13" mid-2010 MacBook Pro lost wifi (but not bluetooth) after SSD Ram and MacOS upgrade

[ruede]

Hi Everyone,

I lost wifi after upgrading my wife's mid-2010 A1278 MacBook Pro that had a MC374LL/A configuration (to High Sierra, cleaned and applied new thermal paste to the chip and heatsink, swapped the HDD for 1TB Samsung EVO SSD and upgraded to 16GB RAM). Everything works great except there is no wifi. Its missing in the network preferences and the system report wifi tab shows no data loaded (indicating its not reading the AirPort card?)

Other than disconnecting the wifi cable from the motherboard in order to remove the latter to apply new thermal paste to the chip/heatsink, I don't think I touched any other wifi related components (eg. speaker assembly that this wifi cable runs alongside or the adjacent hinge assembly that contains the AirPort card and antenna).

At least two different wifi cables/AirPort cards were used in MacBook's when this unit was made . The one I have is like the one shown at

What I have tried so far:
- checked/confirmed that the wifi cable is seated correctly on the main board.
- deleted network preferences to get it to recreate these, but only get those for Ethernet, Bluetooth and Firewire which all work (including accessing the internet via a bluetooth connecrion with my phone).

From what I've googled, the AirPort card is the hardware for both wifi and bluetooth. Given bluetooth works it would seem that the Airport card and cable connection to the mainboard are ok.

Any ideas about what else to test/do/try here would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Ruede

 

[MultiFinder17]

I know you said you've checked the cable on the logic board to make sure that it's seated correctly, but pop it off and check two things on it for me:

1. Check all the pins at both ends. I had a technician at the shop I used to work at pop the cable off at a slight angle and pull up/off one of the pins. Cable still sat down just fine, but the laptop wouldn't detect the wifi card any more.
2. Make sure that there's no kinks/bends in the cable itself.

My suspicion is on a bent/lifted pin on either the logic board or cable connector though given my experiences. Be sure to check both ends. Also blow them out with some compressed air and/or clean them out with a little alcohol swab to be sure that there isn't any dust or debris in there that could be interfering with the connection.

 

[chabig]

I would agree that it's almost certainly the antenna cable.

 

[ruede]

I know you said you've checked the cable on the logic board to make sure that it's seated correctly, but pop it off and check two things on it for me:

1. Check all the pins at both ends. I had a technician at the shop I used to work at pop the cable off at a slight angle and pull up/off one of the pins. Cable still sat down just fine, but the laptop wouldn't detect the wifi card any more.
2. Make sure that there's no kinks/bends in the cable itself.

My suspicion is on a bent/lifted pin on either the logic board or cable connector though given my experiences. Be sure to check both ends. Also blow them out with some compressed air and/or clean them out with a little alcohol swab to be sure that there isn't any dust or debris in there that could be interfering with the connection.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions/detailed rationale Multifinder17.

The cable pins (likewise those on the socket where it plugs into the mainboard) shown in the attached pics seem straight and free of debris - but please tell me if you think otherwise - or if my pics don't show enough to really tell.

I also gave them a nice alcohol bath/swab and a clean out with compressed air - but no dice unfortunately - still no wifi

The cable also seems free of damage or additional kinks.

Any other suggestions would be welcomed. Other than replacing the cable/AirPort card assembly, I can't think of anything else to try...

 

[ruede]

I would agree that it's almost certainly the antenna cable.

The fact that I can get a bluetooth internet connection suggests the Airport card /connection are ok and yes this points to an antenna problem. Except I didn't go anywhere near the antenna assembly (which is securely concealed inside the hinge housing) when I did the upgrade, and the system report shows no wifi activity indicating that the OS is not accessing the wifi component of the Airport card. Wierd huh!?!

 

[ruede]

I also just disconnected / reconnected the cable while it was running. The Bluetooth functionality turned off then on again - but no sign of any wifi, including in the system report.

 

[chabig]

Weird, yes! Assuming you're going to stick with that machine, it does seem like replacing the airport card is your next logical step. Here are some instructions:

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2010 AirPort Card Replacement

Replace a broken AirPort card to regain Wi-Fi connectivity.

www.ifixit.com

 

[LoadedPockets]

I'm having this exact issue. I did buy a replacement airport card but still getting No Hardware Found.

I had an issue with the hdd cable on another Macbook (2011 13") where it turned out to be exposing some wires from being pinched in the computer, that was fixed by running electrical tape along the length of the cable. I'm trying to do the same to this cable however I can't find directions on how to remove the rest of the airport cable that forks off away from the card and up to the camera I think. Might have to remove the screen entirely to access it just to wrap it in tape/replace it completely.

I'll be following this thread and will let you know if the tape worked.

 

[LoadedPockets]

Taped as much as I could to no avail. Will order a new cable at this point.

 

[ruede]

I'm having this exact issue. I did buy a replacement airport card but still getting No Hardware Found.

I had an issue with the hdd cable on another Macbook (2011 13") where it turned out to be exposing some wires from being pinched in the computer, that was fixed by running electrical tape along the length of the cable. I'm trying to do the same to this cable however I can't find directions on how to remove the rest of the airport cable that forks off away from the card and up to the camera I think. Might have to remove the screen entirely to access it just to wrap it in tape/replace it completely.

I'll be following this thread and will let you know if the tape worked.

Sorry to hear you are in the same infernal boat. Too bad about your new card not working - that would have been a reasonably easy fix! Replacing the cable seems the next logical step to try.

btw - did you lose both wifi and bluetooth or just wifi like me??

In my case the cable looks ok but I have a bad feeling that I may have damaged the wifi related pins in the socket where it plugs into the mainboard (as suggested above by MultiFinder17 and another poster on another site I googled). It's hard to see in there and while the pins look ok, they only need to be slightly out to fail to make good contact. Very frustrating...!

 

[ruede]

Does anyone out there know of a usb wifi stick that works with the hardware on older intel macbook pros?