new macbook pro 2011 weak and dropping wireless connection

olmeister wrote:

Pretty pathetic apple, this problem has been going on all year and there still isnt a fix for it?

If you may take a look in the history of this community, you will notice, that the same discussion revolves every time Apple brought a new version.

Even the headlines of the discussions remain the same.

mfwells wrote:

Well, put a new WiFi card in a couple months back, checked all the connections, same behavior as before. So at least it isn't likely the card.

Obviously a brand new 802.11n capable one.

mfwells wrote:

OK, so this is interesting. Just after taking the above readings, I switched to the upstairs network, which is a few feet away. Got awesome power and 54 mb on the transmit rate. Just like I would expect. So then I switched back to the network on the WAP, downstairs, and it's as if the readings just moments before in the prior post I made can't be achieved. Instead, I am now getting:

PHY: 802.11n

Channel: 6

RSSI: -74

Transmit Rate: 1

MCS Index: (It doesn't display)

As said before: "Forget the f***** bars."

You eventually had to tell us a bit earlier that you run two different wireless networks (a 2.4GHz 802.11n and a 2.4GHz 802.11g) on two different access points in your own home "... which is a few feet away." Your AMP 300 is capable to deliver a 802.11g AND a 802.11n wireless.

What did you wrote recently? "I ran over to Fry's and got an Amped AP-300 wireless access point."

This one?? -> http://www.ampedwireless.com/products/ap300.html ??

If this is the one, and it seems so as you run a 802.11n connection <<PHY: 802.11n>> in your home and eventually TWO 802.11g wireless.

Lord, I'll throw my last remaining hairs out.

This could mean that you kill your wireless network connection with your own network.

Yes, you can run different access points in your home to cover it with wireless. But, there are clear and unmistakable rules for roaming networks.

Remember what I've wrote about interferences from neighbour wireless networks? It seems, that you may have created your own "neighbour wireless" and run in your own bear trap.

Another point.

You wrote that you've replaced the WiFi Chip in your MacBook Pro. Obviously a 802.11n capable one, as your PHY readings indicate.

Remember, the A1151 model MBPro had originally 802.11.b/g wireless only.

The hardware identifier and EFI of your MBPro leads as well Snow Leopard as all updates from Apple to install the wireless drivers and firmware for the former (original) 802.11b/g hardware.

If you had installed new software along with your new WiFi Chip, you will now have a very interesting mix of concurating things in your operating system.

What you have now is:

• 2 independent access points in your home. One delivers 802.11g and the other 802.11g and 802.11n, both on 2.4GHz band.
• The two access point's eventually not correct configured to roam a wireless.
• A brand new 802.11n Chipset in a (originally) 802.11b/g capable MacBook Pro.
• A realy interesting mix of protocols and instructions for wireless in your Snow Leopard
• Neither adequate Chipset Drivers (OS X kermel extensions), Firmware, or other needed OS extensions for your Snow Leopard's wireless are installed.

And you wonder about the lousy connection of your MBPro??

Good grief ...

• Fix and configure your wireless infrastructure to the correct.
• Fix and configure your MBPro correct.

And then, ONLY than, come back and eventually rant and rave about the horrible Snow Leopard which kills your MacBooks wireless connection.

You've killed yor wireless just by your own.

Cheers - Lupunus

I've booked it into the genius bar tomorrow morning. When I pay $2000+ for a laptop, I expect it to at least perform to that of my ****** $300 asus netbook

I just find it strange when i have a macbook 2006, a asus netbook and a mbp 2011 next to eachother, both the asus and mb2006 transfer at very acceptable speeds, but the mbp is horrible

Huge bottle necks in the wireless NIC.

Arent there any kexts or firmware updates that can fix this? I mean this is a huge problem, my mbp is virtually useless without a wifi connection.

I suppose i could put a usb dongle in it, thats takes up 1 of my 2 precious usb ports.
Hmm.

