Q: New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems

Hi!

If really it's an hardware problem then they have to replace MBA to everyone since it's a fault covered by the 2 years warranty (or 1 year depending from the country).

This may very well be the case. Personally, I want to believe it's a software issue and that it will be fixed. But it sure would help to know for sure.

My machine also had some minor screen issues, which would have warranted the return of it in any case.

Cheers,

Kim

I have been following this forum for some time.  I have a two week old MBA 8Gb 256 SSD.  The only problem that I have experienced is an intermittent extended ping time.   I shuttle my MBA between two locations both have Airport Extremes one 5th Gen and one 6th Gen (running curent firmware).

I have not witnessed one dropped connection.  I would like to know if anyone has experienced a dropped connection on an Airport Extreme/Express.

As mentioned earlier I think that there will be a fix for the latency problem - as far as the disconnects if I had that problem I would return my MBA.

Does it appear to be the case that no replacement machine has been better at connecting or maintaining a connection to the same network where the replaced machine failed? Any cases where this is not true?

I can't connect successfully to the WPA Enterprise as well as WEP networks at the office. In the WEP case I managed to get the appearance of a successful connection; the WiFi indicator told me I was connected, but the browser got me nowhere. When connecting to the WPA network, I get a message saying the authentication server is unresponsive. I tried a couple of public networks yesterday at the local mall. Some of them appeared to connect but, again, the browser told me there was no internet around. So I have so far only managed to get a working connection at home.

Cheers,

Kim

@headcase

I only noticed last night that my pings are all over the place anything from 1.5ms to 300ms.

I bought my MBA on 11 August and immediately installed all available updates, including the MacBook Air (Mid 2013) Software Update. I therefore didn't run my MBA at all on 6.30.223.74.22  and to be honest, I hadn't really been experiencing any issues other than web pages occasionally pausing whilst loading and I'm therefore unsure as to whether or not I should roll back.

I'm now running 10.8.5.

If I were to roll back, and started to experience wi-fi dropouts, how easy would it be to reinstall the latest driver?

TIA,

SPD.

I gathered all the information needed to show all temporary solutions in a google docs
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yGh31NY4uBK31WmeUMEFHVpr4RsbrB4Sv5syy17ntuk/ edit?usp=sharing

Apple preps new OS X 10.8.5 release with fixes for Macbook Airs

http://9to5mac.com/2013/09/24/apple-preps-new-os-x-10-8-5-release-with-fixes-for -macbook-airs-hdmi/

Interesting, but I see no evidence of WiFi improvements listed in the 10.8.5 supplemental update release notes.

Here is a very graphic example of the issues with WiFi on the new Macbook Air.

I am connecting to a brand new Airport Express situated one meter away from my Macbook Air.

First screenshot is ping to the Express IP using an IOGEAR GWU625 wireless-N USB adapter (Realtek RTL8191SU chip) connected to my Macbook Air:

This second screenshot is ping using my Macbook Air's internal Broadcom BCM4360 solution:

So as you can see even a connection to Apple exclusive hardware has major issues. I am astounded this has passed Apple QA. All of the 2013 Macbook Air's at my local Apple store have the same issue and they are also connected to the stores central Airport Extreme box.

Yeah it's repeating myself, but as a 25 year Apple customer  I don't agree this is business as usual. New week, new reports of WiFi related return/exchange/replacements not working, new 1st time posters with WiFi not working,  newest 10.8.5 supplement won't address WiFi.

Mavericks (10.9) in a month or so,  no guarantee there either. 

So far what we're reading is the one and only 1.0 WiFi  patch made latency even worse.

Well north of 200,000, does the thread need to hit a quarter million views before Apple fixes the problem? 

Waiting since last November, almost a year now - to upgrade a 2008 Macbook.   It may run a little hot, the fan sounds like a jet engine sometimes, the 'e' key is failing, the battery won't hold a charge, but it does connect to the internet reliably. 

Holiday season is upon us - for goodness sakes, this has to be fixed before xmas.

I am very curious to see if new iMac is affected by the same problem.

So what? They gave up? I can't understand why wifi is not listed on 10.8.5 1.0 patch...

Maybe something new:

First of all, my own MBA with connectivity issues is the 2012 version, 13", 1.8 GHz i5, 8 GB, 256 GB SSD, not the 2013 version. Yet, my MBA has shown exactly the same connectivity problems posted and repostet in this thread hundreds of times.

Now, after fighting the issue for more than 9 months without any success (check my earlier posts in this thread) I decided to return my MBA under warranty. Of course, the shop (not Apple, but a certified retailer) had to check the MBA for defective parts before they could return me the money. This, although the MBA already had been in for diagnostics - without any negative result.

