a windows pc at the very least? It should never turn on, even during setup or even during recovery type modes.

I understand the wifi / bluetooth is part of the breakout board that has the power button on it with the pogo pins. That card is connected via physical cables.

Is that wireless chipset soldered on or M.2 style adapter? Or a different part that can be ordered from apple for environments where WiFi/Bluetooth are not allowed?

We know that you can disconnect the antennas of the wireless but that's not going to be enough either. We can not be in a situation where some future mac update unfortunately restores the wireless either.

Open to any other ways of disabling, to make sure the wireless components don't receive any power.

Mac Pro

Posted on Feb 4, 2020 4:24 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 4, 2020 6:26 AM in response to Jaught

I haven't even been able to find a picture that clearly labels the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi components.

My understanding however from the absence of an obvious mini PCIe style board is that the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi chipset is part of the logic board and unlike previous Mac Pro models this means not only can you not upgrade it but as per your desire you cannot remove it to physically disable it.

There might be software means to disable its driver for example but I like you would be concerned a macOS update and certainly upgrade might reinstate the driver.

This seems to only leave the options of butchery - that is physically cutting traces to the chip or perhaps trying to fit your own DIY Faraday cage around the chip with the antenna leads obviously disconnected - if possible.

Note: It is confirmed it does not support WiFi6.

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Answer 2

Feb 4, 2020 8:28 AM in response to Jaught

There must be other secure worksites that need this disabled as well, and Apple needs to have an approved fix for it, or not be able to sell to Military and secure worksites.

Contact your account manger (if you have one) or use the Contact Support link at the top of every forum page. Do not let the First Responders "brush you off". Insist gently but firmly that you need to speak with a specialist. Do not get off the phone unless/until you have contact information for someone who can start to help you.

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Answer 3

Jaught Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 4, 2020 6:54 AM in response to John Lockwood

Thank you yes I had this Faraday idea, and I do have the materials to do this, though from my experiments seems even the smallest hole would leak signal. I'm willing to give it a try, was also worried the Faraday material may conduct and short something out.

I have minimal solder skills though if there was some type of chip diagram etc then I would potentially be comfortable cutting a trace. If this part was readily available for replacement from apple at a reasonable cost I wouldn't hesitate to experiment. Hope there is someone out there who has already done this experiment and can give any advice!

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Permanently Physically disable wireless bluetooth Mac Pro 2019 macpro 7,1

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