iMac drops Wifi connection after 10.7.4 update

I'm experiencing the exact same issue.

Wifi connection drops at some random point, and doesn't come back up before I restart. The drop can show its ugly face in the irst two minutes, or not before the an hour. Though like the winter, its sure to come.

When the wifi drops, I'm not able to see any wifi networks on my iMac. Though my Macbook Pro and iPhone works just fine.

Restarting my iMac fixes the issue for some time.

Okay, so this problem is pervasive and seems to be limited to iMacs and is definitely caused by a bug/issue with 10.7.4.

Does anyone from Apple read these discussions? Can we have at least an acknowledgement that this is a real issue and some indication that a fix is on the way?

Thanks.

Hi djwtyler

I have been on the phone with Apple tech support and they refuse to acknowledge that it is anything to do with 10.7.4 so don't hold your breath!

I reinstalled the Mac OS which took me back to 10.7.3 (which is kind of odd, surprised Apple tech support) then told me there was an update to be installed so I didn't update. Back with 10.7.3 problem gone. Apple tech support maintain that this proves nothing . . .

cheers

guy

There are certain things that you could try:

Renewing the DHCP lease when you go Sys Preferences -> Network -> Advanced -> Renew DHCP lease, then sleep mode to see if the problem was solved.

Another thing you could try (especially effective after running OS updates) -> PRAM reset:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

If you've got a wireless keyboard then I advise holding them down exactly during the start-up sound because the Bluetooth module on the iMacs is activated during the sound. Essentially you hold down Cmd + Alt + P + R at the same time until the second startup sound goes through and then startup your computer as per usual and see if the problem is still there.

A lot of updates seem problematic exactly because of the PRAM, sometimes the resources using in the Random Access Memory get frozen and create errors for modules like the Airport module. Hope it helps most of you guys.

The only thing is that Apple says the following about resetting PRAM :

Unlike prior versions of the Mac OS, Mac OS X does not store network settings in PRAM. If you experience a network issue, resetting PRAM will not help. 😟

As long as you don't get any connection to a WiFi network (Or can't see any SSID to connect to) altering any DCHP or DNS setting will not help you.

I guess the only thing to do is to ask every one to place a call to the Apple Support team and reset everything from scratch.

It will take alot of hours as OS X is downloaded from internet! (Remember no installation media is supplied with the new iMAC's)

And you will then need to spend alot of hours in phone with support and then reinstall every program that you downloaded from the Apple store...

Is there any one? who got it working after the 10.7.4 update by reinstall everything from scratch or did you all stay on 10.7.3?

/J

I'm aware of what's stored in the PRAM, but it helped a friend of mine and that's why I suggested it. I just know from personal experience that if something doesn't work properly on a computer and there's no or little information as to what one can do about it it's frustrating. Better some suggestions rather than none right? 🙂

the problem doesent seem to affect iMac only neither is the case with the 10.7.4 update. i am ahving a problem with mz macbookpro, brand new... had a problem on a 10.7.3 aswell as on a 10.7.4. which i just updated to... i cnt believe this is happening, my internet speed is 25kbps right now

lp3007 wrote:

the problem doesent seem to affect iMac only neither is the case with the 10.7.4 update. i am ahving a problem with mz macbookpro, brand new... had a problem on a 10.7.3 aswell as on a 10.7.4. which i just updated to... i cnt believe this is happening, my internet speed is 25kbps right now

Your problem isn't the same as described. If you are having 25kps, you'r not losing your wifi.

I have your problem too! My iMac can't even load a webpage, and speedtest says i have 615 ms in Ping. It's unbelievable!

Hi Dige1993

as eyal89 wrote we need to be careful where we post, the problem you describe does not seem to be the one we are discussing in this thread, we can't even see an SSID . . .

Guy

Hi Ip3307

the problem you decsribe does not seem to be the one we are discussing here. We cannot even see a wifi network so 25kbps sounds excellent 😉

for what its worth it sounds like a lousy wireless environment, the first thing i would do is take my MacBook Pro to a cafe with wifi and see what i get there, that will tell you whether its a problem with your MacBook or the wireless in your home/office, from there you can do the usual troubleshooting (if in doubt you should be covered by warranty as its brand new so chase Apple tech support

good luck!

Guy

guydominy wrote:

for what its worth it sounds like a lousy wireless environment, the first thing i would do is take my MacBook Pro to a cafe with wifi and see what i get there, that will tell you whether its a problem with your MacBook or the wireless in your home/office, from there you can do the usual troubleshooting (if in doubt you should be covered by warranty as its brand new so chase Apple tech support

good luck!

Guy

Its not a lousy wireless environment. Please read the full thread and understand the topic.

Same issue here. When updating my iMac 2011 to 10.7.4 wi-fi started dropping. No problems with other machines using the same AirPort Extreme. I've tried a lot of solutions mentioned here and in other fora, except re-install OSX or changeing kext. No success. At last I changed the channel-setting in my AirPort Extreme from Automatic to fixed channels - on both 2,4 and 5. Since that I have had wi-fi without dropping, even after sleep. I don't know if this ”fix” is permanent, but it works so far.

See my recent post. Another member in this conversation and I have been contacted by an Apple engineer who is interested in helping to debug this problem. Last night I provided him several reports that he requested. The other member is in the process of doing that.

Fortunately or unfortunately, following this process of preparing reports I changed from WPA to WPA2. Since the change about 14 hours ago I have had a continual working wifi connection. The only difference I see is that at logon I must manually click on the network I want to logon to. With WPA that process was automatic. But I've had no drops for over 14 hours. I included this in my report.

Since May 12 the disconnect pattern has seemed random -- from every few minutes to several hours. So I'm not convinced this is a permanent fix until I have more experience based evidence.

See my recent post. Another member in this conversation and I have been contacted by an Apple engineer who is interested in helping to debug this problem. Last night I provided him several reports that he requested. The other member is in the process of doing that. In addition to posting in this forum I've been on the phone with Apple Care and had my iMac att the Apple Store for 3 days.

Fortunately or unfortunately, following this process of preparing reports I changed from WPA to WPA2. Since the change about 14 hours ago I have had a continual working wifi connection. The only difference I see is that at logon I must manually click on the network I want to logon to. With WPA that process was automatic. But I've had no drops for over 14 hours. I included this in my report.

Since May 12 the disconnect pattern has seemed random -- from every few minutes to several hours. So I'm not convinced this is a permanent fix until I have more experience based evidence.