Q: New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems

Is the bluetooth on or off

because i had rthe same problem turned blootooth off ....cured, turned bluetooth back on to try to replicate problem and it all works fine with bluetooth on or off ?????

This is with bluetooth on, nothing connected:

--- 192.168.0.1 ping statistics ---

20 packets transmitted, 20 packets received, 0.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.464/2.245/3.597/0.490 ms

This is with a mouse connected via bluetooth:

--- 192.168.0.1 ping statistics ---

20 packets transmitted, 20 packets received, 0.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.477/2.380/3.730/0.585 ms

Had problem with unstable wifi and VPN getting disconnected intermittently. But after applying the 10.9.2 update both the issue have been resolved.

Unfortunately the 10.9.2 (13C64) update did not resolve the random wifi disconnects from our mid 2013 custom-build (8GB) MBA (13”, 1.3 GHz i5). Firmware Version of the airport extreme card is Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (6.30.223.154.63). Bluetooth is switched off.

Is there anything else we can try after updating to 10.9.2?  (I haven’t read the whole 135-page thread..) All advice is more than welcome!

Before the 10.9.2 update, I fixed my problem this way:

"

This solved my problem except my OSX is 10.8.5

With 10.8.4 (Original first driver) -> 6.30.223.74.22

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yGh31NY4uBK31WmeUMEFHVpr4RsbrB4Sv5syy17ntuk/ edit

"

Then I took the risk and installed the 10.9.2 and it works fine. PLEASE NOTE my OSX was 10.8.5 with the fix above. I did not try it with Mavericks. I basically waited for the fix for the wi-fi problems under Mavericks.

bram81 wrote:

 

Unfortunately the 10.9.2 (13C64) update did not resolve the random wifi disconnects from our mid 2013 custom-build (8GB) MBA (13”, 1.3 GHz i5). Firmware Version of the airport extreme card is Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (6.30.223.154.63). Bluetooth is switched off.

 

Is there anything else we can try after updating to 10.9.2?  (I haven’t read the whole 135-page thread..) All advice is more than welcome!

I'd like to add that we do not seem to be affected by the latency problem. The ping values (to the router) are all below 3 ms.  The router is a Linkssys AE4500.  The problem that our particular MBA is experiencing are random wifi-disconnects that fortunately do not occur very frequently (say once every ~3 days).

Does this sound type the 'typical' MBA-problem where this thread is all about or is this likely/possibly something completely else? Any advice?

bram81 wrote:

 

Unfortunately the 10.9.2 (13C64) update did not resolve the random wifi disconnects from our mid 2013 custom-build (8GB) MBA (13”, 1.3 GHz i5). Firmware Version of the airport extreme card is Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (6.30.223.154.63). Bluetooth is switched off.

 

Is there anything else we can try after updating to 10.9.2?  (I haven’t read the whole 135-page thread..) All advice is more than welcome!

@ bram81: You could bring your MBA to your service provider and let them check the antennas (I suppose you have had checked the motherboard and wifi chip already). The antennas are located in the lid of the MBA and the only way to repair them is to exchange the whole lid (including the display). This is a very expensive repair and probably your service provider will be reluctant to do it or unable to perform a proper test of the antennas (it needs a special testing environment and might take several hours for the problem to show up - was so with my own MBA).

Exchanging the lid resolved all my issues with my MBA 13" (2012) which suffered from exactly the same disconnection problem described in this thread (working in some wifi environments without issues, disconnecting again and again in others, needing series of restarts to connect again etc.).

#guessing mode on

I am pretty much convinced that the cost of the repair is what keeps Apple from admitting that there is a wifi issue at all, not to speak of resolving it. The problem behind admitting the issue is that even people with working MBAs do not know whether there computers are working properly or not because they just might not have tried to connect with the "right" (not working) wifi network. So the next new wifi might be the bad one. Hence, what would happen if Apple admitted the issue? More or less everyone would bring their MBA in to have it checked and/or the lid replaced under warranty. The MBA is Apple's best selling computer. Therefore, admitting the issue that probably affects only a few percent of the users could mean to say bye-bye to billions for Apple. They'll never do that. But believe me, the next MBA will have a different antenna set-up.

