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EDIMAX wifi extender stopped working with El Capitan

Hello,

after I installed El Capitan, my EDIMAX wi-fi adpter stopped working and the utility software would not run. Its the adapter that enables my Macbook Pro to use AC Wi-Fi.

http://www.edimax.com/edimax/merchandise/merchandise_detail/data/edimax/global/w ireless_adapters_ac450/ew-7711mac/

I am using Macbook Pro (Retina, early 2013). Everything worked fine with Yosemite.

The little light on the adapter is not on and the utility app is impossible to run. Nothing is happening.


Can anybody help me with that?


Thanks a lot.


Jan

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 2, 2015 5:18 AM

Reply
70 replies

Nov 13, 2015 6:33 PM in response to sunpin

The extensions have been installed it sounds like. You can manually test by running sudo kextload /path/to/installed/extension and probably will get nothing as output if it loaded, errors if it failed. You'll never know for sure until you've the usb stick plugged in. If it works, when you open profiler it will say it is loaded and thus is compatible, at which point the utility application should also work

Nov 13, 2015 8:41 PM in response to sunpin

Sounds promising! It's impossible to know without the adapter in hand, so if you can take your machine to the store, or buy from somewhere that accepts returns, that is best. If not, having the kext loaded means the device should be recognized. The utility may still act up, so if you want to be extra sure, research the exact chipset of the adapter you're looking to purchase. It's a realtek chip I'm guessing, but comparing it to an edimax that users on here have succeeded with might give a little more certainty. Good luck, I personally would yolo buy one and see what happened, but I understand if Singapore prices aren't yoloable 😉

Nov 13, 2015 10:13 PM in response to DJ-LB

It works! I bought the wireless adapter. After plugging it in, the Wireless Network Utility launched automatically, and I had no problem connecting to my home WLAN. Thank you so much for your help and guidance. By the way, the wireless adapter is Prolink WN2001, and it costs about USD14. So it's not that expensive.

Nov 22, 2015 5:45 AM in response to seanconnery

Yes I have the awake problems as well. The edimax 7811Un is working (thx DJ-LB!) however I experienced these awake problems afterwards, however I just bought the machine so I am not sure if it is correlated to the wifi dongle or the machine itself or even el capitan. .


First i did not think of the wifi dongle so I searched the internet. I resetted the PRAM and SMC a few times. Did not work. I tried to change the hibernate mode to 0 in terminal but the system refused so it's on 3. I deleted all the bluetooth connections. Problem continued.

By coincidence I powered the macbook air 2008 without the dongle... and yes the problem was solved. I removed the wifi dongle and powered the machine and put a normal usb stick in. Without the eject option I closed the lid. I went to sleep... but after the computer went into the deep sleep mode (hibernate mode?) and the problem was back. Then I repeated the procedure with the usb stick but this time I clicked on eject the usb but left the stick in the port. Problem did not arise.


Back to the wifi dongle. I can not eject the wifi dongle in 'finder' as it is not there. It is not on the desktop screen as well. Anybody who sees the dongle in 'finder'? Can anybody eject this dongle in a save way? And how was that in yosemite?


I can switch the wifi dongle with the application of edimax in which there is an option 'radio on'. So decided to put radio 'off' before closing the lid / putting the macbook in sleep mode. It seemed to work for the time the computer was in sleep mode but not in hibernate mode.. problem arose after after 15 minutes.


Somebody an advice?

Nov 22, 2015 8:40 AM in response to mjmj3333

To add something to my previous post:


I tried this option again:

- wifi dongle in the usb port

- radio turned off in the wifi application

- closed the lid


Computer went into sleep mode and later probably in hibernate mode. So according to the flashing led everything was fine.

Then I opened the lid again, now I got a light gray screen with a message the the computer experienced a problem / crashed and it booted itself again.


Well hopefully somebody here can help me out.

Nov 23, 2015 7:30 AM in response to seanconnery

just catching up on this. can some of you with issues suspending run the following before sleep:


sudo kextunload /Path/To/Installed/Wireless.kext


using the kext that pertains to your dongle. I am assuming that sleep/wake will succeed after this command, in which case we can discuss workarounds to automatically unload the kext on sleep(and in an ideal world, reload it after wake).

a cheap and dirty way is to use automator to create an application that runs the shell command to unload or load the kext.

Nov 24, 2015 9:38 AM in response to The Real Torian

Following steps made my edimax ew-7711mac work in El capitan. See if you can make yours work,too. cheers!


Steps:

1. Boot into Mac by pressing CMD + R (Recovery Mode)

2. Go to Terminal under Utilities.

3. Type in csrutil disable. A comment will be displayed that your csrutil has been disabled.

4. Reboot

5. Install the driver as usual and it will require a reboot again.

6. Then go to network preference. Create interface and activate it if you don't already have it.(like WiFi interface).

You are done !

Nov 24, 2015 10:51 AM in response to jcc429

That is true, however the csrutil is a security feature that doesn't need to be disabled if you place the kext file in /Library/Extensions rather than /System/Library/Extensions... The csrutil is like secure boot I believe, in that it verifies the signature of the core system to ensure that its not been tampered with (which is exactly what we're doing by using the installer or pacifist to install to the 'default' location).

Due to the sleep/wake issue however, it looks like manually loading and unloading the extension (from the documents folder for instance) might be the least disruptive approach, but does require some basic work with automator to appify the commands

Nov 25, 2015 3:06 AM in response to DJ-LB

Thank you DJ-LB for your response! I appreciate that very much.


I tried your suggestion (with a space between kextunload and /Path) but I got this message back:


Can't open CFBundel for for /Path/To/Installed?Wireless.kext.

Can't create /Path/To/Installed/Wirelss.kext.


And computer stalled/crashed while I put the lid down.

Nov 25, 2015 3:31 AM in response to mjmj3333

sorry for the typo's the message was actually:


Can't open CFBundel for for /Path/To/Installed/Wireless.kext.

Can't create /Path/To/Installed/Wireless.kext.


And to be more precise: the computer does not turn off. It just does not awake. The only way to power it is to push the on/off button for some time, the computer goes off. Then I can restart it again.

Nov 29, 2015 2:27 PM in response to mjmj3333

I performed a hardware test (after finding out how to do that from a usbstick..) and got this fault:


4SNS/1/40000000: TB1T-128.000


Could this be connected tot the awakening problem?


in : discussions.apple.com/thread/7053192#28286259 it seems to be connected to:


You have a sensor problem.

Specifically

N: North bridge (motherboard controller)

http://www.macissues.com/2014/03/21/how-to-run-and-interpret-apples-hardware-tes ts-on-your-mac/

Is the Northbridge sensor woring or running hot?

Install a temp monitoring ap and find out. I use Macs Fan Control.

Also see:

Why is my Northbridge Chip running at dangerously high temperatures?

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1169024

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/jul14/071114.html


And here is somebody writing about kernel panic in yosemite:

Kernel panic in Yosemite 10.10.3

EDIMAX wifi extender stopped working with El Capitan

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