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macbook: NO AIRPORT CARD INSTALLED

Entire Lab of Laptops with Problem

[Just as a note: I have seen my same issue all over message boards and tried every suggestion I came across in addition to thoughts of my own. I am out of ideas and appreciate any and all input. Please read the steps that I have tried before suggesting one of the same steps again. Thanks so much.]

I installed an image from a 1.33 GHz G4 iBook with an airport card installed and working for 2 years (OS X version 10.5.6) to an entire cart of laptops (qty. 20 iBook G4 1.2GHz) and the cart laptops connected to the airport network perfectly fine for a few weeks. 2 weeks ago, all of a sudden the airport picture shows the black baseball home-base looking icon, rather than the full bars and when I click on the icon, it says in gray shaded text "No AirPort card installed". In "System Preferences"..."Network Settings" I see the option to turn the airport card on, but it doesn't turn the card on when I actually click on it. I want to avoid a re-install of the operating system, because there are tons of software packages and configurations that need to be taken care of in order to make this a proper image. I tried:
1. Pulling out the airport card, powering on the machine, shutting down, putting back in the airport card.
2. Resetting the PMU (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431)
3. Performed Hardware test. Result: No errors.
4. Moving AppleAirPort.kext out of the /system/library/extensions/ folder
5. Deleting AppleAirPort.kext
6. Reset SMC by shutting down, disconnecting battery and power cord and holding power button for 5 seconds while they are disconnected.
7. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
7a. Resetting the PRAM (no change)
7b. and NVRAM then held down "Shift" to start (Now I have the Kernel Panic screen showing up)

I can't seem to figure this out. The cards were working and then "poof" they just all stopped working. The cards stopped working 1 at a time too.
 
I have a unibody macbook pro 15" that I got in December of 08. I saw this message after the machine froze when I disconnected an external monitor (via a miniDisplayPort adapter). I rebooted, no joy. I did a shutdown, power up and suddenly the AirPort was back.

Yesterday I was connecting a monitor and my system totally froze. No key commands, no force-quit, totally locked up. Held down the power key till it shut off. Powered up, and again "no airport card installed." Did the previous procedure, still nothing. System profiler doesn't see a card, Network control panel doesn't recognize a card, booted up into Diagnostic mode also doesn't recognize a card.

Tried every "delete/move this file" trick I could find, zapping PRAM does nothing. Still not certain if its hardware or software. Sadly the disks that came with it are in storage so I couldn't boot off of DVD to see if it had it's own AirPort drivers to test software (stock original Leopard install DVD is too old to boot off of). Tried reinstalling the 10.5.6 combo update, nothing. If I had the patience/tools to take it apart I would. But I don't.

Genius Bar, here I come. Will report back.
 
I had a similar problem with my mac pro desktop, But instead of the airport card no showing up after rebooting, it was one of my two graphic cards. It turned out to be software related. Try reinstalling the OS.
 
Well, no definitive answer. They booted my MacBook up off of an external drive, and magically my AirPort card was there. Rebooted off of my internal drive and all was right with the world. So something about booting off of that other drive woke the card back to reality.

I am still considering doing a clean install, but they guy said installing the combo update does essentially the same as a archive install. I think I will make my own external bootable drive just in case. Maybe on a thumb drive.
 
Same problem

I'm having a series of problems with my Macbook Pro (I bought it on last november) and this will be the 3rd time I'll send to repair at the genius bar. The last time they had to replace the screen as it was faulty and when I got home I didn't have a Airport card..... Starting to get pissed with Mac!
 
No Airport Card installed

Hi - I am having the same problem. I just ran an automatic software update (OS X 10.5.8) and now when I turn on my Macbook Air the airport signal is empty and it shows "No Airport Card installed".

I have tried the things above but nothing seems to work ... any suggestions pls? Can I reinstall the older version of OS without losing all my stuff on the mac?
 
SIMPLE SOLUTION! Battery Related?

Same prob here... "No Airport card intstalled", repeatedly when starting up (or restarting) using BATTERY POWER.
The problem went away when I shut down and restarted using the POWER ADAPTOR.

Can it really be this simple? Worked for me, and I hope it works for you all!!
 
This seems to be a big problem with a number of Mb/MBPs.

I had a Late 2008 MBP and had it serviced 3 times. I was experiencing the same thing as everyone here. My airport card would work half the time, and have the time it would say "No Airport Card Installed".

Apple said it was the Logic board, but after they replaced it twice, along with the Airport card, it was obvious I had complete hardware failure.

Apple eventually replaced my machine with a new one. My advice, keep having Apple repair it until they fix your proble
or give you a replacement.
 
one time apple repaired my laptop and took my airport card out forgot to put it back in and gave me my laptop. me being a student of law and my 3rd time dealing with the store. i quickly had my old 17" unibody replaced with the updated model :D for making me drive back to the store to get them to put it back in then to find out the bloody idiots lost the stupid card.
 
