Level 1

10 points

Wifi won't turn on since upgrade to Lion

First of all, my apologies if i make alot of gramar/spell errors, english is not my native language.

Yesterday i've upgraded my Snow Leopard installation to Lion on my late 2008 macbook pro and from the beginning i am unable to start my Wifi/Airport card. The menu bar shows the wifi icon but with no signal bars. When i click the wifi icon and press 'Turn wifi on' nothing happens. System profiler shows the airport card and when i look in Console i can see that the system recognizes the wifi card and acknowledge it's mac address.

What i've tried so far:

- I've created another user account

- I performed a clean install on a second harddrive, same problem

- i rolled back to Snow Leopard and the airport card functions as it should be, this rules out a hardware failure

- I've deleted all files in /library/preferences/SystemConfiguration and rebooted

- I've created a new location with only the Airport card under System preferences - Network

- I've made the airport card inactive and active again

I did found some strange messages in Console but they are not very clear: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/718/screenshot20110721at102.png/

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 3:07 PM

278 replies

Jul 26, 2011 4:12 AM in response to miliet

An Apple engineer has emailed me too, which is very encouraging that they have been reading this thread and are treating the problem head on.

kevinrobers Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 26, 2011 4:58 AM in response to Jake Jung

I have the same issue Jake. All i can say is that i'm in contact with Apple right now and that i've sended them alot of debug info. I'll keep you guys posted!

Jul 26, 2011 7:01 AM in response to kevinrobers

I'm having the same trouble. I'm running a late 2008 Macbook Pro with:

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

Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.100.98.75.6)

I had this same issue with one of the final betas of Lion forcing me to revert to 10.6.8.

Everything was fine with the initial Lion install, but once I rebooted I cannot turn WiFi on no matter what I do. No solution has worked for me. Naturally I assumed Apple would have fixed this once they released Lion on the Mac App Store. This is disappointing.

mlouism

Level 1

0 points

Jul 26, 2011 10:28 AM in response to kevinrobers

Same problem as jacen2141, I'm running a late 2008 MacBook Pro. 😟

Jul 26, 2011 2:18 PM in response to mlouism

Same problem. Bought my MacBookPro a year ago. SDDoometimes I can make a Wi-Fi connection, but when I reboot everything is lost. I already tried a lot of tips that I found on the internet, but it doens't work. Hope they can fix this soon. I do not want to go back to SL

AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x8D)

Firmware: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.100.98.75.6)

Jul 26, 2011 2:21 PM in response to joeyfromhemiksem

Same here - I don't want to go back to Snow Leopard. I did that while I was running the beta because it was so frustrating. Being tethered to your Airport Extreme via CAT6 is so 90's!

I'm concerned that we are such a minority since we're all mostly "late 2008 MBP" users and that we may not see a fix for a while.

kevinrobers Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 26, 2011 2:27 PM in response to joeyfromhemiksem

Joey, is it correct that you don't have a late 2008 macbook pro? Did you try one of the suggestions that were made in this topic? If you don't have a late 2008 macbook pro you would be the first with this issue with a macbook other then the late 2008 models.

Jul 26, 2011 2:31 PM in response to kevinrobers

Bought it in september/oktober 2010

I tried some stuff I found on other sites but they didn't work. Need to read the whole topic here and maybe try some other stuff. But to be honest, don't know a lot of these things ... So not sure if I can do all these things.

kevinrobers Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 26, 2011 2:33 PM in response to joeyfromhemiksem

Hmm that is strange... Did you try to delete the content of the /library/preferences /systemconfiguration folder and reboot? Did you try a SMC reset?

Shut down the computer.
Disconnect the MagSafe power adapter from the computer, if it's connected.
Remove the battery.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Reconnect the battery and MagSafe power adapter.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.

Jul 26, 2011 2:39 PM in response to kevinrobers

No I didn't do those things. I was figuring out how I could do the content delete thing.

And otherwise I have to remove my battery ... oh boy. Never tried that before, don't think I have a screwdrive that small at the moment.

I'll give you an update in a few minutes about the library content.

tclchris

Level 1

4 points

Jul 26, 2011 2:40 PM in response to kevinrobers

I have a Macbook (5,1) 13" Aluminum 2008 model with the same airport extreme card and same problem (Airport will not turn on). Already tried SMC reset, deleting SystemConfiguration folder, creating new location, creating new user, and deleting and recreating the "Wifi" interface.

Very upset that I had to downgrade back to 10.6 to get the airport working again.

AMMOCAN

Level 1

140 points

Jul 26, 2011 2:48 PM in response to crye55

I have the same exact Wi-Fi specs as the rest of you and I am not having any issues with my Wi-Fi. I would try looking at your network and possibly resetting the modem/router and what not.

Jul 26, 2011 2:51 PM in response to tclchris

Don't want to look like the total *******, but I can't find /library/preferences /systemconfiguration folder ...

(btw, I'm from Belgium, so my mac is in Dutch)

Tried to rest my modem a few times already, didn't help.

AMMOCAN

Level 1

140 points

Jul 26, 2011 2:56 PM in response to joeyfromhemiksem

Go to Finder > Preferences > Sidebar and make sure your machine's name is checked under Devices. Then go to Go in Finder and click on your machine under devices then click on your hard drive. Once there you should be able to access the systems library, which you should then be able to find what you are looking for.

Jul 26, 2011 3:03 PM in response to AMMOCAN

Aha, I already thought I was missing my machine's name onder the devices. Thanks for the help.

It didn't do anything. Still no Wi-fi connection.

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Wifi won't turn on since upgrade to Lion