Dead AirPort Card?

Hello, hope someone can help.
I have been using AirPort Express for about 2 years, I installed my own AirPort card in my iMac G5 1.8GHz. Last week I upgraded to Leopard (this maybe irrelevant) and today my iMac is seeing no base stations. I have a Windows XP laptop on the same network which is running fine on the AirPort Express base station (hence this post). For good measure I rebooted the router (Netgear) attached to the AirPort Express to no avail. System Profiler still acknowledges that a card is present, and AirPort Utility says that it is unable to find any base stations. Though it doesn't say that there is no card present.
What steps should I take next? Has my card given up the ghost?

HI
I have an Airport card that is detected by Network preferences, but can not connect to the network. Then on rare occasions, it will work for an hour and then mysteriously quit, while other users have no problems with the network. I've tried most of the posted solutions, have the latest security and OS updates, I've tried updating the AIrport card with 3 .pkg installers located in main-drive/Library/Receipts (AirportConfigApps.pkg; AirportTi2005-001.pkg and AirportDrivers.pkg) but they all say my software is up to date.
While, none of these solve the problem. I suspect its a firmware / driver problem. If I hold down the option key while clicking on the Airport signal icon and select "About Airport...", I see this for the dead Airport card
version 412.8; menu extra: 412.8.0; framework: 427.6.0; driver: 349.3.0, etc...
Another airport card that works all the time with no problems has this:
version 421.11; menu extra: 421.11.0; with the same framework and driver versions.
Is there some way of updating the non-functional Airport card to version 421.11? Maybe that would solve the problem? Or maybe its really on its way out?

Similar Messages

How to set up wired PowerBook (dead airport card) to wireless network

The airport card in our PowerBook isn't working and not worth fixing. I wanted to hook it up via Ethernet to Clearwire modem, but it appears there is only one Ethernet port on it which I have to use for my airport express for my iMac to access. There is a USB port on the airport but didn't know if that would do anything. Darn, I'm usually good at this stuff, so please help!

Wow, thanks for that fast reply.
The PowerBook is about 6 years old, apple called it vintage. Although it has airport in it, this happened once before where the antenna or whatever came dislodged. Hubby likes to fall asleep with laptop in... His lap!
I also have a 2008 iMac running off the same airport and was trying to see if I could daisy chain something up. I have a FireWire cable too. I hear you smiling...
So if you can explain what a wireless USB adapter is I'd appreciate it. I thought I could just hook it straight up to my modem or airport express but apparently each have only one Ethernet.
I'm the kind that sits and looks at what I have, so never would have thought about buying more stuff! :)

Dead Airport card ? (or just...sleeping)?

MacBook Pro 2.2g purchased off of eBay at Christmas time. Airport card "appears" present but turned off, but won't turn on. Shows up as existing in menu bar (outline of signal field) vs no icon and Profiler says the card's there, but not turned on. In network pref pane - clicking on turn on button doesn't do anything. Hasn't worked since purchasing - seller insists it worked for him and I don't feel like he's trying to hose me, just not sure what problem is.
Suggestions for determining if card is the problem or software glitch?
If it's the card, what replacement card is correct for this model.
Running 10.5.8

changing locations was the trick

IMac G5 won't boot; Airport card?

Last night my G5 iMac wouldn't start up. It tried for quite awhile with the fan making a lot of noise, but no luck. I was able to use my iBook and mount the G5 as a Firewire drive and the files on the disk seem okay, (I ran DiskUtility.) I was also able to boot in Safe mode and ran Profiler. It said my Airport card was not installed. (It hasn't been moved and no new software has been installed.) Would the Airport card have been turned on from Safe Mode? Would a dead Airport card cause the non-startup? Is there a way to check the card?

Yes. It booted from the Install disk and hardware check seemed to fine any problem, tho' the memory check took so long I stopped it. I was able to boot into Single User mode and also into Safe mode. I'm running a memory test now using Rmber in Safe mode.
I've also booted in FW Target mode and run TechTool and Disk Utility to check things; nothing found.

Installed 10.4.6, airport card is now dead. PLEASE HELP!

I installed 10.4.6, my airport card worked great before this. Now it's totally dead, won't power on and doesn't work. The card is only a few months old and worked great before I installed 10.4.6. I have tried taking the card out and reinserting it, restarting the computer, restarting the router, restarting the airport extreme base station, playing around with the network settings, you name it I have tried it. Can someone please give me some help???
400mghz Powerbook G4 Titanium Mac OS X (10.4.6) 100gb hd, 768mb RAM

it's actually a Macsense AEROcard extreme WPE-800.
It's this one you're talking about, isn't it? Do they use any custom drivers or is it plug+play?
And I don't have another laptop to test it on. I have contacted Macsense and the only response I got from them was one asking me what kind of computer I am using the card on.
What kind of response was that? They make Mac products, you've been using the card fine, it now seems dead and the only feedback you got from them was that?
BTW: wireless cards run hot and it's not unusual to get fried (or fry the PCMCIA slot they plug in), the best way to verify if the card's dead or not is to take your card to a friend's Mac (or try your local Apple Store) and test it (see if it powers on).
Again, if the card is dead (and when hardware fails) 10.4.6 (and any OS) has nothing to do with it
Macs running 9.x, Macs running 10.4.x, SGI workstations running Irix 6.5.x

Dead Airport Extreme card?

