Q: new macbook pro 2011 weak and dropping wireless connection

yozhbk wrote:

 

... I do think this is due a hardware defect or perhaps a firmware issue not  something to do on a higher level, such as drivers and stuff...

It's not hardware.

I started having the problems when I upgraded to SL.

My 2008 MBP was functioning fine and when I boot into 10.5.8 with my cloned Back-Up it still works fine.

I routinely have to re-boot page requests by highlighting the URL and sending again… PITA.

But with complex transactions like online bill paying etc it's a crap shoot.

Lame.

Upgrade to Lion hasn't helped, looks like I'll be going into the Apple store tomorrow.

I'm so so so so ****** of of this issue, driving me crazy since 10.6.* something... lion too... *** apple? Sent my MBP 3 times to the service center (I have apple care) and they "cannot reproduce it... sorry" *** again... just receive an email asking me to do a survey about how my MBP was serviced.. what should I leave there, how ****** I am? how **** good apple hw is... no double click on Lion... some "hacks" required to do it... *** again!

Thats outrageous!

I`m going to assume that people dont read. Because I have been trying to explain that the issues we are having with early 2011 models is something completly diffrent then the other models. I explained 4-5 times on how to show this diffrence as well.

yozhbk - for whatever reason apparently your explanation of the differences have been overlooked by me and others. From where I sit, my experience and reading of this thread leads me to believe the problem is endemic to MBP regardless of vintage, and first began to occur after 10.5.x upgrades.

I would appreciate it if you could enlighten me and others (even at the risk of repeating yourself yet again) as to what you see are the differences between MBP recent vs. MBP vintage behaviors and source(s) of the problems.

Thanks for your patience. I'm sure with everyone's help we'll finally get Apple to address this and a solution will emerge.

Again for maybe 6th time.

The Early 2011 with new 3x3 N cards are showing issues with drop packets and general WIFI disconnects etc.. This can easily be reproduced with starting a a large transfer and doing a ping at the same time while connected to the N network. You will see ping drops and other connectivity drop slow etc... This is not the case with prior models (before early 2011 upgrade) If you dont belive me try it. I`m not sure what issues you guys are having, but I had 2009 (first unibody) still MacBook 13 (not pro) and never had issues, then I had a mid 2010 Macbook Pro 13

and didnt have this issues or any other WiFi issues. And now with Early 2011 with same equipment I`m having issues and so is everyone else with every other macbook I seen or heard, including in Apple stores, BestBuy stores, Microcenters etc.... Further the macbookshave less issues when closer to the actuall router/WAP. I hope this clears up the reason why this is not same as those other issues.

Just to add I`m now seeing some intresting issues with Lion when macbook comes from sleep it doesnt reconnect, so far it happened twice, this didnt happen on 10.6. Still testing, but I would hate if this would add to the problems we are having.

I have been keeping an eye on this thread since I started experiencing wireless issues after buying a Macbook Pro in April this year. With most people saying that apple were denying any knowledge of the issue I had not bothered to take it into my local apple store as most people seemed to be saying that any work done on their laptops was not fixing the issue. At the weekend my trackpad started to have issues so I took into my local store in Glasgow to get it looked at while I was there I mentioned the wireless issues: erratic pings etc. The guy at the genius bar said straight away that it was definetly a firmware issue and that apple were working ion a fix. As far as I have read in this thread this may be the first time anybody from apple has admited to know about the issue. Hopefully this means a fix is defintely in the pipeline.

stuart1985:

Thanks for your update. It is encouraging that *somebody* at Apple has *finally* let it be known the company is aware of the problems and is working on it. Unfortunately, it has been many months since this problem arose and Apple missed an opportunity to build customer confidence and loyalty by making some sort of information known here and through their store/genius support network. I know there's been many other posts here where people have noted that their local Apple store genius could NOT fix the problem and was NOT even unaware that Apple even recognized it as a problem. This is, to my understanding, the first time there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.

