Plenty of Mac users have complained about wireless problems with their MacBook or MacBook Pro after they upgraded to Snow Leopard. Although OS 10.6.3 does in fact fix many problems with Airport, a lot of users still continue to have issues with wireless connectivity in Snow Leopard. I too was having wireless problems with my black MacBook after I upgraded to Snow Leopard. Here’s what I did to fix it.
First, I performed some standard wireless network troubleshooting. This included the following;
- Reset my wireless router
- Reset my cable modem
- Upgraded the firmware on my wireless router
- Disabled wireless security on my wireless router
- Changed the wireless channel on my wireless router
- Updated my MacBook to OS 10.6.3
- Zapped the PRAM on my MacBook
- Tested my MacBook on other wireless networks * See notes
- Tested other laptops on my wireless network * See notes
Sure enough, other laptops worked flawlessly on my wireless network whereas my MacBook performed poorly on other wireless networks. The problem was clearly with my MacBook. I then decided to try pinging the default gateway (my router’s IP address) in order to rule out issues with DNS. Packets were in fact being dropped so I didn’t run the dscacheutil -flushcache command because the issue was not related to DNS. I was stumped at this point…
* Notes
If you were able to determine that the problem is in fact your wireless router and not your MacBook I would highly recommend that you consider purchasing a WZR-HP-G300NH
The command that fixed it all
I had read articles online in which I had discovered that there were known issues with the Airport cards that were installed in Apple’s black MacBooks. Cringing at the thought of tearing open my MacBook I decided to run a command that I had used to fix a problem with an iMac’s Ethernet card a couple of years ago.
Delete the files under /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration
The solution to my problem was to delete the .plist files under the /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration directory. Here’s how to do it;
- Open terminal which is found in Applications/Utilities
- Type the following command; cd /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration
- Type following command to delete the .plist files; sudo rm *.*
- Reboot your Mac
This worked to correct all of the wireless problems that I was having with my MacBook. I hope that it works for you too.
Update: August 29th, 2010
Here are a few things that I had discovered after I had originally posted this article.
1. Per Apple’s Support Article HT1242 I had learned that network settings in OS X are not stored in PRAM so resetting my Macbook’s PRAM was not necessary as it would not have resolved the issue.
2. OS 10.5.8 introduced a problem in which some MacBooks and MacBook Pros would experience slow wireless performance when running on battery. Apple released a patch to correct this problem.
3. Resetting the Mac’s System Management Controller (SMC) has apparently helped some people fix their MacBook’s wireless connectivity issues. Here’s the link to Apple’s Support Article; Intel-based Macs: Resetting The System Management Controller (SMC)
4. If none of the solutions in this article work to repair your MacBook’s wireless issues then you will need to replace your MacBook’s Airport Extreme Wireless Card. Here’s a place to get your replacement Airport Extreme Card. Fortunately, the actual installation of the Airport Extreme Card isn’t too difficult. Here’s a great guide that will help you should you decide to perform the repair by yourself.
Update: September 24th, 2010
I actually had to replace a friend’s Airport Extreme Wireless card this past week and can now honestly say from experience that it really isn’t all that difficult to do on your own.
Update: August 16th, 2011
After installing OS X Lion on my early 2008 black MacBook I began to experience wireless problems where my connection to wireless networks would drop intermittently. Apple released OS 10.7.1 today which seems to have resolved the wireless issues that I had been experiencing since upgrading to OS X Lion.
If you get wifi but can’t get Internet without repeated disconnects and slow loads, you need to edit your Locations in Network Preferences. If it doesn’t make sense that your modem and router work, yet your functioning Airport card can’t deliver content, according to the Genius Bar expert at Upper West Side, it’s like getting an envelope in the mail, “but nothing’s in it.”
In Edit Locations, from the drop-down he clicked the “+” to create a new Location which he named “Automatic” (any name will do). My old locations somehow got corrupted. The new location setup new a new default WiFi (and Ethernet and FireWire) and connected to the Internet immediately. So far, I haven’t had to re-enter any passwords. No PRAM zaps, reboots, and modem resets (didn’t work anyway).
hey man, do you have a handy link to install lion on the black macbook? I’ve read that it is 64bit only, is your black mac core duo/solo? what Lion release did you installed?
Thanks in advance
I have a MacBook pro (about two years old) I recently needed to replace my router and now I am unable to access the Internet at all. I know the problem isn’t the router because my iPhone and my husband’s Xbox live work. Will your tip cause any problems?
I deleted the plist files and I can now connect to wireless networks again! THANK YOU!
Thanks so much for these notes. My MacBook started to hang when attempting to access Network Preferences. Deleting those files was the solution. It was easy enough to re-create the network settings.
Were you at a minimum able to try out your Mac on another wireless network? Try that first and let me know how well it performs. It will help to rule out whether or not the problem is with your Mac or your wireless router.
Hello
I want to say that i couldn’t Do any thing by these Post maybe i cant do them correctly or do wrong but I’m in a trouble with my Mackbook please Please Help me
You’re very welcome! Thank’s for stopping by and checking out CompuNoodle!
I just wanted to say thanks for this fix. This actually solved my problem.
Here is a follow-up from my previous post. Our system administrators think that the problem may be fixed if they did a firmware update to the Cisco wireless routers, but this is not a priority for them since most computers in my school are Windows-based PC’s, and it may be a lot of work and still not make a difference. Anyway, I followed the advice I saw on a different blog, and purchased an Airlink101 Wireless 11N Mini USB Adapter ($14) to try in place of my Airport card when I am at school. I put it in a USB port, use the software program that runs it, and click the “Renew DHCP Lease” button on the advanced tab of my network settings, and I can connect to the network without any problem. Therefore, the problem must be either with faulty Airport cards, or buggy software that affects the Airport card’s ability to make a connection to certain networks in specific situations. It seems like this is a very widespread problem once you start researching about it.
Bob, I once saw an issue out in the field where MacBooks would absolutely NOT connect to a network that had Linksys WRT54G2 routers that were configured to use an “upstream” DHCP server. The DHCP server in question was hosted on a different router model. It worked fine from a Dell laptop, but not from the Macs. The only solution was to replace the original router / DHCP server with a matching WRT54G2 router. Then the Macs were happy… Speaking of DHCP, you might want to check your DHCP server at the school and ensure that the scope still has available DHCP leases. A fully allocated DHCP scope would prevent your laptop from connecting to a wireless network.
I’ve tried all of the steps listed above, and I still am unable to connect to my school’s wireless network. I can connect without any problem to my home wireless network, and had no problems connecting at school until last Friday. I have a black MacBook 2.4 w/ 4 Gb of memory. The prior week I was trying to assist another teacher who had problems connecting with her MacBook Pro, but nothing seemed to get her computer connected on the wireless network. I thought it might be that her wireless card had gone bad, it was a problem with OS 10.5, or that it was something specific to MacBook Pros. A week and a half later I had the same problem. I also could not connect when I booted into Windows 7, but I have not seen the problem affecting machines other than Macs.
Good deal! Keep an eye on it, this problem appears to be more and more elusive based upon the reports that I’ve been seeing.
Thanks for this. the smc worked for me…
after I deleted the .plist files..which I couldn’t do from terminal by the way because it wouldn’t accept the password I set so I deleted them from my finder window, I rebooted and when I tried to connect to my wireless network I got an “!” whereas before, I was showing a signal in my wireless status icon. I’ve been dealing with this problem for just about 10 months and haven’t been able to figure it out. please help.