NO Airport Card Installed

After trying everything else I took my Macbook Air back to the istore in Mumbai ... I was very nervous that they may damage it because ... well, because this is India !

But, I take my hat off to them. They fixed it and it's been working properly since.

The guy said that the problem was caused by the latest OS X update which damaged the wifi card ... not sure if that is possible but he fixed it and it cost me around USD 40 ... so I'm happy :D

Good luck to the rest of you guys.
 
This just started happening on my late 2007 MacBook. I'm guessing it's a whacky Airport cord and I'd be surprised if I don't have to replace it.

So far the times it's happened I had turned off the airport card to use Ethernet networking, put the computer to sleep, and when it awoke I couldn't turn Airport back on. Reboot and it said no card.

First time I zapped RPAM and it was back. Also worked fine booting into Win 7.

Last night Airport wouldn't turn on. Rebooted, no Airport card, rebooted again, no Airport card, rebooted into Win 7, found no Wireless card. Rebooted into OS X, no Airport card.

Rebooted OS X again this morning -- voila! Airport. Rebooted into Win 7, Wireless present.

So, it seems more hardware than software. I'll pop the top, make sure the connections are good, but figure on replacing the card in the near future.

I opted not for AppleCare since I can fix anything myself, usually for cheaper than the cost of AppleCare, and if it's something major, I'll likely just get an update (wouldn't that be horrible! ; ).
 
update

I have 18 month old 17" MBP and I'm having the same issue. I've brought it to my authorized reseller and after running the hardware diagnostic (all passed), they determined it was a software issue. Using applejack, they cleared the cache, reset the pram, and somehow, the airport card showed up again.

So I kept on using it normally, and after a while, the internet just stopped. it told me I still had the airport card, but it could not connect to networks. It just kept telling me connection timeout. So I bring it back to the Mac ASP, they do the same thing, and viola, airport reappears. The guy tells me the entire issue is one of the weirdest things he's ever seen, especially because he ran the diagnostic again (all passed), but that because clearing out the caches seemed to fix it, it had to be a software issue. Something with some loop causing corrupted caches and messing with the hardware and whatnot. I'm told to reinstall OSX, and all should be well.

So I do. And the airport works again, for some time. And then it stops. Now, I'm running all the scripts with applejack, resetting the pram, and still nothing. The OS is brand new, and again, the hardware diagnostic passes everything, even on the extended test.

I consider myself a fairly competent computer user, to the point where I can operate in Single-user mode and the terminal and whatever, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out what the problem is. I did not purchase applecare, and I'm a student, so I'm hesitant to go to the genius bar just for them to tell me they need to ship it to Texas and then have them call me telling me they need to do a logic board replacement for $800.

Please, for the love of God, Steve Jobs, Buddha, whatever, someone help me out here. Any ideas are much appreciated.

NOTE: All of these issues began around the time my battery crapped out. It had roughly 800 cycles (!), and it legitimately expanded within the computer and warped entirely. Apple gave me a new battery free of charge. I have a suspicion the two are related in some way.
 
same problems here. same inconsistencies. opened up the case and cleaned out all the dust as well as reseated the airport card. all is well now. no problems since. connection is actually more stable than before. hopefully everyone else has the same simple problem as mine.
 
The Gorn said:
Same prob here... "No Airport card intstalled", repeatedly when starting up (or restarting) using BATTERY POWER.
The problem went away when I shut down and restarted using the POWER ADAPTOR.

Can it really be this simple? Worked for me, and I hope it works for you all!!
Click to expand...

this worked for my sister's macbook air. hopefully the problem doesn't come back.
 
Finally found it

It happened to me last week and needed to buy a USB modem to connect and find this forum, I'm gonna try and I'll inform, I hope no hardware problem because in my city you get only spares for those UGLY Windows based typewriter machines.

MacBook 5,1. OSX Snow Leopard 10.6.7 (without AirPort :( )
 
Solved for me

I've had this same problem for some time now.
MBP 13 2010, SNL (haha: 10.6.7)

After warranty replacement and all resets etc... I opened the back to inspect for loose ends. None seen.

Then i tried to exert light pressure on the bottom, near the locations of the MB connections or those leading towards the Airport Card.
It brought back the card "visible again" a couple of times.

Every time I lost the card, it was related to closing the screen!

This time i had a look on pics of the inside especially the location of the card and the antenna connections. By exerting light pressure on the black plastic HINGE cover at the base of the screen and the body: it worked like a charm:
my card is back!

So i really think it's a connectivity/location issue!:):D
 
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