Computer froze; after reboot: "No AirPort card installed."

I was online checking email, doing nothing out of the ordinary, when all of a sudden my computer froze. There was no spinning wheel; the computer was completely unresponsive. I manually powered it off, and when I turned it back on and found that I could not connect to the internet. I clicked the AirPort icon and the dropdown said "No AirPort card installed."
I reset the PRAM. I did an SMC reset. I reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled OS X. I did both the standard and extended Apple Hardware Tests and there was "No trouble found."
In System Profiler, under Network > AirPort, the various Software Versions are listed. However, AirPort is not listed under Network > Active Services. In System Preferences > Network, AirPort is "Off" and when I attempt to turn it on, nothing happens. If I delete the AiPort connection and try to add a new one, "AirPort" does not appear in the interface dropdown menu. I tried turning AirPort on via Terminal using the command "sudo ifconfig en1 up" and received the message "ifconfig: interface en1 does not exist".
At this point it seems as though the AirPort card has crapped out, but if it did indeed go bad, why does it not show up in Apple Hardware Test? Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

As I understand it, the SMC and PRAM are actual chips on the logic board, and the resets restore them to their original factory values. That's about all I know to say about them since I'm not an IT person and have very little troubleshooting experience myself.
I'm not familiar with the term NIC. Is this the same as the airport card?
http://www.powerbookmedic.com/13-MacBook-Airport-Card-p-17152.html
If so, it should be easy to locate on the logic board as it's pretty large. I don't know if the same card is used in both of your 13" Macs or not--You would need to research that for yourself. However, it seems like in many cases, replacing the card didn't seem to work, although you could always inspect it to be sure the antenna is well seated. I'm not familiar with the 13" card, but the card in my 17" MBP actually has 2 antennas.
Both PowerBook Medic and ifixit have step by step guides for disassembling Macs and replacing parts. You may be able to find the information you want there.
Just finished looking through the long thread, and it looks like every possible solution that I could think of has been tried.
As for testing the hardware, many people have recommended Tech Tool Pro:
http://www.micromat.com/
You also should have the Apple Hardware test on one of your original system discs, and if you had Applecare, a Tech Tool Deluxe disc with a hardware test. I'm not sure, but it may be that if you purchased Applecare and got Tech Tool Deluxe, you may be able to buy Tech Tool Pro at a discount.
Apple Stores also have a hardware test they can run from their store feed if you have access to one.
If you do decide to resort to a USB card, here's one that works pretty well:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/MXP2802GU2/
Good luck!

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"No AirPort card installed" error persists on MBP even after reboot

I am getting a "No AirPort card installed" problem on a brand new macbook pro 13 running OS X 10.6.1. First, I experienced applications freezing randomly, until my MBP froze completely on me and had to reset it. This issue became recurrent, and now there is this network card problem. Rebooting does nothing to get AirPort to work again. I will truly appreciate any insights on how to address the latter issue. I am hoping it is simply a software problem.

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HI,
Try the 10.5.8 combo update available here.
http://support.apple.com/downloads/MacOS_X_10_5_8_ComboUpdate
As with any installation, repair disk permissions.
Quit any open applications/programs. Launch Disk Utility. (Applications/Utilities) Select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left, select the FirstAid tab. Click: Repair Disk Permissions. When it's finished from the Menu Bar, Quit Disk Utility and restart your Mac. If you see a long list of "messages" in the permissions window, it's ok. That can be ignored. As long as you see, "Permissions Repair Complete" when it's finished... you're done. Quit Disk Utility and restart your Mac.
Carolyn

No Airport Card Installed after factory restart

I tried a factory restart on my Airport Express after having some slow connection issues. Now I show "No Airport Card installed" Is it likely my Airport Card is dead?

