Wifi won't turn on since upgrade to Lion

Hi,

since i have installed Lion the menu bar on the right corner doesn't show any icons and i can't connect wifi. But, the wierd thing is that faillure doesn't happen every time i turn on the computer - if i turn on the computer 10 times, about nine times it fails, only once it runs normaly.

@FilR, the exact same thing (that I have to restart about 10 times) happens to me! it's so strange! Why does it 'magically' start working after the 9th boot??

@AMMONCAN I think you're diluting the thread. if we simply can't get our laptop's wifi to turn on, it can't be a problem with our network - it's a firmware issue. BTW, just because our cards share the same name and firmware, doesn't mean they're identical - sometimes Apple buys components from different suppliers and names them the same way.

I recently swapped my HDD for a completely new one and updated to Lion from a clean SL install - still doesn't work. I'm on a late 2008 5,1 MacBook. Either my airport extreme card is faulty, or the OS is faulty - there are no other options at this point.

@ federicofromchicago well said!

BTW I am remote desktoping with an engineer tomorrow so hopefully it might shed some light!

After some problems with conections to w-fi Airport Extreme I updated the firmware on the base station and the system is back up to the spec. it had with Snow Leopard.

Since my last post there have been some new posts that have confirmed what I have been trying to point out, which is that there are more than just one variable involved in relation to the Wi-Fi/Network issue you are having. It is most likely that you are having an issue because of the external devices and/or hardware/software you are using that wasn't originally apart of your machine and isn't yet supported for Lion.

I am not going to openly share my airport.preference.plist, as there is just too much personal info. in the file. However, if anyone wants to edit theirs and share it I would be more than willing to compare it with mine and point out the differences. Again, I personally have two MBP in my house that are both running Lion with no issues, as well as personally knowing other family and friends who are not having any issues.

For me personally, I am not using any external devices and/or hardware/software in regards to my Wi-Fi/Network that didn't originally come with my machine other than a modem and router. The modem is an ARRIS, which was provided by my internet provider, and my router is a Linksys E2000.

miliet, I'm dealing with an Apple Engineer on this as well. Hopefully something will come of it.

I have the same mbp 5.1 with the broadcom airport. Did the apple engineers give any feedback?

Nothing from me yet. I just got around to sending all the necessary info to the engineer. I'll let you know if we discover anything.

Has anyone asked an engineer if it would be possible to try using the Snow Leopard airport firmware with Lion? I reverted back to Snow Leopard, so I wouldn't be able to test it myself.

kevinrobers, thank you for the info. I actually have access to another Mac running Lion whose Wi-Fi is working fine. About how long does the Wi-Fi work for before it turns off and you need to replace the folder? If it works for 1 day or more on average, I might install Lion and live with the workaround for a while. If it's multiple times a day, I think I'll just stick with Snow Leopard for the time being. Thanks.

Thanks again. I hope that 10.7.1 will fix the problem, but I'm not too hopeful because I tried the first developer seed of 10.7.2 and the problem was still there. Whether or not to upgrade it the problem goes unfixed would be an interesting question.

If you don't mind yet another question, does Wi-Fi continue to work after waking up from sleep? I put my MPB to sleep often, but I only actually shutdown/restart when an update/software install requires it.