Lion - WiFi no hardware installed

Wife's 13" Macbook unibody (late 2008) now says no wifi hardware installed. Tried everything Applecare said to try before the call...reinstalled 10.7, no luck, then 10.7.1....took it to the Genius Bar...hardware test showed no power to the Airport...in that model, it's part of the display, which now must be replaced. The display is $400, but they have a flat rate "out of warranty" charge of $280 to fix any problem found....really no choice...should have it back in a few days...strikes me as odd that after Lion so many have failing wifi cards...will continue to monitor this after I get it back to see if I can get reimbursed (doubtful)....

The Macbook's have a different issue. The current desktops don't have any hardware issues, they just boot into safe mode when more than 1 bluetooth device is trying to connect during bootup. In safe mode, it will say no wifi hardware installed.

The Macbooks having the wifi issues are not booting into safe mode like our iMacs. They are definately having a driver or hardware problem. If you do a clean install of Snow Leopard, the wifi hardware will work again, I've read a lot of posts about users doing that until a fix is issued.

Not a solution, but can save you some headaches. The problem trying to solve the no wifi hardware issue is that different machines are having the problem for different reasons and the machine should be listed in the Macbook and iMac sections of the forum separately. Just looking in the Lion software section can be misleading because a fix for one machine will differ from another because they have different hardware and firmware.

Perhaps these posts should be in the proper hardware forums. For iMacs with Lion and no wifi, if you see the progress bar during boot then your machine is booting into safe mode. If you leave your bluetooth devies off during boot, it will work fine.

For Macbook 2008/9 and 2010 Macbook Pros, this is not a safe boot bluetooth problem, so it should be addressed in the Laptap hardware sections. But as of now, there has not been any definate fix, the software fixes issued last week works for some, doesn't for others.

I just got a 2010 Macbook Pro in a trade last week and wiped it and loaded Lion onto it. My wifi hardware is always working, but I am having a video driver problem where the screen goes black for no reason or it gets stuck waking up from sleep. So I just loaded Snow Leopard back until Apple fixes the drivers. NVidia drivers seem to be causing more headaches than the broadcomm wifi hardware.

Im using a MacBook Pro early 2011 and having Wi-fi: no hardware installed as well. I've tried all the hints and tips I read about. Resetting SMC, PRAM, disabled bluetooth, downgraded to Snow Leopard (clean install, back at Lion 10.7.2 11C43 though), Ran hardware test with "no faults found", installed windows XP and Ubuntu with vmware. I'm going nuts, really, I would go to the Mac Store to have it checked if I could be without a computer for a day, well need to soon as my iPhone tether is to slow. Only thing I haven't done is installing any other OS with boot camp, should I give it a try as well?

Any other suggestions before returning it to the store for a check up?

Apple store called...my macbook is back, new display (where the wifi card is located)....the wifi card was not working (failed hardware test while I was in the store)...will monitor this....if it turns out somehow Lion killed my card, I want the repair fee back...

Jeees man, been hearing from all over that they replaced their cards. How much did it set you back to get it done?

Because in my model (2008 Unibody 13" Macbook -- before they added the "pro" to the name) the wifi card is part of the display, they offered a flat rate $280 to fix any problems found...not cheap, but what choice do I have. I suspect something odd is going on for this many wifi cards to fail after Lion...

have they fixed the iMac start-up problem already, similar to alexander leong post? that problem is very frustrating.

Nope not yet, I am experiencing this issue now. just got an imac august 20 and now it is doing this on every start up unless I restart the computer.. called apple today for some "technical support" and they told me to wait it out and that obviously not enough people are reporting this issue to be fixed.. Don't you love apples customer service?! And to think that OS X Lion was supposed to be amazing.. 😁 anyone else getting the really slow graphics and glitches?

I posted many times. The iMac problem is not really a serious issue! Just boot with your bluetooth keyboard and mouse off!

It will boot normal every time! Try that before posting again! I have 4 iMacs in my business and this fixed them all!

I don't use the blue tooth keyboard and mouse...I'm using USB plug in for both..

I wish. Even taking the batteries out of the keyboard and mouse wasn't sufficient. The boot was normal (as it was with them on), but still showed WiFi as no hardware installed, even though System Profiler said otherwise.

If you are having the problem like the picture in alexander leong's post, that means the system is booting into safe mode.

When you turn on your iMac, if you see that grey progress bar, you system is booting into safe mode, PERIOD. If booting with the keyboard and mouse off didn't fix your problem, then you have a different problem.

alexander leong's post is caused by the system going into safe mode. If you don't see that bar, then you have a different problem. And if you do see that bar with bluetooth devices off, then your system's firmware is updating or you have a unrelated problem.

Macbooks have this problem too, but it is not because of safe mode, the wife hardware is actually messed up after upgrading. To all the people ignoring my post or just answering saying it still does this after BT devices are off, check your bootup screen for that grey bar.

I have 2010 and 2011 model iMacs and using wired keyboards and mice or not turning on the BT devices until after I see the desktop solved my problem. I have 4 iMacs and a few Mac Minis... and ALL of them boot into safe mode with the BT devices on.

After it asks you to log in, just hit restart and your wifi will work again anyways. But Macbook users, there is no fix because the wifi hardware really has a problem.

BTW: If you check out the other 10 or so posts I've answered all the people booted fine when BT devices are off. And this little tidbit of information came from Apple Care after I called them 4 times. Just to let you know, they are aware of the problem and don't think it is a problem.

Hi tuklaw,

Apple also advise on a solution similar to what atgrazi wrote:

1. Just boot with your bluetooth keyboard and mouse off! Only turn on the bluetooth mouse and keyboard after the apple logo finished loading.

2. Alternatively you can let your bluetooth devices to go to sleep(without switching off) after a shutdown. Upon booting again, only click your mouse to wake it after the apple logo finished loading. This is a not so energy saving method.

Gray progress bar under apple logo--> "wireless hardware not installed" + time machine not able to load --> is a indication that it cannot detect your blue tooth devices normally and thus boot the iMac in safe mode.

😉Alexander Leong

It's not similar to what I wrote, it's exactly what I wrote. LOL 😁

But these guys say they have the problem even with a wired keyboard, so this would be the first time I ever heard of that happening. Macbooks really have a different problem though, it is not going into safe mode.

BTW: I just leave my keyboards on all the time, and wait to turn the mouse on until I see the Apple and the spinning wheel, and it boots normally every single time. 😝

I have a MacBook Pro and like many here just upgraded to Lion 10.7.1. Prior to the upgrade, my WIFI was working. Upon reboot, I lost my WIFI. The WIFI icon in the menu bar was greyed out and displayed a message "WIFI - no hardware found." After reading through this discussion group, my solution was to turn off my Bluetooth mouse before booting up. With my Bluetooth mouse off and booting up, WIFI came back and everything works fine. I couldn't believe the upgrade would affect my WIFI. I thought my wireless card failed.