I thought mac's where suppost to be built well?

olmeister wrote:

I've booked it into the genius bar tomorrow morning. When I pay $2000+ for a laptop, I expect it to at least perform to that of my ****** $300 asus netbook

Don't compare peaches and oranges. That's useless.

Instead of rant and rave you should start solving the problem by asking clear questions, giving useful information and performing a proper troubleshoot.

If there is no hardware issue on your Mac and no clear misconfiguration, I'll bet my *** that once at the Genius Bar your Mac's WiFi will run like ****. 😁

And what then? More rant? Or eventually starting to be a part of the solution?

Lupunus

If they dont replace it with a 100% working laptop, ill be getting a refund and i'll never buy another macbook again, simple.

Lupunus,

Don't want you pulling your hair out, Lord knows I've lost enough hair myself over this wireless issue. Let me clear up a couple points, and please --- give me credit for having half a brain. I may not be an expert in the all the details of 802.11(xxx) WiFi, but I DO know a thing or two about computer architectures, protocol stacks, OS's, etc. So here's my point(s) in no particular order:

1. These problems started LONG before I swapped out the older Airport card for a newer Airport Extreme card in this MBP. Installing the new hardware NEITHER improved, nor did it degrade the WiFi disconnection problem/issues I was having. It was the same. Just to confirm, because I couldn't believe it myself, I put the old card back in and noted same behavior. Either card, same behavior. So I put the new Airport Extreme card in, figuring no harm, no foul, maybe better operation on public WiFi's with "n". I inspected what I could of the antenna connections to the card at the same time (with a mag. glass), and noted nothing that looked incorrect. Conclusion - the WiFi card and connections were not the underlying problem.

2 . By the way, I made sure SL had the latest updates when doing the above. The OS successfully found the new Airport Extreme hardware, and successfully enabled the "n" drivers. Original SL was a clean install. SL and updates came after the new Airport Extreme card was installed. The system has ONLY seen the Airport Extreme card, never the older card.

3. Upgrading this model of laptop to Airport Extreme is approved upgrade for this model. I checked. Not a surprise, if it can be replaced with a new card, Apple would have been wise enough to support that.

4. Above leads me to conclude that SL is perfectly capable of recognizing an Airport or an Airport Extreme card, and based on that difference will load the approriate hardware level firmware and drivers and parts of the protocol stack needed by each respectively. Now here is where my knowledge of networking architectures done the RIGHT WAY comes in....only an idiot would design a computer system with interchangeable hardware and in particular where an approved upgrade and/or replacement network card could be installed and then turn around and hard-code the loading of drivers and protocol stacks tied to the computer platform rather than to a specific network card. Apple may be a lot of things, but "idiot" doesn't strike me as one of them. I give them the benefit of the doubt - the designed the system properly and all evidence supports that conclusion.

5. You correctly identified the Amped WAP I am using. Let me make clear, it is set up as a separate SSID, for all intents and purposes it is a completely separate network. Different channel, different SSID, different location. Upstairs is the "g" network, downstairs is the "n" network. Computer sees them both just fine.

6. I can make either WiFi network go dark whenever I want, and try working with just one network. I can remove ALL other networks from the preferred network list in Network Preferences, etc. on the computer and....I get same behavior from the single WiFi network (regardless of whether it is "g" or "n"). I am not trying to create a "roaming" environment. I will gladly keep each network separate, switch between when I am upstairs or down, whatever it takes to make things work reliably. Now, if Apple's Airport Extreme won't work in an environment with separate networks such as this, then they should get out of the business altogether. Because the world is quickly filling up with exactly this sort of environment and running in same is mandatory. My 4 year old Dell laptop does it just fine.

