First time Mac buyer - so disappointed - wifi issues

[ZoomOut]

Hello all.

I have been drooling over a Macbook Pro for some years and shortly after Christmas I bought a base Mbp 15" the one with only Iris Pro. Here in Denmark Mac is very expensive ... the base model costs $2800, it was on sale and got it a bit cheaper .. so went with it instead of the 13".

I was strugling a bit with the 15" size ... thinking I should have gone with the 13" - but loved the more power though ....

I love OSX .. even though I need(ed) to learn many shortscuts to get a nice experience.

But there were annoyances ... plugin it into my Dell 24" IPS monitor using the mini display to DVI adaptor - was giving me a worse result than my old PC desktop - the colors were a bit off and inparticular the text was fuzzy compared to the pc.

Then I experienced that the WIFI stopped ... there would be full bars .. but no data came through .... this would happen maybe once a day ... untill I was on the last day of my 14 days return period ... it happened 3 times within 1 hour.
Then googled it and read many having that problem .... with litteratly 1 hour left till the store closed I returned it ... I could not give that kind of money for a product that can´t give me a stable wifi-connection ...

I am so very disappointed with Apple - bad wifi on a laptop - in my book by far the worse problem a laptop can have ... Apple don´t feel so premium anymore ... and that really makes me feel sad, because I love OSX.

Thinking about a Mac Mini - but the screen issue (and HDMI issue with the 2012 model) is kinda getting me off the idea ...

An unhappy mac wannabe. 😕

 

[Quattro7]

It's a shame you couldn't enjoy your Mac. But why didn't you exchange it for another one, because I'm pretty sure not all MacBooks got WiFi problems.

Also I haven't got any problems with a external monitor, but I use a HDMI to DVI cable.

 

[53kyle]

I think you should give it another try, because most MBPs work perfectly fine. As for the screen, it just needs to be calibrated. There should be settings on the monitor itself. Also make sure you had the resolution turned up as high as possible because not doing that on a normal monitor will make things fuzzy. Finally, try plugging it into the HDMI port instead of using a DVI adaptor, if possible.

 

[old-wiz]

I have 2 cMBPs, 1 rMBP, and 1 MBA. none have any problems with wi-fi. I did have problems with my router a year or so ago and had to reboot the router, but eventually it cleared up. Never a problem traveling and connecting to wi-fi in hotels, libraries, etc.

Screen colors on external monitors depend a lot on the connection type and resolution. Give it a try as kyle suggests.

 

[simonsi]

Try again, millions of happy, problem-free Mac users out there, the internet tends to polarize issues as most happy users don't post that everything is fine...

Yes you may need to adjust the monitor settings to optimize it for the MBP - but that is true when changing PC's too...

 

[jonesea]

Don't forget that your access point is half of the equation here. Not all access points are created equal.

 

[ZoomOut]

Regarding monitor I tried everything - it even has a Mac mode, which didn´t help on the fuzzy text.

Another small disappointment (know it´s not a gaming laptop) is that the only game I play Left4Dead2 - is that it can´t play it without lag on my monitors res.
I thought it could since it´s an old game and my old pc with the old 275GTX runs it with ease .. not a major issue just added to the experience ...

 

[Sym0]

No wi-fi problems here, in fact no problems at all. Perfect.

 

[maflynn]

Its too bad you opted to return it and not exchange the model, not every MBP has wifi issues. I have a rMBP that has no wifi issues, albeit a 2012 model, but the point remains. Don't condemn the entire rMBP because your machine was faulty and you saw some reports of others having issues.

 

[AirThis]

Then I experienced that the WIFI stopped ... there would be full bars .. but no data came through .... this would happen maybe once a day ... untill I was on the last day of my 14 days return period ... it happened 3 times within 1 hour.
Then googled it and read many having that problem .... with litteratly 1 hour left till the store closed I returned it ... I could not give that kind of money for a product that can´t give me a stable wifi-connection ...