For the last three days I have had issues with my G5 dual 2GHz and OS X 10.4.2, the latest updates to Airport software and firmware.
The signal strength meter in the menu bar or in Internet Connect is greyed out and the connection cannot be made -- eventually it gets to the point where the G5 cannot even remember any of my precvious connections. The Macwireless.com widget shows the connection and signal strength as bouncing from 0 to about 70% for all connections that are still recognized, with each location bouncing from the top of the list to the bottom and then sometimes disappearing altogether. After a short while the locations don't reappear... Once they're gone, they're pretty much gone without a trace (Airport Admin either cannot connect to the Airport, telling me an error occurred while trying to access it, or it doesn't see anything to get an error message from).
My G4 sits right next to the G5 and has shown no problems. Strangely, after a full day trying to troubleshoot this, the G5 started up today at full signal strength -- I'm using it now to write this message! Nothing has changed on this machine in the past week, except for me trying to get the Airport Extreme Card to function as it had for the month or two I've had it. Yesterday I lost connection altogether -- neither restarting the Mac nor a full shut down, wait a minute or two, restart would restore my connection. At one point, I shut down the machine for about an hour while I reseated the AE Card and let the computer become room temp (roughly 70 F). Still no go...
After eliminating all the variables I could think of, I've come to the conclusion that the Airport card is probably bad -- possibly malfunctioning with heat build-up (?). Problem is, how do I show this problem to a tech? Especially since it's a half-hour drive to the closest Apple store and longer to a third-party Apple repair shop. And knowing that once it's been off for a while and is on a workbench, it will behave like all intermittently faulty equipment and work perfectly. :-/
If anyone has trouble shooting suggestions, or can help me determine for sure that the card is the problem, please help!

Hi Julia,
Well, the card may have problems too, but I now think there's a software problem as others have suggested. It's odd because everything seemed fine for some time after applying the updates, so it appeared as if the card was bad or going bad. For me, I spent three days trying everything I could, including removing and re-seating the card, antenna wire and antenna, trying various configurations, resetting the Airport itself and so on. All to no avail.
On the last day, I had the strangest situation, where Mail could not see the Airport and could connect to nothing, but Safari was able to access the Internet! I used Safari to access sites I hadn't visited in months just to be sure I wasn't seeing cached versions of the pages... Eventually though, Safari lost contact, and that was it for the day.
After all that, the next day I turned on the Mac to see a solid connection that's been stable ever since except for the incident in my previous post where the Airport widgets knocked the connection out. Turning off those Widgets and closing Dashboard brought the connection back up immediately -- I haven't tried them again, and probably won't!.
Once I had the solid connection, I used Onyx to repair permissions, optimise the System and to empty the Network cache. I also deleted the various Locations I'd set up in the Network Preferences to get it back to just the one connection to choose from. If you're comfortable with Onyx (or Cocktail or one of the other utilities) you could try at least clearing the cache(s) and repairing permissions.
Have you tried a complete shut down and leaving the computer off overnight? Do you have anything set to open on startup that may try to connect with the Internet (like Mail or Safari)? Try removng them from your Startup Items (you can do this from the Dock -- click and hold on the icon and a mini menu should pop up with that option).
Have you looked at the info in System Profiler, and does it show the Airport card? (you can access System Profiler from the About This Mac item in the Apple Menu and clicking the button: More Info...) The card should show up under Network>Airpport Card.
Since you have a Powerbook, you have the option to take your computer to an Apple tech (Apple Genius at an Apple store, or to a dealer with a repair crew) and have them troubleshoot it. My guess is they'll end up reinstalling your OS and/or replacing the card... My G5 is far too heavy for me to throw it in the car -- and I found out the hard way yesterday that my computer is just 2 weeks out of warranty, so I'm ineligible for AppleCare. grrr... (my fault, but grrr...)
Let us know if anything good happens -- best of luck!