I should clarify ... I had this same problem on the old drive but only after restarting from boot camp. But an old platter hard drive is simply too slow to bother with boot camp for my needs, so I just went back to OS X only.
It hasn't been an issue since last Christmas when I first noticed it. Since then, I've had every single part of this Macbook Pro replaced except for the battery, battery cover, and back panel plate. Some components were replaced multiple times. But it's not been a problem because I haven't been using boot camp.
I really don't see how it could be a hardware issue when it only happens during restarts, not during cold boots ... and only happens going from Windows to OS X, not the other way. Could be something in a hardware check from cold boot that doesn't happen on a soft reset.
Other people seem to be having issues with their airport cards not being recognized for a variety of reasons. I suspect it's something an update will cure. Or it'll just be like a variety of other minor bugs which Apple hasn't bothered to fix yet (like the keyboard backlight not switching off under bootcamp, etc).
Thanks for testing it out on your systems. Was just curious if anyone else had seen the problem.

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You might want to post in the Powerbook G4 section, you might get more help there. Do you have built in airport or a card? If you have a card try pulling it out and re-seating it.

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PS, I must mention that I have had numerous other issues with 10.5 and 10.5.1 - I dont think it likes PowerPC's!
cheers!
jim

Just got the same problem on my 17 inch powerbook again, Previously fixed by repairing permissions and repairing disk with the disk utility. Not this time. Your previous note is several month old- did you resolve the problem?

Latest Apple Software Update causes 'No Airport card installed' error

Hi,
I accepted the Software Update released 05Apr08 and rebooted. Following the reboot my MacBook Air now says 'no airport card installed' and I can't get the MacBook to 're-recognize' the card.
I have used the airport card to access many different wireless networks prior to this update with no issues.
All advice accepted gratefully.
Thanks.

I'm having the same problem with a brand new Macbook Air I picked up on Tuesday. When I got it home I updated all software to latest, and didn't have any issues...
Sometime on Thursday, however, after waking from sleep the airport card reported it is off, and no amount of attempting to turn it on again would successfully do so. After a restart, the computer reported no Airport card is installed at all. I had to shut down the computer and turn it back on before the airport card was recognized (and work) again. This is now the case every time the computer is put to sleep. Occasionally after I do this, the network will be incredibly slow, something like dialup speeds.
First I tried resetting the PMU (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449), but that didn't work. Then I reset the PRAM and NVRAM (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238), which worked for only about a day. Now here I am again with the same issue, and an appointment for the genius bar at 5pm tonight.

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Hi all, got this problem with my Macbook pro!
Recently when I was reconfiguring my wifi-network (assigning my time capsule as main router and the modem I got from my ISP as a "bridge"), I noticed that my airport card was acting strange.
The problem is that it says "No airport card installed", but I still got internet connection and can surf/download stuff without a problem. Also, when I go into "System preferences/Network" I can see my airport connection and turn it on/off. Although when I click "Advanced" nothing happens.
I've tried several things but none seems to work, and I'm not sure its an hardware issue. Anyway, this is what I've tried:
1. Rebooting (several times) = Didn't work
2. Resetting PRAM and NVRAM = Didn't work
3. SMC-reset = Didn't work
4. Rebooting into Windows XP via bootcamp = Airport card detected and working just fine
5. Restoring older save via time capsule = Didn't work
6. Format and reinstall Snow leopard and restore older save via time capsule = Didn't work
7. Format and reinstall Snow leopard (again) = Didn't work...-ish?
Now, here's the strange bit. As I log in to a new account with english as main language I notice that the wifi-icon on the top dashboard now is filled (it was greyed out and only said "No airport card installed [in swedish ofc]) and I can now click it, change network and all that stuff. Although, when I go to "System preferences/Language & text" and change my preferred language to swedish and log out & in, the same problem occurs (greyed out wifi-logo, no airport card installed etc.)
So, I'm totally confused. Halp?

Have you done a PRAM reset, CMD+Option+p+r...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
In fact, do 3 in a row, takes a bit of time.
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive & clear caches.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.
If that doesn't help Reinstall the OS.
If that doesn't do it, the card has likely died.

System extension cannot be used, now no AirPort Card Installed?!?!?!?!

