Wireless card not working in iMac... HELP

[OrlandoTragic]

My iMac is very finnicky when connecting to my wireless router.

Sometimes, it won't pick up ANY wireless networks at all, and I have to reboot the machine before it will do so.

Other times, it will drop the signal, etc, for no reason.

Now, I have a MacBook as well, and that holds and maintains the connection with no problems.

I decided to reformat my machine the other day on the offchance that something just got installed improperly, but no joy.

Any suggestions as to what may be causing this?
It's driving me crazy!

Thanks!

 

[Angrist]

Sounds like a bad Airport card.

I had the same symptoms with my iMac G4 about a year after I got it. Swapping out the Airport card fixed the problem. (Confirmed to be a hardware issue, the card did the same thing in every machine i tried it in.)

If it's still under warranty then take it to an Apple store and get it replaced.

 

[OrlandoTragic]

*sigh*
It's not under warranty.

How expensive is an Airport card? Also, which would I need, and how difficult is it to replace the card itself?

thanks!

 

[OrlandoTragic]

Help please!
I am desperate.

Now Windows won't even show the card, and OS X keeps dropping it.
I know its the card, damnit.

 

[Angrist]

Well, which model is it exactly?

The G4s and G3s are easy to replace, but hard to find cards for. Original Airport.

The G5s i'm not familiar with, but I'd assume they aren't too hard. Airport Extreme.

All the Intel iMacs are Airport Extreme.

Cards should be about $100. Googling for your particular model will turn up a disassembly guide for it, I can't see it being more than an afternoon's worth of work to replace.

An Apple store should be able to make the swap for under $300 if you take it in. Just ask them, IIRC the bench fee just to open it is the biggest portion of that.

 

[OrlandoTragic]

It's the G5 iMac.
Airport Extreme?

Even though in Windows it calls it a "Broadcom"?

Sorry, I'm a nub, I know

 

[Angrist]

Broadcom makes the chipset for the card, (along with a few other manufacturers IIRC) but it's still an Airport Extreme.
Errr, how are you running Windows on a G5? Virtual PC?

Based on this it looks like getting to the Airport card shouldn't be too hard.

You could try popping the card out, blowing the socket with compressed air, and reseat everything. Maybe the antenna is just loose.

 

[OrlandoTragic]

Boot Camp.

I'll give that a whirl, thanks man.

Can you find any links to Airport Extreme cards for sale.

 

[Angrist]

Bootcamp is only for Intel Macs.

Check in the System Profiler to be sure exactly which model you have, then look for the proper disassembly guide.

 

[alexprice]

Are we talking about the iMac G5, iMac G5 ALS, iMac G5 iSight?