Update to Mountain Lion 10.8.5 has killed my wifi access. Help needed.

I'm not sure of the best way to proceed here upon initial inspection. If it came with Snow Leopard on it, did it come with any discs? As I remember Snow Leopard was the last release to actually be put on DVD. In those discs should be an OS X installer for at least Snow Leopard. If you started out there and wifi worked, you could go back and then move forward directly to Mavericks. I don't know which version of 10.6 you have on disc, but you may still need an updater to get to 10.6.8 before going to Mavericks. From the App Store you could only now get a download OS X full installer for Lion 10.7.5 (if you purchased it) or Mountain Lion 10.8.5 (and that's what seems to create the problem).

My mistake it was OSX Lion and upgraded to Mountain Lion. Recently I upgraded it again to OS X 10.9 (Mavericks). Ended up trying lots of options including SMC reset, PRAM reset, deleting wifi service and adding it back, Changing security in router to WPA2(PSK) with AES etc. Nothing works. I'll try to locate the dmg file of the original download and reinstall but worried if all my data will be lost? Can I install 10.8 on top of 10.9. I mean will it create a problem?

advitha

It's been a while since I've retrograded down major versions of OS X, so I don't know that I can say such a move will leave your personal data untouched. I believe it should as most of those items are within your own directory, but I'm not sure how say an application like Mail would behave on the big downgrade. I think it would be fine, but I can't say for sure on my own experience. Of course you're not necessarily going down to Lion, using all of your apps and moving up to Mavericks; and you'll be able to see if you have a wifi connection right after the install.

If you go to the App Store, do you see a download for Lion in your purchased items? I assuming it will let you download and get the install app for 10.7.5, if you can't find the original file you're seeking.

What I usually do in a situation where I'm unsure of the result is to have a full backup of the internal drive on an external hard drive via a utility like SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner and that will allow me to restore the internal drive (to a state before any upgrades) via a change in Start up Drive, etc. I believe you can do the same with a Time Machine backup and a recovery partition, but I'm not sure. This may be more than you want to deal with, but it always seemed like a good "belt and suspenders" approach.

Sorry if this isn't much help.

on an external hard drive via a utility like SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner and that will allow me to restore the internal drive (to a state before any upgrades) via a change in Start up Drive, etc.

What I was describing was making a bootable copy of your internal hard drive on an external, so the external could be booted from and used to restore the internal to the previous state.

In one of the apple forums I was reading about this wifi issue. It seems like its due to 2.4GHz interference issue (issue in wireless firmware probably). A lot of people had success in getting around this problem by having an airport extreme or a 5 Ghz router. That being said I tried playing around with different channels that are least used in our neighbourhood (got the channel info through wireless diagnostic utility). Still no improvent. On the otherhand MB pro works seamlessly in my office with pretty good speed. Looks a lot like the new patch has changed some firmware setting thats making it difficult to function with old routers (mines is 2009, netgear WNR2000v1)

Even worst. My MacBook Pro 17 Unibody stop working at all, after a 10.8.5 update, twice. Do the reinstall, 10.8.4 combo update, works perfect, redo the 10.8.5 update due to ios device update issue and boom! Stop working again. So, no doubt that 10.8.5 update is THE PROBLEM. Hate when apple do this, so we have Mavericks and they stop fixing previous system errors. So, if we weren't geek's the only solution is buy a new mac? That's the idea? No way. They did the same with the Final Cut Pro Suit. 1.000 dollars wasted because apple stops the updates and support. Not fair. How do you call that? Same thing with iOs devices. New systems making slower devices with the purpose of making people buy newer products. Happened to me several times with apple products, just the last system update before a mayor System Upgrade. So, the solution for me is to stick on 10.8.4. Period.

My wifi is finally working!!! (A lot of workarounds)

Went through a lot of threads here and got hold of a thread that describes about the macbook air issue. A lot of people had success in trying the steps listed there. Here's what I did, and mines is a netgear N WNR2000 2.4GHZ router.

Router:

1. Changed router channel to 11

2. Disabled access control list in my router setting and have just WPA2 (PSK)

MBP:

3. In the MB Pro side disabled wifi, cleaned out all the preferred wifi networks and removed all passwords in keychain. (Utilities/Keychain/login) and cleaned out the system directory under keychain.

4. Restarted the system, enabled wifi and added the new network as before

Everything is working fine now. Still there are hangs for 1 or 2 seconds once a while but I guess thats fine. One catch here is skype is giving choppy video and voice not clear. Looks like the issue is still there around but at the end of the day I don't need to be wired all the time and still can watch youtube videos. Looking at few drops in ping too. One thing is sure, apple has done something miserable with their wireless firmware/software in 10.8.5 especially to work with 3rd party routers. When time permits I would still reinstall 10.8 and apply the 10.8.4 combo patch but for now I'm good.

Thanks for all the support this forum provides.

advitha

Update...

Getting wifi disturbances again seems like its not the end of it. Reinstalled Mavericks OSX from recovery HD (somehow lost OSX Mountain Lion 10.8 dmg file). Nothing improved with reinstall getting the crappy wifi connection again. Should I buy a 5GHZ router or a USB-wifi dongle?

Any updates on this issue?

advitha

As I said a few weeks ago, I went back to 10.8.3, and all has been fine. Tempted to move to Mavericks. For those of you who rolled back to 10.8 lower than 5 and installed Mavericks, have you had any wifi problems. I'm a little reluctant to temp fate, but want to see if going from a working version to Mavericks worked for others.

On another note, I just ordered a new iMAC and was disappointed that it was delivered with Mountain Lion weeks after Mavericks came out. Good news is that I upgraded with no issues.

Will also cross post this to the other thread. Apologies for those of you who see it twice.

Thanks,

Andrew

I went from a working 10.8 to mavericks and my wifi has worked perfectly ever since. If I were you I'd go for the update.

Years ago I bought a mac that came with tiger after leopard had been released. At first I was annoyed too, but they gave me the upgrade disk free if charge. I guess it works in your favour because you get to choose between two os's. What if you need to roll back to 10.8 for comparability reasons? At least you have the option!

I upgraded my MACBOOK Air to Mountain Lion and my wifi not only doesn't connect to the internet sporadically, even though the signal strength appears to be strong, but when it does connect it also brings my home network to a screeching halt. If I attempt to get on the internet at home, everyone else's devices lock up and cannot access the internet. Crazy. I'm taking it to Apple this weekend. However, if anyone knows of a fix or patch I'd love to know. Thanks.

I haven't been able to downgrade from 10.8.5 to 10.8.4 or 10.8.3 because when I do a Command-R upon startup, it does Internet Recovery of 10.8.5 located on a server somewhere, instead of installing the original 10.8.3 that was purchased with my late 2012 mac mini.

I also did not have a backup to restore from. 5 days and running too, but running short of patience....

My Macbook Pro 2008 unibody is still working fine on Mavericks, no further wifi issues (as came with 10.8.5).

I have a 2012 MBP running OSX 10.8.5. I am having a lot of wifi issues as well. will switching to maverics fix this?

Yes, definitely.