Wi-fi off and will not turn on - MacBook

once you hit the plus u should see select interface and name for new service and beside iterface it shows bluetooth pan.dont know if u tried or not but click little arrows on bluetooth pan and wireless option is there.if u just mean its not showing up after doing this sorry fo not helping

Thank you, Elise! Your suggestion worked for me! I'm thinking I need to do as Tricia did and upgrade memory (I still have the original 2GB) as well as keeping a watchful eye on my wireless card ...

All the best ... -alex

I wrote too soon ... Shut down the bitbox to attend to a few honey-do projects and when I powered back up the wi-fi was off again. Elise's procedure brought it back online (great relief).

A trip to a fix-it shop is on my short list for the first of the week to check configuration and (probably) install a new wireless gizmo. I don't want to push my luck.

Thanks to Tricia for posting the question originally, to Bob for his hardware answer and to Elise for a great temporary work-around.

-alex

Another friend suggested that if I'm tired of having to apply the workaround every time I power up, just put the MacBook in sleep mode and it might stay connected ... I did that and sure enough it worked.

My techie at the local Apple store (not a company store, an authorized seller) had several machines on his bench with the same ailment ... he already concluded it was a software problem and has been in touch with Apple about it ... Apple may have a fix pretty soon.

I had this exact problem with my mother in law's Late 2008 MacBook Pro and I followed the process outlined by AtlantaElise which worked perfectly. Back online with WiFi within minutes. Thank you so much!

I'm having the same problem since the last update 10.8.5! I did what I asked her Elise and it worked, but whenever I restart or turn off my Macbook in 2008 he returns with this problem and I have to repeat the procedure ...

Very disappointed with this ...

I too was having this problem with one of our computers (late 2008 macbook pro) and was applying AtlantaElise's workaround. It seems like the recent OS update (OS X 10.8.5 12F45) may have fixed the problem. It has been stable through several resarts at least....

I was all fat, dumb and happy after installing Mavericks ... for about 2 weeks. Like you, the problem came back. I'm just putting the machine to sleep instead of having to deselect wi-fi, reboot, then re-select.

I had the same issue on a friends late 08 unibody macbook. i opened it up, checked the cables that attach to the wifi card, it's in the hinge, so strange design wise if you ask me since the exaust is right in front of it. i put it back together and I wiped the OS since she had a backup and gave me consent, and even after the restore, wifi still was not working. i had a usb wifi adapter, i told my friend she can use it. it's an asus usb-n10 adapter, fairly small. here's where things get very strange. I installed it with the drivers from the asus site, connected it with no problem using the asus connection software. then i see that the wifi bars were visible again. i click on it, connect to my wifi and it was fine. i unplug the usb wifi adapter, internal wifi was still working. reboot, still working. rebooted another 5 times, still working. i did this last friday, december 27th, still working without the usb adapter to this day. and i hope it keeps working! such a strange "fix", but perhaps initiating another wireless device helped wake the internal one up.

Elise's solution worked for me. Brand new 2013 11 inch macbook air. I encouraged my wife to switch to a mac and this is the third panicked call I've gotten in two weeks since getting the computer :-( So much for macs just working.

Hi AtlantaElise, you are such a lifesaver. Thank you so much for your solution! It worked on my sister's laptop, which is barely a month old! It's been having problems with its Wi-Fi connection (hardware not installed) and we've gotten it reformated, and we were so devastated when the Wi-Fi acted up again. But thanks to you, we got it working again! Super super grateful, you have no idea. God bless!

I have upgraded to mavericks, and that is when this happened to me on my 2010 MacBook Pro. I tried the fix but after about 30 minutes the wifi goes dead again and I must again apply the fix and restart. I have submitted my own question on the discussion but no response has come yet. I'll post a link here, where I have listed all the fixes I have tried that worked but not for more than 30 minutes.

Here's what I said

garfieldster22

Jun 3, 2014 12:03 PM

Last night whilst using my mid2010 Macbook Pro, My wireless card appeared to have turned off completely, randomly. In the menu bar, the wifi looked like it was connected, but when I clicked on the rounded-triangle shaped icon, it just gave the option to click to turn on wifi. I clicked it again and again, but to no avail. The wireless card would not turn on. After googling the issue on my phone I found that if I cleared the files in library/Preferences/systemconfiguration/ and then rebooted, the wireless would work perfect for about 20 minutes, at which point the problem would resume until I repeated the process. Now, I cannnot even see the wifi option in the networks panel of system preferences, and when I click the + sign to add it, the wifi is not listed as an available connection. I am almost certain this is a software isse and I can't afford to take my computer in for repairs. The ethernet port appears to work for now, but it too was disabled during this time as well a couple times.

I also zapped the PRAM, but no changes are apparent.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mavericks (10.9.3)

I have this question too (0) Reply Categories: Internet & Wi-Fi, Using OS X Mavericks Tags: wifi_issues, wireless_adapter_malfunction, malfunctioning_wifi, wifi_software_problems

I've loaded the Maverick update 10.9.4 and my old problem with wifi 'off' at startup has returned - this, after Apple's update notes declare the problem fixed. Fortunately, AtlantaElise's fix still works (see page one of this thread). I've seen other threads that seem to describe garfieldster22's problem and am hoping I don't fall into the same pattern of wifi connections being interrupted for no apparent reason.