FInally, I wouldn't be wasting this forum's time without first personally exhausting all avenues of prospective solutions and without burdening the forum with something that comes across as a "rant". When I arrived on the forum many months ago, it was clear that many others, with a variety of MBP systems (older and brand new) were having very similar/identical problems. I ignored all the posts with people who were obviously having other problems or who couldn't accurately describe their problems or environment. But when you cut through the 80% of posts with meaningless information, you are left with the 20% who have the same problems/symptoms, and you have to admint that it is no mere coincidence. And you have to admit that the problems can't just be chalked up to "OS upgrades". Some of these problems are occuring with MBP right out of the box, sitting right next to other systems that are working on the customer's WiFi flawlessly.

I'll end this post because I realize I am now starting to sound like I am ranting, which is not my intent. Clearly, Apple has a WiFi problem with MBP hardware (mine or others). Let's just agree on that point.

I personally think that the issues people are having are a mixture of hardware & software.

They're not helped by the fact that everyone has different wireless access points with different settings / wireless strengths etc.

I posted on this thread long ago, when I got my new early 2011 15" MBP and had wireless issues.

I had a 2008 black Macbook before that which was always perfect when connecting to my Netgear DGN2000 router....until the Snow Leopard 10.6.8 update. I reverted back to 10.6.7 and it was fine again...so I assumed it was to software based purely on that simple fact.

I got my new MBP soon after that and unfortunately couldn't revert back to 10.6.7 with that due to missing drivers with that release. Using that with the Netgear DGN2000 router and I was getting bad connections, drop-outs etc. (just like others on here). I still had the old Macbook, which still had no issues, sitting next to the new MBP.

I went back to the Apple store and booked in for a genius bar appointment, they couldn't reproduce the issue there and suggested I returned it if I still had problems. Given my earlier experience I was convinced it was software based and so figured I'd hold on to it instead and 'make do'.

Soon after that I had my home Internet connection upgraded to fibre to the premises (VDSL) which meant getting a new router (I bought the Cisco/Linsys E3000 - and installed custom firmware). This has dual band (2.4 & 5Ghz) and I decided to make use of the 5Ghz band and, hey ho what do you know, connection problems solved for the MBP!

This, for me, explained why they couldn't reproduce in the apple store where they were using 5Ghz, and with no interference from other networks.

However, I still had some issues with pings and transfer rates (to my NAS box). Lion came out and I upgraded fairly quickly, still had problems. Then 10.7.1 came out and that seemed to sort everything out for me.

However, I'm sure that it's not software related for everyone, I think there are some dodgy airport cards out there which aren't working properly, even with Apple routers and for those users they should be going back to Apple to get them resolved (or at least test them in an Apple store).

Hi

You Can go on the version 10.6.7 and you can see if the mac is block or not..... Bye

To start with ... If all the annoying wireless problems last only in Lion, SL or the particular used Apple system and not (for 99% I guess) in the wireless infrastructure...

Run all this people with theire WiFi drop problems Lion / SL too?? Or is Apple's way to provide wireless in general faulty?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2780293?tstart=150

More than 150.000 views and more than 1000 posts. This must be a serious Apple problem.

By the way ... Guess what the tenor of the posts is? Right! They blame the pad or the iOS and shout for a miracle update fix.

Sometimes one should take a look over the rim of his plate ...

mfwells, this preamble is not related to your issue in paticular. It's generally more for those who tend to read and think.

mfwells wrote:

By the way, I made sure SL had the latest updates when doing the above. The OS successfully found the new Airport Extreme hardware, and successfully enabled the "n" drivers. Original SL was a clean install. SL and updates came after the new Airport Extreme card was installed. The system has ONLY seen the Airport Extreme card, never the older card.

You never mentioned this before.

But, that's a general problem with written conversation in a forum like this. We have to deal with this lack of information, anyway. Never mind.

To your quoted words above: That may eventually change the way and the conclusion. Let's see what remains.

mfwells wrote:

You correctly identified the Amped WAP I am using. Let me make clear, it is set up as a separate SSID, for all intents and purposes it is a completely separate network. Different channel, different SSID, different location. Upstairs is the "g" network, downstairs is the "n" network. Computer sees them both just fine.

