Wi-Fi: No hardware installed

i've had the same problem apart from my mac mini once had wireless and now all of a sudden its just decided that i havent got any hardware installed?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3234776?answerId=15829754022#15829754022

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3202303?answerId=15829568022#15829568022

I have two similar threads about this issue. After you boot your machine, tell it to restart. When it restarts, wifi is functional again with normal Airport indicator. Every time you shut down your Mac over night (or more than 2 hours), you need to start it twice to get wifi working. Seems to be a bug in Lion, but when I called Apple Care they tried to tell me it is some new feature.

"Welcome to Lion." 😝

I have exactly the same problem here, just what's wrong with lion having so much trouble?

My WiFi is always ON, but when I move networks (this happens a lot since I'm a student at a large university) it won't automatically connect to already saved networks.

It seems to be fine if I toggle Airport off and on, but ever since the Lion update this has been happening. ):

Just like the picture above, my system says no hardware installed. But after rebooting it works. Next time I start the Mac the next day, no hardware again and have to reboot again. Each time I start my Mac for the first time each day, I have to start it twice. Start, then restart to get it to work right. On another thread someone said our bluetooth mice and keyboard maybe causing it on the iMac, but it has the same problem as the Macbook with no Bluetooth mouse or keyboard being used at all.

There is some bug, and sometimes it happens on every start, sometimes not. I suggest you call Apple Care and make a nag about it. I have called them 3 times. If enough people call them about this, perhaps they will issue a firmware update or some fix for us all.

i put computer sleep too never.

so far wifi is working

What kind of Mac are you using? If you are using a laptop, I do not know how to fix the wifi issue yet. But if you are using an iMac, make sure when you turn on your computer, the mouse and keyboard are OFF! Do not turn them on until you see the desktop.

There is a problem negotiating the bluetooth connection at startup. When 2 or more bluetooth devices are trying to connect at the same time you power your iMac on, it will boot into safe mode. In safe mode wifi and many other functions do not work. If you restart, it will sometimes fix the problem.

I addressed Apple Care about the issue and they said it should be addressed later in an update. Some people said they had this problem before with Snow Leopard, but I only have it with Lion.

So if you have an iMac, just make sure the keyboard, mouse or trackpad are switched OFF when starting the computer and it will boot normally every time!

Do you use any bluetooth devices? Or are you using a wired keyboard and mouse? If you have the wireless bluetooth keyboard and mouse, make sure it is OFF when you start the iMac. If you are using a wired keyboard and mouse, I don't know. All the 2009 and later models come with bluetooth keyboards and such standard and they seem to have a problem that makes the Mac boot into safe mode.

If all else fails make a backup and do a fresh install of Lion. When I first upgraded from 10.6.8 to Lion I had lots of glitches. I had startup and shutdown hangs. I had general graphics glitches too, sometimes windows would get stuck in transition from fullscreen or changing to mission control.

After I did a fresh install everything is fine. I just need to keep the Bluetooth devices off until it is done booting and it works fine now. But every time I start the iMac with the mouse and keyboard on, it goes to safe mode with no wifi devices, no sound, and wonky graphics.

Did you upgrade or do a fresh install? If you backup all your important files to an external disk, you can boot the iMac by holding Option on your keyboard and choose the Lion recovery partition. You can use this to do a clean install if you have the time. Some things do not work right after an upgrade, and this is true with any computer or operating system. It is always best to do a fresh install if you have the time to back up all your data beforehand.

But if wifi is working, just the icon is wonky... let it be. You could download an app called Onyx and clear all your caches, repair your scripts and repair your disk permissions. Doing that is usually more helpful than a PRAM or SMC reset. Your issue is likely buried in the software and not the physical hardware. So cleaning out the caches, repairing the scripts and repairing permissions will clean up your software and may fix the issue.

I have been using Onyx for years. Most of the time when you upgrade an OS or even just an app, something left behind by the older software can fudge your new installation. Onyx was made for this purpose, to clean it up without having to fresh install everything when something is wonky.

You're welcome. Keep us posted on your results! If you still have problems, you can leave a comment to the Lion feedback page or submit a bug report. 🙂

Same problem here. My girlfriend has an iMac '11 27" i5. I have upgreded it to Lion and installed driver for 3G Huawei. At begin I thought the problem was that i made a mess to install 3G pen. I follow this topic with anxiety. Thanks (and sorry for mistakes, I am Italian 🙂)