MacBook Pro Wifi Dropping Out

[Fearenside]

Hi,

I’m having wifi issues with a MacBook Pro (A1278, Aug 2011, 13 inch, 2.3GHz i5, 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM, 512GB SSD fitted 2015, OS 10.13.6).

When I first switch on everything is fine. Then wifi will drop out - the top-of-screen wifi symbol is initially filled showing “wifi on”, but no networks are listed (even the one I was previously connected to) and no websites or other wifi functions will load. I can turn wifi off (symbol now outline-only) but it then refuses to turn back on again. “Turn Wifi On” has no effect, and if I go to System Preferences -> Network and try to activate it, that fails too.

If I reboot, wifi works fine again - until the next time it drops out.

Note - these dropouts *might* be due to poor wifi connection (rural home wi-fi can be flaky, as can tethering on the move via iPhone on patchy 3G/4G) but the fact it refuses to even switch on again afterward is the real problem. Alternatively the actual drop-outs might be part of the problem too.

Following advice from elsewhere I’ve tried “Make Service Inactive” (then “Apply”) then “Make Active / Apply” again in System Preferences, but that second “Apply” makes the MacBook freeze (pointer immobile) then it reboots after 5 seconds or so.

I’ve also tried resetting NVRAM (Cmd+Opt+P+R at reboot) and SMC (Shift+Ctrl+Opt+Power to reboot); wifi then works, but still drops out later (which I’d see with a simple reboot anyway).

If I go into System Information -> System Report -> Wifi, I see the AirPort Extreme listed (Firmware Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0) but “Status” shows “off” with no networks listed underneath.

With a laptop of this age I’d normally suspect hardware failure, except this first happened just after (i.e. within minutes) of the 2019-006 OS update which I got in Dec 2019, and has been happening ever since. (I’ve had 2019-007 since then as well but the problem is still there). The timing might be coincidence of course, but it’s weird how it happened straight away.

Is this a known issue, or is there a fix?

Thanks,

F.

 

[Howard2k]

It's certainly not poor wifi signal that is causing that.

Have you tried rolling back to before the 2019 update?
Or doing a clean fresh install and seeing if a virgin unrestored system exhibits the same behaviour?

 

[Fearenside]

OS rollback / reinstall had no effect unfortunately - decided it must be hardware after all.

Got a new AirPort card for not much money and fitted that (reasonably straightforward process - video at

if anyone needs to do the same thing).

Four days on everything seems to be working fine - still early days but no dropouts yet.

Thanks for the suggestions though.

F.

 

[mikehalloran]

I'm having the same issue with a 2012 MBP. Changed the Airport/Wireless card but the problem remains. Sometimes, WiFi will stay good for days; other times, it won't work at all. Rebooting often brings it back to life but there is no guarantees in that regard.

 

[Fearenside]

Unfortunately I spoke too soon in an earlier message - the new Airport card worked fine for a number of weeks, but just recently the same problem has come back. So there may be a deeper issue which is making the wifi cards go borked.

Another solution I'm trying is an external wifi adapter via USB. There are a large number available but it seems only a small minority work with OS 10.13 (driver issues). However I just got a D-Link DWA-182 Wi-Fi Wave 2 AC1300 and it is working okay. (Sort of - the CD only had Windows drivers so I had to hunt the d-link website for OS 10.13 and download those while tethered via my phone. It now works, but plugging the adapter in the USB has twice caused the MacBook to crash and restart).

If no long term fix looks viable then it might be time to move on from this near-decade-old MacBook.

F.

 

[mikehalloran]

Unfortunately I spoke too soon in an earlier message - the new Airport card worked fine for a number of weeks, but just recently the same problem has come back. So there may be a deeper issue which is making the wifi cards go borked.

Another solution I'm trying is an external wifi adapter via USB. There are a large number available but it seems only a small minority work with OS 10.13 (driver issues). However I just got a D-Link DWA-182 Wi-Fi Wave 2 AC1300 and it is working okay. (Sort of - the CD only had Windows drivers so I had to hunt the d-link website for OS 10.13 and download those while tethered via my phone. It now works, but plugging the adapter in the USB has twice caused the MacBook to crash and restart).

If no long term fix looks viable then it might be time to move on from this near-decade-old MacBook.

F.

Dang, hate to hear that. Worst thing is that I traded with my daughter—this was hers and wifi worked great on mine. Oh well...

For the time being, mine sits on my desk tied through ethernet. It's my Catalina test machine while my iMac Pro is still on Mojave. Still, I'd like wifi to work.