As I sit here this morning, my problems have been going on for months and my connection, right now, is dicey as usual. I only hope this doesn't take much longer as it is very frustrating that my WiFi is so flakey with my MBP, and yet my WinDoze laptop sitting 12 inches away works just fine.

Just to tell my story here.

My MacBook Pro (bought end of June 2011, latest version of Snow Leopard at that time) did from the beginning repeatedly drop WiFi connection. In two different WiFi networks, where all other devices had no issues.

Typically, after connection dropped and when trying to reconnect, I was asked for the password again (although it should know it already) and reconnect failed with message "connection timed out". I could not observe a clear rule when it dropped connection, or when it was possible to reconnect. Sometimes switching off airport off and on again seemed to help - sometimes not. Sometimes, reboot seemed to help, but sometimes not. Sometimes, an HD movie cold be downloaded in iTunes without drop of connection (and then I hoped it's gone now), but sometimes it dropped connection permanently, or could not reconnect at all, and suddenly it was possible to establish connection again. As mentioned, no obvious pattern to observe ...

Called AppleCare: Checked if system is up-to-date (of course it was), asked if there are other WiFi networks present or other sources that might interfere, they told me to erase PRAM, tested briefly if it works (of course it did at that occasion), they said if that does not help I should go to a service point.

Of course, it did not help, soon after this call, dropping of connection happened again.

At the service point, they said they replaced the WiFi module. After that, it seemed to work. It still works! It worked with Snow Leopard for a while, however did soon upgrade to Lion. It works now with Lion. I am happy!

If one of you out there sees the same effect, consider there might be a hardware problem with your new machine ...

I just moved my wifi above my bluetooth in terms of order... then i disabled bluetooth... and now I'm getting great ping times.  It's a long thread, so someone may have already suggested this, but it worked for me!

This really looks like they're talking about a different issue here, not the Lion drops, which is amply addressed in other discussions. Still it's such a big thing, maybe I could post this, at the very least to help users differentiate between the Lion problems and the MB Pro problems. I had the same Lion dropouts on a 2010 MBP. I've seen many posts on what to do, but this one has seemed very effective for me...

After restarting the router to get a good connection...

1) Keep the connection open by opening the Terminal utility and copy and past this:

ping `route get default | awk '(/gateway/){print $2}'`

You can let this run in the background. Just "Hide" Terminal and it will run without interferring with your connection. Works even if you shut the lid of the laptop and reopen it later (no need to re-do).

2) Open your System Preferences/Network and using the Advanced tab, enter this under DNS servers:

8.8.8.8

This is Google's server and seems to have really boosted connection speed.

Hope that helps.

Just adding myself to this tale of woe.. 2011 MacBook Pro 13" purchased June this year, wireless dropping, ping times all over the place. Thought it was my Netgear DGN3500 so got hold of a Billion 7404VGOX modem/router and same thing happens. *really* annoying but glad I'm not the only one... just hoping its something that can be fixed and not some basic design flaw..

-suntan

Has anybody even considered it might have to do with the Wi-Fi card Apple is using in the MBP's?

Mine is:

Card Type:          AirPort Extreme  (0x14E4, 0x8D)

  Firmware Version:          Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.100.98.75.6)

  MAC Address:          00:25:00:4f:26:a0

IJpenberg

Hi,

I'm facing the same problem. I'm using MBP from Febr. 2011 with OS X 10.6.8.

I tried following things:

• Changing the order of services (put Airport infront of Bluetooth)
• Creating new environment (not automatic)
• Deactivated IPv6 completely

All these things didn't work.

The workaround I found for me was same thing JTF posted 3 posts before. I opened a terminal and made a ping to my default GW. Now it's working like a charme. No drops anymore since the ping is running.

That's only a workaroung but it's working for me. I hope Apple will fix the problem!

Regards!

Having the same problem with wifi. For me pinging to my default gatway solved the problem. No loosing signal anymore. Thanks JTF.