Today, surprise, surprise, I got a call from the chief technician of the retailer. She told me they were able to reproduce the connection losses and had found the source of the issue.

It was the ... display (as she called it), i.e. - more precisely - the whole top of the MBA, which holds the screen, and afaik the antennas.

They have checked my MBA with a replacement top and could not observe any further connection losses over a long observation period. Out of curiosity I asked the chief technician whether my MBA had a singular defect or if she had encountered issues like mine more frequently. She answered something like: "If you ask me like that, yes, we have had quite a few MBAs with the same issue." She could not remember, whether these were 2012ers or 2013ers, though. But I guess there have been few changes to the top of the MBA between the two versions.

Now they are going to replace the part in my MBA, and, hopefully, I'll finally get back a working computer.

Conclusion:

If your MBA is affected by the connectivity issue (connection losses, slow speed, and/or long ping times) tell the service not only to check the airport card, but also the top of the MBA. Of course, they might be hesitating as this is an expensive repair. The whole top is a single part. You cannot replace just the antennas but have to replace the panel, outer aluminum parts etc. as well. Nevertheless, I recommend you to insist on this.

Hope this helps.

That is a really different explanation. I was about to write and add my saga, which is curious. I dealt with Applecare doing all the reboots etc. I did not go back to 6.30.223.74.22 and I have not downloaded 10.8.5 yet. Meanwhile the problem has been gradually improving. I travel a lot and so use many different servers and most recently the problem only occurred in one office. A reboot of the router led to some improvement (I'm only concerned with the drop-outs) but lately everything seems to have gone back to normal.

It is as if my MBA had the flu but is now fully recovered. Did the lid get a knock, cause the problem and then another knock to return it to normal?

@ Rosember

Your issue is different from the one here.

During the week I use 2 routers, with one my MBA 2013 NEVER drop the connection, with the other one it drop the connection and then reconnect every 10 minutes. The 2 routers are differently, one is wpa2 (no problem) and the other one is WPA only, and this last give problems (note that if I disable security, there is no drop for hours of testing).

So it's not a question of antenna..Even other users noticed the same problems.

It's a software issue with some particular routers/modem on some particulat encryptions.

Apple engineers are not able to make a proper driver that works for everyone on the new haswell architecture. This what is seems to me.

andQlimax wrote:

 

@ Rosember

 

Your issue is different from the one here.

 

During the week I use 2 routers, with one my MBA 2013 NEVER drop the connection, with the other one it drop the connection and then reconnect every 10 minutes. The 2 routers are differently, one is wpa2 (no problem) and the other one is WPA only, and this last give problems (note that if I disable security, there is no drop for hours of testing).

 

So it's not a question of antenna..Even other users noticed the same problems.

 

It's a software issue with some particular routers/modem on some particulat encryptions.

 

Apple engineers are not able to make a proper driver that works for everyone on the new haswell architecture. This what is seems to me.

Are you sure? Well, I am not. As little as I am in the know that the issue with my MBA is truely the same issue as with the 2013 MBAs. Nobody in this whole thread (and I have read every single post in it) can even tell whether the issue is software or hardware based. On the other hand it is clear that the issue is not router or protocol based (some people claimed only WPA2 was affected, others it was only WEP, and so on - all proven wrong by contradicting examples). There are many reports in this thread that among half a dozen devices connected to a router only the MBA showed any issues (and my own case is among them). The only reasonable explanation for these cases is an issue with the MBA.

That said, it is obvious that issues with certain protocols or routers may mimic the problem. If you have found a way to resolve or work around the issue in your case, that's great.

What I say is not that the lid is the source of the issue. I simply don't know. But it might be, and to me, with no other substantial solution around, it seems to be worth while checking the lid.

Please note, the following is purely based on speculations!

If it was the lid it somehow could explain why Apple does not come up with a definite solution. It might be, that some hard knocks (or temperature changes or whatsoever during transport are the origin of the problems. But these knocks probably occur randomly, affecting some MBAs but not all, even of a single charge. It would be very hard to identify this as the source of the connectivity issues. And there would not be a solution other than changing the construction of the lid or the way the packages are moved around. And Apple would be very, very hesitating to admit a problem with the lid. Although quite a lot of MBAs are affected, many more seem to work flawlessly. To admit a fault with the lid construction/transport method in the worst case could mean for Apple to replace a few millions perfectly working lids. A very expensive way to solve the issue. In Apples place would you do it?

Speculations mode off.