Since upgrading my iMac to Lion, the WiFi shows up as "no hardware installed" on the desktop. This is after showing a grey progress bar on the white boot screen. It only happens on first boot but works fine after a restart. I have tried deleting the Preferences folder as has been suggested for some MGP users. Does anyone have any thoughts?
iMac 2011, Core i7, 12GB RAM, OS X Lion
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7), 12GB RAM
I also think it is the flex connection cable.
I have a 2011 MB pro. I had intermittent connectivity losses after closing my MB when leaving the train and reopening it at the office. No networks could be found. A reboot would solve the problem.
Then after a while, I started to see 'No hardware installed' when I clicked on the (empty) wifi icon.
After replacing the wifi card, it worked for a while (so I suspected it was the wifi card). Then the problem came back. Now here is what I found.
The flex cable between logic board and wifi card has a connector on the logic board that sticks out a bit and which touches the case. I suspect that over the course of one or two years, depending on how much the MB is tossed around and used on laps, the connector suffers from pressure exerted through the case and the soldering points start to loose.
Once one soldering point gets loose I guess you will start to see unpredictable behavior - but all related to physical pressure on the back of your MB. One day it works all day (where you are actually sitting at your desk and not moving the MB around!), another day your wifi is gone. After carrying it around the connector will surely have disconnected a few times so wifi is gone, a reboot may bring it back once steady at a table top.
So the issue comes in disguise: we think it is sleep related - but it is actually related to what you do after you put it to sleep, which is of course put it in your bag and carry it around.
I came to this conclusion after carefully resoldering the tiny connection points of the flex cable (logic board side). (which is extremely hard, you need an smd soldering device plus a good magnifying glass and steady hands)
I also ordered a new cable which has not yet arrived. Mine had part number 821-1311-02 and I found one for $19 at PBParts.
Problem gone and has been gone since (one and a halve week ago).
I suspect that anyone who had the cable replaced, either as part of a card replacement or as part of a logic board replacement no longer suffers from this issue.
Also, it would explain why most suggested fixes seem to work for a while, with the problem jumping back in your face after a short while.
My suggestion to anyone who has these kind of issues is to order a new cable (not a used one!) and see if that works. It can be very easily replaced. Be careful when you take the old one off the logic board - mine was apparantly so bad that the second time I did that the connector came off the flex cable. So make sure you have your new cable at hand before getting the old one off.
Good luck to you all.
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?
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...
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 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.
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 just bought a brand new iMac yesterday which came loaded with Lion. When I restarted it this morning it had the same issue. It's our second iMac and we never have problems like this on the old one running Leopard. Without your posts it would have been on its way back to the Apple Store.
Thank you.
Update: If the mac is not dropping into Safe Mode, try this procedure - shut down the mac, disconnect from power source and remove the battery. Hold the start/shut down button for 5 seconds. reinstall the batery and restart. I have found this technique works on my pre-unibody MacBook Pro 17.
Same problem. Apple needs to address this. I have to double-boot to get Lion to work, using a wireless keyboard and Wacom Tablet (wired). Getting pretty annoyed.
Mid-2011 iMac, only a few months old. Ordered in June.
I would like to add my voice to this discussion. I recently started running into the same issues as described here after doing a system update to 10.7 (10.7.2 by the time I caved and upgraded). I originally thought this was due to the addition of a data doubler I added, but after reverting the system to factory spec and testing all the parts I found it to be of the same nature mentioned here. I have bluetooth powered off and it will remain so until further notice, if this solves the problem for me I will follow up so that others might know for sure. Lastly this problem has occurred in both my bootcamp of windows 7 and mac os.
10 days ago I bought an imac 27 i7 and I paid 2500 Euro hope
I got a better computer.
Unfortunately I was disappointed seeing the start going into safe mode and also not recognize the wireless network
I was also disappointed to apple they see as a serious company.
I do not know if the problem will be solved, but the important thing is finally apple kyttaxei to save even slow her dignity
I have the same issues, but it includes my Battery not CHARGING, the Light just goes off after 5 or 10 mins. Have to switch off and Switch on to start the Charging again. Am tired of the WIFI issue too.
I have done all the RESETTING of SMC and PRAM after upgrading to Lion. I have left with no options now, stuck with ETHERNET CABLE 😟
Tony, ye it's working great zero problems on all sorts of people's routers....
I've now had 3 dies/reboots but I don't think that's related more like something else loose or the like when you move it or single hand it to someone.
Hasn't done it all tho lately only the 3 times within the week of getting it back.
good to hear that worked out for you.
I am in a tough boat, my apple care ran out and right now am stuck using a good USB wireless dongle. but as of late i need that USB port back with all my new work.
I know those cards cost a pretty penny too. I might just have to suck it up and buy a new one myself.
the weird thing is my partition of Windows 7 uses the wifi chip just fine. I am just tired of waiting on apple at this point.
whoa!?! where did you find that price at if you don't mind me asking.
I am thinking about going back to Snow Leopard if I can't find a fix by my vacation time.
I love lion for some functional reasons but at the same time i've had all this gestures for long time using better touch tool.
But the most basic thing is not even working which does turn into a big pile of....
Hi all, this problem seems to be happening in all Macs. I am having the same Wifi hardware not found in MacBook Air running lion ver 10.7.3. The funny thing is this happened few days back and after few switch off and on, it suddenly came back and worked well. I face the same situation again. This means at least it's not a hardware issue. Tried all options like SPC and PRAM reset, switching off after unchecking the dialogue box, starting the safe load and then start agin in normal mode. But nothing seems to work. I can not work without wifi. I know eventually I have to take it to Mac repair store but hope there is some solution online so that we could do it ourselves. After all it's a MAC not a PC.
Lion - WiFi no hardware installed
