Is the Airport dead in Late 2008 Aluminum MacBook?

[dmk1974]

My boss brought in his Late 2008 aluminum MacBook for me to look at. He said that all of the sudden, the wireless wasn't working and it appears that it's not his home network, but rather his module or something in the laptop.

He wiped and reinstalled Snow Leopard and now it doesn't even detect or show up in the system properties or up near the clock in the upper right.

Is the card fried or something somehow? He is not within warranty anymore, but there is an Apple Store about 5 miles away. Hopefully there is an easy fix that isn't terribly expensive.

Thanks for any ideas or experiences in advance!

 

[grawk]

check out the ifixit.com walk through for replacing the airport card. It's reasonably easy, if you're comfortable dealing with opening a laptop. If not, I'm sure a repair shop can do it for you. The parts can be had cheaply on ebay, or less cheaply from ifixit.com

 

[dmk1974]

check out the ifixit.com walk through for replacing the airport card. It's reasonably easy, if you're comfortable dealing with opening a laptop. If not, I'm sure a repair shop can do it for you. The parts can be had cheaply on ebay, or less cheaply from ifixit.com

Thanks for the link. I don't see an Airport installation guide for his model though. Do you know which other model would be closest as a guide? I just want to also make sure if he orders a part on ebay that its the right one for the A1278 model. Thanks!

http://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Unibody_Model_A1278