Wretched airport reception on new Mac Mini

This thread is getting rather long. Hope someone starts a new thread and say how this was solved.

bryan - your "return the thing" has a lot of merit to it and is in line with what I have been doing with this poor Intel transition. Our MBP was returned due to the inverter buzz isssue and our first Mac mini was exchanged for a new unit that works much much better.

I am willing to do a reasonable amount of trouble shooting prior to expecting a refund or exchange. That said, there is only so much time and effort that any of us can invest on Apple's behalf. I am also fine with minor hardware repairs (if fast and easy) but do not understand how some people get caught in this "I've sent it in for the third logic board replacement" type of mess.

All of that said, we have had great experience with new Apple products UNTIL this Intel transition. We have survived the MOTO > IBM transition. Let's hope Apple will be with Intel for a number of years AND get their production TQM up to speed.

Unfortunately I have the same problem too and this is a very bad impression for someone coming from a Windows / Linux world.

Since these pages may be not monitored by Apple, what if we all leave a message in the Apple Mac OS X feedback page. I already left mine at "http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/" with a link to this thread.

Here in Greece there is not a term such as "collecting a defective Mac Mini". The best thing I could do is to take it at the official local agency to have a look at my problem. I' ll share my news if tomorrow I have a definite answer.

I'm 99% certain these pages are monitored by apple, if for no other reason than they are hosting them and need to be a bit concerned about what folks are posting. And soon after my initial post in this thread, I received an email from apple (to an address I only use for these discussions) suggesting some things I might try to reduce WiFi interface. I was rather irritated because that completely missed the point of my post (LOTS of other WiFi devices--including an older Mac Mini--work just fine in that location and everywhere else in my house--it is only the new Intel Core Duo that has "interference" problems), but at least it demonstrates that they are reading these posts.

I can now say that I have finally solved my Mini's problem with Airport. To summarize, I had these symptoms:

- Delay of 1 to several seconds when accessing any website, then poor download performance (typically 75kbps or so)
- Erratic and poor ping performance (8-10 in the 1-3ms range, then one or two in the 300+ms range)
- Changes in Airport overall reception (0-5 bars), not holding steady
- Poor ftp transfer rates over wireless

I tried everything listed, including switching to channel 10 (helps initially, then returns to poor over time), turning off bluetooth (I have both BT keyboard and mouse), changing wireless routers, disabling wireless security, disabling IPv6...and finally found the one thing that does the trick.

If you look at the Network preferences under networking ports, you'll see that all network services (ports) are listed in priority order. I moved Airport to the top of the list, and unchecked Bluetooth since I am not using BT for file transfer. The order is important because that's the port it will try first with any network request.

I've now been running for 4 days, with full interface/ISP speed as tested repeatedly (dozens of times each hour) on various download test sites, and have been happily browsing with no initial delay in loading pages, performed software update sucessfully, streamed Airtunes and transferred files across my LAN via Airport - and it's just working as expected now. Nothing else worked for anywhere close to this long - I'd see improvements, then back to the same problems.

What's more, I can now wake from sleep, or let the BT mouse go into standby, and bring it back with instant full-speed networking - no delays, no funny behavior. Pings are now consistently 1-2ms, with the very occasional increase to something like 6ms - which I consider normal. My Mini now lives happily with my other computers, all wirelessly networked.

If I experience any change, I'll be sure to pass it along here. Good luck!

Intel Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.6)

blewis140 writes:

"If you look at the Network preferences under networking ports, you'll see that all network services (ports) are listed in priority order. I moved Airport to the top of the list, and unchecked Bluetooth since I am not using BT for file transfer. The order is important because that's the port it will try first with any network request."

When I made it through Apple Care up to a wireless guru, he had me do the exact same thing (drag Airport to the top and turn off BT for file xfer). But I didn't get the huge performance increase you did. Better, but not cured. now the odd pings are in the 100 to 150 ms range instead of 250 ms.

Assuming that you're suffering from the same problems (and others have had replacement boxes that have worked correctly) then why are you wasting your time trying to fudge a fix that is not your responsibility? It's Apple's responsibility and not the consumers to ensure that it works properly.

I received a replacement Mac mini Core Duo last weekend, and look and behold: NO MORE PROBLEMS.... finally...

See pictures in my webpage at http://web.mac.com/arnoud/

Apple did change some internal parts in the 5 weeks between my first model (with serial YM608) and this one (YM613...), most notably a piece of insulation around the AirPort antenna cable where the cable passes the DVI connector. Coincidence?

The reason my mini was eventually exchanged was because the replacement parts were still unavailable in Europe, despite a 3 week wait.
I can only recommend at this point that everyone with this problem to contact Apple and either have the mini fixed or replaced, as the issue is NOT with your software, your router or the location of your microwave!

Hope this helps anyone...

Arnoud

PowerMac G5/1.8DP + mini Core Duo + PowerBook G4 17" 1.67 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Interesting Arnoud thanks for that. Having finally got hold of a working mini I am loathe to open mine to find out if anything has changed. My working model is also YM613.

No replacement bliss for me. Apple told me to take my Mac Mini to the nearest Apple Centre (Netherlands). They confirmed that the necessary parts are in stock and repair can be quick. Let's hope so!

No replacement bliss for me. Apple told me to take my
Mac Mini to the nearest Apple Centre (Netherlands).
They confirmed that the necessary parts are in stock
and repair can be quick. Let's hope so!

Hmmmm, that would be strange... I have the part on order since half March and I have been given an ETA of April 22nd for the new antennas to arrive... Also in The Netherlands... If the other Apple Centre does have the parts I would be very interested in finding out which dealer that is...

My mini too waits in Apple store purgatory. Apple had me take it to the nearest Apple Store after establishing on the phone that it got reception when right on top of the base station, but not at any distance (and, of course, after ruling out every other possible explanation). I brought it in; the "genius" said he had had the same problem on his own machine and turned off wireless g (based on comments from this board) which had temporarily helped, but he ended up having to replace the wireless card. He also said, even though this seems entirely inconsistent with his own experience, that it was a software issue and I'd probably just have to wait for a firmware update. Anyway, I left mine there about two weeks ago. I called a few days ago and was told the parts are on back order and it could be a couple more weeks, but they would do a "global search" for the parts to try to speed things along. So I wait.

Firmware won't help. Push for a replacement. Your unit is defective.

I really had to argue for mine which I think is out of order given the fact that this is obviously a well known issue now and that they know what the fix is because my replacement unit works fine.

If you buy something and it is broken then you are entitled to a replacement not a promise that at some point in the future it may be fixed.

Arnoud, it's the one in Groningen (quote in Dutch): "We kunnen de reparatie zelf uitvoeren en hebben voor dit soort gevallen inmiddels voorraad van onderdelen".

I hope so. If not, I'll be very pi**ed.

The replacement mini that I received 3 or 4 weeks ago fixed my problems. I opened it up to check and I have the same new antenna. But the circuitboard is white (non silkscreened) which happens on trial boards many times.
My serialnr is also YM608, same as the previous one I had.

My guess is that I have a remanufactured unit with a new antenna in place.

It indeed works like a charm.