Problem with Airport on my brand new 13" Macbook Pro

[brig2221]

I recently purchased (as in days ago) a refurbished 13" Macbook Pro.

I just noticed today that my wireless connection on my Macbook Pro has been losing it's connection about every other 2-3 minutes.

I was on iChat with a buddy this morning, and I must have been disconnected and then reconnected about 8 times in 20 minutes.

I first thought it must have been a problem with iChat. That said, I have sat here looking at my screen for the past ten minutes, and I have seen the Airport wireless indicator disconnect and then reconnect again at least three times in the past ten minutes.

I have AT&T U-Verse Service, and I am forced to use their provided 2WIRE router. That said, I have had no problems with any other device that uses the wireless connection, from my iPhone to my PS3.

I work from home and have my HP laptop literally sitting right next to my Macbook, and it has not disconnected once from the same wireless connection, whereas my Macbook has literally disconnected at least 20 times.

Any help on where I might need to start as far as trying to fix this problem?

 

[Dozerrox]

What's your signal strength? They signal isn't a strong point of the unibodies...

 

[brig2221]

What's your signal strength? They signal isn't a strong point of the unibodies...

Full strength. Both my work laptop and the Macbook are in the same room as the wireless router. Signal strength will definitely not be issue, keeping a stable and continuous connection is the issue.

What drives me insane is that my work laptop is sitting right next to the Macbook, and it doesn't ever drop the wireless connection, ever.

EDIT- Not to get off topic, but while I'm at is, should I be concerned at all that my battery only shows 96% charged, but is also showing as being fully charged? I always have it plugged in. Just curious if this means that I have literally already lost 4% of my battery, or if this doesn't matter? Thanks.

 

[brig2221]

To add yet another odd twist, I restarted my Macbook and loaded up Windows 7 via Bootcamp, and I have been watching the connection for a good 10 minutes now, and not one wireless drop.

I swear within the same 10 minutes time frame on Snow Leopard, my wireless connection would have dropped several times. I just don't get it.

 

[HellDiverUK]

Have you done Software Update? There's a few updates for the Airport stuff.

 

[Habitus]

I recently purchased (as in days ago) a refurbished 13" Macbook Pro.

I just noticed today that my wireless connection on my Macbook Pro has been losing it's connection about every other 2-3 minutes.

I was on iChat with a buddy this morning, and I must have been disconnected and then reconnected about 8 times in 20 minutes.

I first thought it must have been a problem with iChat. That said, I have sat here looking at my screen for the past ten minutes, and I have seen the Airport wireless indicator disconnect and then reconnect again at least three times in the past ten minutes.

I have AT&T U-Verse Service, and I am forced to use their provided 2WIRE router. That said, I have had no problems with any other device that uses the wireless connection, from my iPhone to my PS3.

I work from home and have my HP laptop literally sitting right next to my Macbook, and it has not disconnected once from the same wireless connection, whereas my Macbook has literally disconnected at least 20 times.

Any help on where I might need to start as far as trying to fix this problem?

If the Mac is new, why not call AppleCare? They'll give good insight.

Good luck,

Habitus

 

[brig2221]

I did just get off the phone with Applecare. They set me up an appointment at my local Apple store to have the wireless and battery tested.

The Applecare rep had me hold down the power button, shift, control, and option buttons to apparently reset the chip or something. She then had me go into the network preferences, and had me use the assistant setup to connect to my wireless router.

When that was done, I then logged into iChat where the wireless connection was lost about three minutes later.

The rep also verified that as far as she knew, if the battery was showing as being fully charged as mine does by the green light on my power cable and the computer itself, that it should be showing up as 100% as opposed to the 96% it shows now.

The Applecare rep also asked me about purchasing Applecare. I told her that I probably would, but that I would wait a bit to purchase as I knew I had the full year before I had to purchase. I for some reason thought it was $150 or so. She then corrected me and told me that it would be $349 for Applecare protection for my 13" Macbook Pro. Is that correct? If so, doesn't that seem to be a little high for a $999 refurbished unit?

 

[DivineEvil]

In order to prevent unnecessary battery damage from fast short charging if the battery is only 3-4% or less drained it will not charge! To fix this just remove the AC cable and drain it to at least 90% then charge it!

 

[brig2221]

In order to prevent unnecessary battery damage from fast short charging if the battery is only 3-4% or less drained it will not charge! To fix this just remove the AC cable and drain it to at least 90% then charge it!

I will try that right now and will report back later on whether or not it charges back up to 100%.

Regarding the wireless drop issue, I think it may just be related to an issue with iChat.

I got on an actual video chat with my buddy for about 30 minutes, not one drop. As soon as we got off the video chat, we opened up a text chat, boom, disconnected from the wireless connection in less than two minutes.

I then downloaded skype and had a video chat with him for about 10 minutes, and have been text chatting for the last 20 minutes or so, and no problems at all.

Very very weird!

 

[brig2221]

In order to prevent unnecessary battery damage from fast short charging if the battery is only 3-4% or less drained it will not charge! To fix this just remove the AC cable and drain it to at least 90% then charge it!

Thank you very much, that worked like a charm.

Regarding the wireless dropping issue, I believe this is an issue with iChat for them most part. I spent the rest of the afternoon surfing around the Internet, downloading software and updates, and chatting in Skype with no wireless drop outs at all.

I am still going to my appointment tomorrow to have the wireless looked at just in case, but I do feel a lot better now.