Does Leopard fix MacBook wireless problems/kernel panic?

[RDiggidy]

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying Leopard primarily in hopes of getting wireless working better on my MacBook Pro CD2. I experience dropped/weak connections often while my other laptop running Windows doesn't have problems. I had kernel panics for a little bit (like others running 10.4.10).

But, I've been reading here and some people are having different wireless problems on Leopard.

Anybody find their previously unreliable wireless is working better with Leopard? Is Leopard just another set of problems?

 

[flopticalcube]

I used to have dropouts on my MacBook in Tiger (10.4.10). The MacBook could be 1 foot away from the AEBS and it would still drop. Since Leopard it has been solid as a rock, no drops of any kind. Even my AirDisk has been behaving. Its a small miracle.

 

[polycat33]

I thought kernel panics were caused by hardware malfunctions? Does 10.4.10 really cause kernel panics that aren't hardware related?

 

[RDiggidy]

I thought kernel panics were caused by hardware malfunctions? Does 10.4.10 really cause kernel panics that aren't hardware related?

The 10.4.10 kernel panics weren't present before 10.4.10 on the same hardware. Apparently, the kernel panics are/were a result of a driver update for Airport.

 

[rosh325]

For me, Tiger post 10.4.9 was pure trouble in terms of my wifi. Leopard seems to have helped since I now get full bars where ever I am in my apartment compared to before when I would be lucky to get 2. My connection does not drop out like it used to and I have had no KPs. My wifi was a little funky after an archive and install, so I did an erase and install which did the trick

 

[kenjun]

Does Leopard fix MacBook wireless problems?

Partially.

The issue I've noticed in the past was that my MacBook would disconnect from our office Netgear wireless router IF it was under battery power. When under AC power it never had any problems.

See http://kenjun.wordpress.com/2007/07/12/macbook-drops-wireless-when-on-battery-and-connecting-to-certain-routers/
Now, using Leopard, I notice that it disconnects periodically and then reconnects which is better than before but, not great.

However, not sure if this is an Apple problem or a Netgear problem.

===
Kenjun Blog
http://kenjun.wordpress.com/

 

[RDiggidy]

Well, I went ahead and bought Leopard primarily in hopes of getting my wireless connection to not disconnect so often. I've been running Leopard on my MBP C2D for a week now and wireless is still bad. It's a different pattern of problems though. Most notably, my wireless connection gets worse after I have closed and opened my lid a couple of times throughout the day.

For the most part, restarting the machine brings the connection back to a usable state, but my connection is still very spotty. Sometimes, the bars on my wireless icon fluctuate from 3 bars to 0 every few seconds. I'm not sure how accurate the bars are though as I can view pages sometimes when there are no bars.

Certain locations in my home are better in maintaining a connection. My wife was actually able to maintain a Skype conversation for 20 minutes in one room; this is something we weren't able to do in the past few weeks and is also the main reason I decided I needed to try Leopard. However, the main area I use my laptops in results in almost unusable wireless connections with my MBP though my Windows laptop works fine and a cable and my MBP also work fine. I'm wearing out my F5 key waiting on my wireless connection to resume.

A lot of people are having issues. The biggest post I've seen:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1195706&tstart=0