Wifi won't turn on since upgrade to Lion

[kevinrobers]

First of all, my apologies if i make alot of gramar/spell errors, english is not my native language.

Yesterday i've upgraded my Snow Leopard installation to Lion on my late 2008 macbook pro and from the beginning i am unable to start my Wifi/Airport card. The menu bar shows the wifi icon but with no signal bars. When i click the wifi icon and press 'Turn wifi on' nothing happens. System profiler shows the airport card and when i look in Console i can see that the system recognizes the wifi card and acknowledge it's mac address.

What i've tried so far:

- I've created another user account
- I performed a clean install on a second harddrive, same problem
- i rolled back to Snow Leopard and the airport card functions as it should be, this rules out a hardware failure
- I've deleted all files in /library/preferences/SystemConfiguration and rebooted
- Deleted all airport related files in /Library/Preferences/
- Deleted all airport related files in my user library
- Did a permissions scan and fix with disk utility
- Verified my disk with disk utility
- I've created a new location with only the Airport card under System preferences - Network
- I've made the airport card inactive and active again
- Reset SMC, PRAM and NVRAM
- Deleted /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf.plist and rebooted
- Changed my ipv6 settings to link local

I did found some strange messages in Console but they are not very clear: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/718/screenshot20110721at102.png/

I've found out that Lion updates the firmware of the Airport card and the Airport utility so i think it has to do with that. I have a Broadcom BCM43 Airport Extreme (0x14E4, 0x88D) card. I don't have AVAST software or a firewall running but even if i did, that won't cause this kind of issues.

Apple really needs to fix this, i can't work without wifi.

 

[galileo1]

I can report that I'm having the exact same problem as the OP.

Performed a clean install of Snow and then Lion upgrade. Wifi always says off (even though Airport card is detected in "About this Mac") and clicking the "Turn on Wifi" button never does anything.

I know it is a software issue, because I used the WiFi to download Lion from Snow.

If it helps anyone out there, I have a Macbook MB466LL/A (Late 2008 model).

I will probably try to take it to the Apple store today to see what they say.

I was just surprised there weren't more people reporting this issue.

 

[kevinrobers]

Good to hear i am not alone on this problem .
I've also started a topic on the Apple Support forums and i've found some other people with the same issue: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3196661

It would be great if you can post your firmware version here or in the other thread. If more people are reporting this issue it might get fixed sooner. I'm sure it is a firmware/software issue because i've reverted to Snow Leopard and now wifi is working as it should be.

Please let me know what the Apple store said.

 

[jdcliff]

Exact Same Issue

I've got the same wi-fi button that won't respond to on. I am able to connect directly through a ethernet cable, but wi-fi is still a no-go. I'll be waiting for my Lion update or quick fix over the next few days...weeks...ever?

Wish there was a way to back-up the firmware version separate from Lion...

 

[mlouism]

Same issue

Hi,

Is anybody knows where the wifi driver is located in MacOSX ? Is the driver living in the System Kernel or in some Kext location ?

Anybody tried to replace the driver from Snow to Lion ?

It is a very annoying problem (not the only one, Lion can't run CoolBook) that keeping me to use this version!

It's very sad!

I hope Apple will fix the wifi issue for this model.

 

[makstate]

WiFi issues?

I had a problem after the 6.0 airport upgrade installed with the 10.7.3,didn't like it at all,can't adjust anything, it's either on or off, major issues, downloaded the Airport 5.6 driver and it's running but I have no idea how secure among many other issues since the System Report shows Airport 6.0 installed and running,but it has the 5.6 (old style config options), also newbie to this level, not a programmer.

tyvm

 

[Bigyella]

I am glad to see that I am not the only one having this problem. 2008 Macbook pro. My problems started a bout a month ago. On lion. The wifi signal just turns off randomly and it won't turn back on. it takes a complete restart. Sometimes, it will only stay on for a few seconds after the restart, and sometimes it will work for a few days after the restart. Latest software, and all that, seems this is an old issue. Tonight, I could not get it to stay connected more than 5 minutes at a time.. Almost had to fire up the ole XP machine to make this post.

 

[snugharbor]

I am glad to see that I am not the only one having this problem. 2008 Macbook pro. My problems started a bout a month ago. On lion. The wifi signal just turns off randomly and it won't turn back on. it takes a complete restart. Sometimes, it will only stay on for a few seconds after the restart, and sometimes it will work for a few days after the restart. Latest software, and all that, seems this is an old issue. Tonight, I could not get it to stay connected more than 5 minutes at a time.. Almost had to fire up the ole XP machine to make this post.

Still having this problem with Sierra everytime there's an update. WiFi is turned off, click to turn on and still off. Have to reset the system after every update.