#guessing mode off

Good luck to you.

Message was edited by: Rosember

 

#guessing mode on

I am pretty much convinced that the cost of the repair is what keeps Apple from admitting that there is a wifi issue at all, not to speak of resolving it. The problem behind admitting the issue is that even people with working MBAs do not know whether there computers are working properly or not because they just might not have tried to connect with the "right" (not working) wifi network. So the next new wifi might be the bad one. Hence, what would happen if Apple admitted the issue? More or less everyone would bring their MBA in to have it checked and/or the lid replaced under warranty. The MBA is Apple's best selling computer. Therefore, admitting the issue that probably affects only a few percent of the users could mean to say bye-bye to billions for Apple. They'll never do that. But believe me, the next MBA will have a different antenna set-up.

#guessing mode off

 

Good luck to you.

 

Message was edited by: Rosember

For what it's worth, my own MBA has connected reliably when on the road lately, after its initial failures to do so (see my posts way back in September 2013). I always take an Airport Express with me now, so that if there is a problem with the in-house wifi connection I can set up my own wireless network (providing that there's an Ethernet port somewhere to be found, which is not always the case).

But as Rosember rightly says, the next new wifi might be a bad one... Not good for the nerves when setting up a presentation in some university, conference centre or hotel or wherever.

And as Rosember also says: good luck to you.

Hye guys, I've been using the MBA smoothly on wifi for the past 5 months, recently after the latest updates, my wifi would be dropped intermittently, this is getting frustrating, any idea on what i can do to solve it?

I have a 2012 MBA and started getting the wifi problems two months ago. I have to reboot to get wifi to work at home and at work. Wifi will last for an hour. Very frustrating.

Hi, just wanted to join this club, to share my frustration with this wifi problem

I have three macs at home, none of them experiencing this problem except for the new MacBook Air (middle 2013). I have tried lots of things (both on the mac and on the rooter side), and nothing solved the problem.

This wifi problem is not only annoysing but affects my work because whenever the wifi drops off my VPN connection drops too.

Please, FIX THIS!!!

I can tell all of you now after 6 weeks of misery in dealing with my cable company, replacing modems, changing channels that finally I got the real fix from an Apple wireless support tech this past Monday when the regular techs failed.  It is now a "known" problem with the Mac Airs and there is an update Maverick 10.9.3 that will be issued before the end of this month to fix it - hopefully.

It drops the wi-fi "if" you have your bluetooth turned on the computer.  It only applies to the computer and won't affect wi-fi on your android phone if your bluetooth is on there.  The "instant" he told me to turn off the bluetooth I haven't had a single drop.  It was dropping every 3-5 minutes for over 6 weeks.  Once known, I realized I had been trying out an external bluetooth speaker around that time and clearly left the bluetooth turned on.

Try it - it definitely worked immediately for me.  If, for some reason however, you must use your bluetooth before they issue the update this month, your best bet is to change your modem/router to run 5 Ghz.

Wireless runs at 2.4 Ghz and bluetooth runs at 2.4 to 2.4835 GHz -- tons of interference.

@cassie0103 it's just a coincidence in my opinion..how many days are you testing this "bluethoot off" fix? I'm sure your wifi will drop again in next days...sometimes drops are less frequently

I always had bluethoot off, and my connection drop with 1 of my 2 routers (other devices  doesn't drop)..not any fix works, it just drops because of a   s h i t   apple software driver. full stop.

Bluethoot off can help with interference probably, but is not my case.

I heard about the bluetooth thing before but I guess the problem is bigger than this.  We using our MBA in a 5 GHz Network with bluetooth switched off since we first started using it, but we still don’t have a perfectly stable network (one random wifi disconnect every ~3 days)… I’m however looking forward towards the changes 10.9.3 might bring us!

I have been experiencing this long term too.  Multiple drop outs per day.  I have 10.9.2, and I have Bluetooth turned off.  It's embarassing more than anything else.  My wife and daughter have budget windows based laptops and find it amusing that I spend lots of time every evening cursing and restarting my MacBook while they surf away to their heart's content.