I have had my MBP for some time now and the other day it went into a kernel panic and after having to go through all the processes to recover it including restoring from the time capsule so that it doesn't take over 10 mins to start up an error message came up saying;
"*System extension cannot be used*"
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Now i cant use my airport card at all, it says that there is no airport card installed and I have spent hours on the phone to apple, done the option + command + r + p thing and had to restore my whole system off my TC with the backup disks and all.
Plz plz plz plz help, i just want it back the way it was, this is so annoying
Message was edited by: TBlank

I had the same problem. It happened to me after I updated to 10.5.6. I didn't notice the problem until I rebooted a few days later. I reinstalled the system from disk and then realized that even though it took almost an hour it didn't really install anything. So I deleted the whole /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext and reinstalled the system again. This time it worked

No Airport Card Installed - Post 10.6.6 update

Hey everyone, I have a fairly new iMac (under 8 months old), and it runs beautifully. However, after the latest update 10.6.6, I'm getting a "No Airport Card Installed" when I click on the grayed out wifi icon in the toolbar.
I've gone to the system profiler and it says connected (see results below). If I go into System > Network it's there and working, and I'm actually writing this post on my iMac. But the buggy thing is that it doesn't show in the icon, which in turn, makes apple-based applications think it's not connected to the internet (like iTunes).
I can browse the internet, download stuff, etc. But if I want to stream music through iTunes radio, I can't. It's really quite annoying, as I can't find any information on this.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Chris
Here is my system profile readout for my airport card:
Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x168C, 0x8F)
Firmware Version: Atheros 9280: 2.1.14.5
Locale: FCC
Country Code: US
Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 128, 132, 136, 140, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165
Wake On Wireless: Supported
Status: Connected

True North wrote:
after the latest update 10.6.6, I'm getting a "No Airport Card Installed" when I click on the grayed out wifi icon in the toolbar.
Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
Do you mean the menu bar, the strip across the top of the screen?
It might help to reset the connection settings on your Mac using these steps one at a time until it works again, recognizing that, depending on your problem, not all of these steps will make sense:
1) Use the AirPort menu bar item to turn AirPort off, then on again.
2) Try to select your Wi-Fi network from the AirPort menu.
3) In the Network panel of System Preferences delete the AirPort item from the left column, then add it back.
4) In the same panel as (3), define a new location and see if you can make that work.
5) In the same panel, select the AirPort connection item, click the "Advanced" button, select the "TCP/IP" tab, then click "Renew DHCP Lease".
6) In the folder /Library/Preferences ( not <yourhomefolder>/Library/Preferences), move the folder SystemConfiguration onto the Desktop, then restart your computer. See if you can now make your AirPort connection work.
They may not help, but they'll only take a couple of minutes to try. Before you try these, if you have any special network settings on your Mac for things like DSL credentials, note all your network settings, because the latter steps will destroy them. If you got all the way to the last step, if things don't work any worse than before, you can trash the saved SystemConfiguration folder.

Macbook pro"No Airport Card Installed"

So my macbook pro has a grocery list of problems wrong with it, it constantly freezes and shuts down on me and it has a really hard time picking up wireless internet no matter where I am. Also part of the back of it is broken (from being in the car when I was in an accident) But the guys at the apple store say that is just more of a cosmetic issue and it shouldn't hurt how it works. But it has been getting worse every day and in this past week it has been shutting down and freezing more than ever, sometimes I have to even take the battery out in order to shut it down when it freezes. But yesterday when I opened it up it read "no airport card installed", so I got on the phone with a guy I know who knows everything there is to know about macs and he told me to go under system preferences and delete my airport then restart my computer to reset the PRAM and then add another airport under system preferences I did and that worked perfectly last night and restored everything back to normal. Then this morning it did the same thing so I reset the PRAM again and it worked(which I had to do mulitple times whenever I would open my laptop back up)but then this last time it didn't work. And I cant find the airport anywhere under system preferences/network. I've ran disk utility and repaired disk permissions and nothing has worked. I'm out of town right now but I plan on taking it into the apple store as soon as I get back.