Upstairs is not the Moon's distance and radio beam does not stop on the floor, except the ceiling is made from massive steel reinforced concrete.

I still tend firsthand to the interference thing.

On your setup with the Amp for N and the other one (by the way, model?) for G, both on 2.4GHz you should provide at least a 5 channel gap between the units.

Best to use channels (as overlapping free) on 2.4GHz wireless are in US 1, 6 and 11 and for Europe 1, 5, 9 and 13.

By the way ... got the PHY, tx, RSSI, MCS values?

ok, that's for now, cause I've a business appointment at 7:30 pm.

To be continued...

Lupunus

"What is causing this is Apple's inability, unwillingness, incompetence or neglect with respect to addressing something that is clearly a serious software issue."

You feel it is a serious software issue but in truth the number of folks hit by this issue under any OS is actually very small compared to the whole. And Apple will address the issue when they have a grasp on what the issue is. Which takes time and information. Especially when the affected group is so limited.

Many folks come here expecting tech support but that's not what this board is. Apple Care doesn't read these posts or reply to them. The anecdotal data that most folks give doesn't provide them with what they actual need. A visit to the genius bar for a real diagnostic would give them information they can use. But most folks won't bother. Just like they don't bother with sending those reports when an app crashes, or they are afraid their private info will be sent also.

And then there is the issue that for many of the folks affected by this problem, there is nothing wrong with the computer, Lion, Snow Leopard or their wifi router. The issue is with their DSL or their cable modem. Or if it is their wifi router is it a non Apple one that hasn't been probably updated by the actual manufacturer (something Apple can't control). But folks don't think about that part of the equation. They see the trouble started when they installed Lion so they assume that Lion is the problem when in fact it is router firmware that hasn't been updated since Panther because the manufacturer decided not to bother supporting Macs anymore and the ISPs all assume everyone is on Windows so why bother switching out hardware or even alerting folks to a possible issue.

PJRives wrote:

Many folks come here expecting tech support but that's not what this board is.

You're wrong with this. Tech support is exactely what this board is for.

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Hi Everyone,

I've been following this thread pretty much from the start, getting emails straight to my phone.

I can tell you now, Apple don't give a toss about this issue.

I know exactly how to fix this:

INSTALL WINDOWS 7

I installed windows 7 with boot camp shortly after buying my macbook pro (I won't bother with the rant, everyone knows it already 😠) because I needed it for certain college applications.

I've had WIFI problems with OSX from the start, but Windows has never, I repeat: NEVER!!! dropped as signal. It's been perfect, in fact, I go as far as saying Windows 7 works better on my macbook pro than on any of the Windows machines I've owned! 🙂

The connection is PERFECT no problems what so ever!!

I use OSX for Logic Studio, and every now and then I hard wire it to the router on top of my kitchen press to update it, test the WIFI, then switch it off and boot Windows.

I've given up. Apple have lost a loyal customer, I've been using Logic Studio since version 2, and after this experience I'll be moving to Cubase or Live or something.

Good luck, I hope it's resolved!

this issue has been happening way back 2008:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/the-macbooks-mysterious-wifi-dropout-problem-is- still-unsolved/1441

i'm having the same issues now and still unresolved (2-month old MBP). got in touch with apple tech support a month ago asking me for wifi and kernel logs and trying out diff approaches/settings in my mbp but unable to fix the problem still...

in windows 7 (via bootcamp) is even worse, can't hold on to a wifi connection longer than 2mins

Interesting. Just goes to show that different folks get different results. Because when I was forced to put Windows on my Mac, I never had wifi. No matter what I did when I was in Windows via a reboot into it or through Parallels and then Fusion, wireless never worked. It wouldn't even recognize there was wifi hardware in the computer. And this was after updating my software on both sides several times, updating all firmware and drivers several times.

Let me clarify then

People come to this Board expecting OFFICIAL FROM APPLE EMPLOYEE TECH SUPPORT, not friendly users that happen to know a few things.