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Why does my wireless keep dropping?

Krafty

Krafty

macrumors 601
Original poster
Dec 31, 2007
4,467
344
La La Land
Often times, the signal gets weak.... and then dies. I know its not my router cause my iPod touch is able to connect to it fine. And then it took me 20-30mins to reconnect. At some points, it see the router, but then says "connection timeout" or it just doesn't connect and then my router disappears.
 
what are you using? im on a macbook and i sometimes wont connect. then the try again screen comes up and i click try again and it goes straigt to the site. its been doing this for a while...

sorry i dont have an answer to your question...
 
Its a 'feature'. I've been suffering from this for MONTHS. I'm currently on my second support ticket with applecare... It all started when I upgraded to Leopard...
 
this has been an issue ever since 10.4.8 or 9 I cant remember

its the most anoything thing EVER, WTF WONT YOU FIX THIS ISSUE APPLE
 
This was happening on my Mac pro after i upgraded to 10.5.4. What router are you using. I did a firmware update to my Airport Extreme and it seems to have fixed the issue. Before this it would drop like 1-2 times a day, reconnecting and disconnecting for a little while then being fine after like an hour. BTW this was only happening on my Mac Pro, not my vista laptop or iPhone. So it makes me think it was an wireless "N" issue. Can't remember if the Macbook CD has it though.

After the firmware update I have had no problems. Hopefully that was the fix.
 
Netgear WPN824 Wireless A/B/G. It started doing it a few weeks ago. Anytime before that I never had any problem. Its not the router, cause even when the signal on my MB dies, my iPod touch & Xbox 360 can connect to it fine.
 
same thing has been happening to me...and it is so annoying... I know its my macbook and not the internet because there are three other computers in my house that are connecting to the internet perfectly fine.

I usually just wait it out, try and restart, turn the airport on and off...but the only thing that has actually worked is just letting it straighten itself out and stop doing whatever its doing.
 
I have been having the same problem with my black macbook. I bought it less than two weeks ago and its having this very annoying problem. Is not the router since it does the same thing at my friend's house and at school.
 
I had the same problem a few weeks ago. I found that it happened less when the computer wasn't on the same desk as the wireless router, and that if I tilted my macbook one way or the other it would connect again. Took it to the genius bar and they replaced the airport card for me without any hassle. Haven't had any problems with it since.
 
jogales said:
I had the same problem a few weeks ago. I found that it happened less when the computer wasn't on the same desk as the wireless router, and that if I tilted my macbook one way or the other it would connect again. Took it to the genius bar and they replaced the airport card for me without any hassle. Haven't had any problems with it since.
Click to expand...

Was it under warranty?
 
I have the same problem here. 2.2 ghz Macbook, Santa Rosa chipset, purchased last December. Leopard pre-installed, of course.

Ever since I have had it, I have had problems with wireless connectivity. Weak signal reception in all sorts of venues...home, work, meeting sites...Even when somebody is sitting next to me on a 5 year old DELL, their reception is still going strong while I, on my Macbook, sit frustrated, having to constantly hit the Refresh button.

This connectivity problem has been reported ever since Leopard came out and Apple still does not have a fix.
 
I have an appointment on saturday morning with the so called geniuses. Hopefully they will change something or replace it because this machine is not even two weeks old and Im not willing to live with this annoying problem.
 
This was one of the reasons I replaced my Macbook as my primary laptop for travel and meetings with a Toshiba U405. I still have my Macbook, of course, but it serves as more of a backup.

I just couldn't handle the flakiness of the wireless.
 
I had my appointment today with the geniuses at the apple store. I explained my issues and surprisingly he didnt even bother to check the unit. He went to talk with his manager and when he came back he had a new unit in his hands. I was more than happy to have the unit replaced. Im happy to report that this unit has no connection problems at all. I've been running the unit connected wirelessly to the internet and havent have a single dropout so far. :)

Ps. WOW The macbook gets HOT when watching youtube videos (arount 60-65 C) I thought it was a problem with the other unit but this one runs hot as well when watching youtube videos.
 
rd261 said:
I had my appointment today with the geniuses at the apple store. I explained my issues and surprisingly he didnt even bother to check the unit. He went to talk with his manager and when he came back he had a new unit in his hands. I was more than happy to have the unit replaced. Im happy to report that this unit has no connection problems at all. I've been running the unit connected wirelessly to the internet and havent have a single dropout so far. :)

Ps. WOW The macbook gets HOT when watching youtube videos (arount 60-65 C) I thought it was a problem with the other unit but this one runs hot as well when watching youtube videos.
Click to expand...

Glad it worked out for you, rd. I'm still within my warranty period, so I may bring mine in, too, though mine doesn't have the heat issues others have reported so I hesitate to do so. Have to think about it...
 
Built said:
Glad it worked out for you, rd. I'm still within my warranty period, so I may bring mine in, too, though mine doesn't have the heat issues others have reported so I hesitate to do so. Have to think about it...
Click to expand...

Does yours get hot when watching youtube videos? Mine works at about 50 C with safari, mail, iphoto, and itunes open, but once I play a youtube video the temperature goes up significantly.
 
rd261 said:
Does yours get hot when watching youtube videos? Mine works at about 50 C with safari, mail, iphoto, and itunes open, but once I play a youtube video the temperature goes up significantly.
Click to expand...

Nope. Not hot at all. I have had it since December, and used it on business trips about 10 days per month, and I can only recall the fan having to come on a very few times. This somewhat surprised me given some of the reports I have heard. I watch Youtube all the time and visit some other very processor intensive sites.

My Toshiba laptops run far hotter.
 
Yeah, whenever I watch any flash videos my laptop heats up and the fan blares forever. Did they give you an updated one cause im stuck on a 2GHz CD.

And this is seriously getting annoying. I have to be right next to my router to reconnect, but as soon as I step out the room the signal dies. And then I have to sit and wait and wait and wait for it to eventually "work" again. My iPod touch can still connect to it from the same location.
 
Krafty said:
Yeah, whenever I watch any flash videos my laptop heats up and the fan blares forever. Did they give you an updated one cause im stuck on a 2GHz CD.

And this is seriously getting annoying. I have to be right next to my router to reconnect, but as soon as I step out the room the signal dies. And then I have to sit and wait and wait and wait for it to eventually "work" again. My iPod touch can still connect to it from the same location.
Click to expand...

Well I had the computer for less than 14 days and thats probably the only reason for which they gave me a new one (it was the same model). However, if your is still under warranty I would recommend you take it to the genius bar; they will at least try to solve the problem. I think that only a new airport card is needed.

As for the youtube problem, I have heard that most macbook warm up a bit while watching flash videos.
 
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