I should clarify ... I had this same problem on the old drive but only after restarting from boot camp. But an old platter hard drive is simply too slow to bother with boot camp for my needs, so I just went back to OS X only.
It hasn't been an issue since last Christmas when I first noticed it. Since then, I've had every single part of this Macbook Pro replaced except for the battery, battery cover, and back panel plate. Some components were replaced multiple times. But it's not been a problem because I haven't been using boot camp.
I really don't see how it could be a hardware issue when it only happens during restarts, not during cold boots ... and only happens going from Windows to OS X, not the other way. Could be something in a hardware check from cold boot that doesn't happen on a soft reset.
Other people seem to be having issues with their airport cards not being recognized for a variety of reasons. I suspect it's something an update will cure. Or it'll just be like a variety of other minor bugs which Apple hasn't bothered to fix yet (like the keyboard backlight not switching off under bootcamp, etc).
Thanks for testing it out on your systems. Was just curious if anyone else had seen the problem.

No airport card installed, No airport card installed

Hi, I have a strange problem. First while Skype my video did not work , so I updated . Along with that the security updates came up which I updated to 10.6.8.
After rebooting it showed a screen saying kernel panic . I force quit and opened it in safe mode . Now I can boot normally but it says NO AIRPORT CARD INSTALLED. Can some please one help be fix it? I have read a lot of this issue posted here but not sure how to approach this issue as to which files to delete.
Thanks in advance.

Sorry forgot to mention that
I am using MacBook pro 15 inch 2.8 ghz 4 gb ram 2009 October model.

New 27" iMac - No AirPort card installed

I just got my brand new 27" iMac today - big day for me as I'm switching to Mac from PC/Windows ...
Anyway, powered on and the AirPort card doesn't seem to be installed - the status thing, which I've managed to show, says "No AirPort card installed".
I'm aware that a couple of other people seem to have had the same issue and that it appears to be either the AirPort card being completely missed at build time or it not being seated properly. Re it not being seated properly, is this something I can check myself without blowing the warranty? I'm in IT so I'm comfortable doing it but not if my warranty will go out the window ...
What's the deal here? Is this a problem at the Apple factory that is common on the 27" iMacs? Does anyone know if Apple is aware of it?
With Apple supposedly being so awesome I'm pretty disappointed about this as I'm sure the vendor I got it from will say sure we can fix it but you've got to send it away ... after <24 hrs ownership.

Looks like this issue has hit its fair share of people. Spoke to Apple support today about the same issue. Brand new iMac 27' 2.8 quad core with 8gb of ram and I opened the box only to find my airport card was not recognized by OSX. After performing several support steps, the staff let me know that this was indeed a hardware related issue - I am not advocating this is everyone'e issue just mine.
Here is what we did to troubleshoot and determine it was hardware related.
Open system profiler / go to network and look at airport - if all you see is "software versions" your hardware is not recognized. You will need to reboot the system and clear the SMC. To do this do the following:
Unplug everything from your iMac and wait 60 seconds with absolutely nothing connected to it. After that, plug in your power cable and press the power button down, letting it go after 2 seconds. Immediately after the power button is let go - hold down option + apple + p + r you will hear 2 "bong" sounds, then let go of the keys and boot. If your hardware does not show up you will need to boot to the OSX install DVD to get a "clean" install of OSX.
Boot to OSX DVD
Insert DVD
Shut down system
Power on system - hold down C key until you hear a chime then let go. System will boot to OSX install.
Once you pass all the prompts by selecting defaults, you will come to "Install MAC OSX" asking you to select the disk where you want to install. DO NOT CLICK INSTALL. Open Utilities / System profiler. If you still do not see anything under Airport other than software, your Airport card is bad or at the very least not showing up in the OS. If you do see the airport card there, you will need to reinstall the OS to have it recognize the card.
Hope that helps!

"No airport card installed" error message onMacBook Air.

Early today, my Macbook Air froze and I had to restart it by holding down the start key. Since the, I've been getting a "no airport card installed error messge". I've tried resetting the PRAM but it did not fix the problem. I've also tried running the hardware check through a powerdrive but I get a message saying hardware check cannot be run on this machine. Any suggestions about what to try next?

Yes, you should remove and reseat the Airport Extreme card. It may just have been jostled in its slot and not be making good contact now.

Computer froze; after reboot: "No AirPort card installed."

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