I am so very disappointed with Apple - bad wifi on a laptop - in my book by far the worse problem a laptop can have ... Apple don´t feel so premium anymore ... and that really makes me feel sad, because I love OSX.

These types of problems are quite common, regardless of the type of equipment you own. The first thing you should try to do is turn off Bluetooth on your Mac. On your router try toggling 5Ghz on/off to see if it makes a difference.

Be sure to check your signal/noise ratio for your mac on your router. If it's less than 25 dB, then it may be worth it to try increasing the signal strength on your access point or relocating it.

On your Mac, if you hold the option key and select Wifi menu, you can run Apple's wifi diagnostics. This will give you some very useful information, such as the number of 2.4 Ghz networks in the vicinity, signal strength, etc. You can also monitor your wifi over a period of time, which often allows problems to be caught.

In the example below, which was produced by running diagnostics, we can see that I am the only one running a 5Ghz network, whereas 9 others all have 2.4 Ghz networks.

# --- Wireless Environment
	2.4 GHz Networks	: 9
	5 GHz Networks		: 1
	Current Channel Networks	: 1
	Recommended 2.4GHz Channels	: [ 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 13 ] 12 6 11 
	Recommended 5GHz Channels	: [ 40 44 48 104 ] [ 36 100 ]

 

[Chatran]

Wifi problems exist on both MBA 2013 and rMBP Late 2013 as I know. Some people claims that the reason might be due to the powersaving feature of the broadcom chips in Apple discussion forum.

If you own the ones not in this model range, you probably would say fine in this thread.

 

[Playgear]

Some people claims that the reason might be due to the powersaving feature of the broadcom chips in Apple discussion forum.

That means that it could be patched in a software/driver update right?

*fingers crossed for 10.9.2*

Here's a log I just generated a few moments ago. Both of those 5GHz and two of the 2.4GHz networks are mine, so it's not interference from neighbours or anything.

# --- Check Connectivity
01/13/14 23:32:19.0940 No LAN Connectivity
01/13/14 23:32:19.0950 LAN: WiFi interface can ping IPv4 router 10.0.1.1 . . . fail

# --- Wi-Fi Interface
Interface Name : en0
MAC Address : xxx
Network Name : xxx
Active PHY Mode : 802.11n
Security : WPA2 Personal
SSID : xxx
BSSID : xxx
Country : AU
RSSI : -66 dBm
Noise : -92 dBm
Rate : 104 Mbps
Channel : 1
Channel Width : 20MHz

# --- Bluetooth
Power State : On
Paired Devices : 1

# --- Wireless Environment
2.4 GHz Networks : 3
5 GHz Networks : 2
Current Channel Networks : 2
Recommended 2.4GHz Channels : [ 6 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 12 13 ] 1
Recommended 5GHz Channels : [ 36 40 44 48 144 153 157 161 165 ] 149

# --- Network Configuration
Primary IPv4 Interface : en0
IPv4 Address : 10.0.1.32
IPv4 Router : 10.0.1.1
Primary IPv6 Interface : None
IPv6 Address : None
IPv6 Router : None
DNS Servers : 10.0.1.1

# --- Debug Log Entries
01/13/14 23:32:21.9120 Large preferred networks list count <15>
01/13/14 23:32:34.7110 SMTP port check time out
01/13/14 23:32:34.7130 Current Wi-Fi network is an AirPort network

# --- Environment Test Cases

# --- Environment Summary

# --- Configuration Test Cases

# --- Configuration Summary

# --- Additional Information
01/13/14 23:32:43.8950

# --- Router Information
01/13/14 23:32:43.8960 Apple / AirPort Extreme 802.11n w/ Simultaneous Dual-Band (4th Generation)

# --- Create Diagnostics Report
Failed to collect system profiler report
Failed to collect netstat output

--------------------------------------------

I have 2 cMBPs, 1 rMBP, and 1 MBA. none have any problems with wi-fi.

Was that rMBP a Late 2013 Haswell model though? They're the ones people (myself included) are having issues with.

 

[fskywalker]

Wifi problems exist on both MBA 2013 and rMBP Late 2013 as I know. Some people claims that the reason might be due to the powersaving feature of the broadcom chips in Apple discussion forum.

If you own the ones not in this model range, you probably would say fine in this thread.

Mine is a late 13" rMBP and I don't have any issues at all with Wifi

 

[simon48]

Hello all.

I have been drooling over a Macbook Pro for some years and shortly after Christmas I bought a base Mbp 15" the one with only Iris Pro. Here in Denmark Mac is very expensive ... the base model costs $2800, it was on sale and got it a bit cheaper .. so went with it instead of the 13".

I was strugling a bit with the 15" size ... thinking I should have gone with the 13" - but loved the more power though ....

I love OSX .. even though I need(ed) to learn many shortscuts to get a nice experience.

But there were annoyances ... plugin it into my Dell 24" IPS monitor using the mini display to DVI adaptor - was giving me a worse result than my old PC desktop - the colors were a bit off and inparticular the text was fuzzy compared to the pc.

Then I experienced that the WIFI stopped ... there would be full bars .. but no data came through .... this would happen maybe once a day ... untill I was on the last day of my 14 days return period ... it happened 3 times within 1 hour.
Then googled it and read many having that problem .... with litteratly 1 hour left till the store closed I returned it ... I could not give that kind of money for a product that can´t give me a stable wifi-connection ...

I am so very disappointed with Apple - bad wifi on a laptop - in my book by far the worse problem a laptop can have ... Apple don´t feel so premium anymore ... and that really makes me feel sad, because I love OSX.

Thinking about a Mac Mini - but the screen issue (and HDMI issue with the 2012 model) is kinda getting me off the idea ...

An unhappy mac wannabe. 😕

It's too bad you didn't post your problems here before you returned it, all of them sound very fixable.

 

[Playgear]

Mine is a late 13" rMBP and I don't have any issues at all with Wifi

Late 2013 15" w/ 750M here and it's shocking...

 

[FinnPhone]

Late 2013 15" w/ 750M here and it's shocking...

I have same model as you and daily problems. Mostly (luckily) turning WiFi on/off temporarily solves the problem.

 

[Playgear]

I have same model as you and daily problems. Mostly (luckily) turning WiFi on/off temporarily solves the problem.

Same here usually. Although roughly every 3 days it gets to a point where it can only be solved by a reboot.

Interestingly I have had no issues today at all (..yet).

Edit: It's now the day after and I've had 4 drops in 2 hours...

 

[knightlie]

Don't forget that your access point is half of the equation here. Not all access points are created equal.

This - none of my Macs work with my cheap router; they never have. You probably need a better/more modern router, I certainly do. 🙄

 

[Playgear]

This - none of my Macs work with my cheap router; they never have. You probably need a better/more modern router, I certainly do. 🙄

Well, I'm using an AirPort Extreme base station (also indicated in my log file above) and still having a bad time.

 

[simonsi]

Well, I'm using an AirPort Extreme base station (also indicated in my log file above) and still having a bad time.

Interference from other WiFi networks? I have that at work where it is quite a polluted WiFi environment...try changing channel on the hotspot (I assume you can...)

 

[Playgear]

Interference from other WiFi networks? I have that at work where it is quite a polluted WiFi environment...try changing channel on the hotspot (I assume you can...)

I'm running two networks from the AirPort base station - my internal one and a guest one. And only one of my neighbours has a (visible) wifi network. So it's not exactly polluted here.

 

[simonsi]

I'm running two networks from the AirPort base station - my internal one and a guest one. And only one of my neighbours has a (visible) wifi network. So it's not exactly polluted here.

Does your MBP know your guest network (i.e. it can join it automatically)? If so get it to forget it just in case it is jumping between the two.

 

[Playgear]

Does your MBP know your guest network (i.e. it can join it automatically)? If so get it to forget it just in case it is jumping between the two.

No, it has never been told the password to the guest network. None of my internal devices have, for obvious reasons...