Airport card is dead

Can I exchange the hardware?
Or should I first try to reset the firmware?
I changed back to OS X leopard but I am still not able to establish WLAN connectivity

First, try to reset the PRAM and the SMC, so some settings will be restored to factory settings.
If it doesn't work, then you have to take the Mac to an Apple Store or reseller to get your MacBook repaired, because your AirPort card is damaged

Airport card works in 10.1, HW test passes, but not detected at all in 10.4

Ok, Hi. I'll first admit this is my first post so go easy on me!
I just bought a used iBook G3 and it was working fine for a while until about a month ago when all kinds of weird things stared happening. Some of which those problems I solved from reading previous topics from these forums - but anyways, I'll skip all my other problems and get right to my current one.
First off here is the complete specs:
12.1" iBook G3 "dual USB series"
500MHz PPC processor
128+256MB ram = 384MB RAM
15GB hard drive (NOW 160GB HARD DRIVE!)
No Airport Card (NOW ONE HAS BEEN ADDED!)
Multiple OS's - OS9 and 10.1 were included (have original disks)
I also have a set of 10.4 Tiger CD-ROM disks
Anyways, here is basically what is happening. I bought an Airport card off eBay for my iBook. I installed it about a week ago. I booted into 10.4 Tiger and it did not detect the card. Tried to do the manual setup with the wizard and it said there was no card attached. I went into the system profiler and is said No info available under the airport section. I then booted to my "apple hardware test disk" and ran the full/extended test. It passed everything (including the Airport card) so I know that is not the problem. I then booted into OS X 10.1 and lone behold the card is detected and is working without any fooling around with! Instant wireless internet! So I know that the card is working, but I want to use it in Tiger as 10.1 is almost worthless. So I boot into Tiger again knowing that the card is working, and Tiger still does not recognize it! I even booted into OS 9 and it detected the card (although it was having some connection problems, but at least I know that it IS detecting it.)
Here is what I tried (so you can cross these suggestions off your list! lol)
I've deleted the Airport "ktext" files, etc. (can't remember the actual names of the files, but I've cleared all of those caches and still no luck.)
I've zapped PRAM
I rest NVRAM
I rest the PMU.
I did a Arcive and install of 10.4
...All of which did not help. Again, the card worked in 10.1, but 10.4 is completely blind and can't find it!
Now we are caught up to today. I was having many other odd problems and it all lead to my hard drive probably being bad. So toady I finally bit the bullet and bought a new hard drive from Best Buy. It took me forever to install it, but I did it, and it works! Now I have 160GB (make that only 128GB detected) of space. I partitioned it 4 ways as well:
"Tiger" - 80GB
"Other OS" - 30GB
"Extra Space 1" - 10GB
"Extra Space 2" - 8GB
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx- 128GB Total
So now that I have a new hard drive (that I was told would fix all of my problems because my old one was "bad" I thought I would have it working today, but no. So I put in the brand new drive, partitioned it, booted off my Tiger disk, installed it on the 80GB partition. The install went fine. So I now have 10.4 on the new drive. Seems to be a lot faster then my old drive! I did the combo updater (which I downloaded on my iMac and transfered to a flash drive and loaded on to my iBook) Ran the updater, and now it is running 10.4.11! But then I realized, the Airport card is STILL not detected in Tiger!!! - I thought the new hard drive would solve all my problems as I was staring from scratch, but no, there is still a problem!
I ran the Apple hardware test disk again, full test, and it said my Airport card is still fine. I didn't reinstall 10.1 yet (nor did I want to, I was hoping Tiger would work for what I wanted) but it seems now that I might have to go back and install 10.1 again. I don't know what it will prove - other then it will work again, but I don't want to use 10.1 so I'm not going to bother doing all that again.
Anyways, after looking into this further, I brought up the system boot log (of tiger) and found these lines interesting, and hopefully useful to you guys:
localhost kernel[0]: AirPortFirmware: start Sta f/w download
localhost kernel[0]: AirPortDriver: F/W download failed
localhost kernel[0]: AirPortFirmware: start Sta f/w download
localhost DirectoryService[64]: Lunched version 1.8 (v346)
localhost kernel[0]: AirPortDriver: F/W download failed
it then lists the eithernet address and then ramblers on about other nonsense. If anyone needs the other "stuff" i'll try and save the whole log file and attach it here if anyone needs it.
So could anyone please help? It seems as if i've done everything, and still can not get an answer on why it is doing this, and how to fix it!
Please Help!
Thanks you so much, and sorry for the long yet detailed message!!!
-Scott

Hey, just wanted to post an update to let everyone know what I ended up doing.
Bottom line with the airport card I had is that is was "bad" - well only kind of. I got an email from a guy from a local PC repair shop. He told me he had just gotten one of those cards in and had it for sale for only $25. So I was chatting with this guy and he said it would be alright if I brought my iBook right in his shop, swap the cards and try it before I buy it. So I did so. Very nice guy and we swapped out the cards no problem. Right away it recognized his card and worked! I then downloaded the Airport update and ran it. (remember before, when I tried to update my card, after it restarted it was no longer recognized.) So we did the update with HIS card in and after it restarted, it STILL worked! It also added WPA support as well! We then booted into to Tiger (remember the old card wasn't recognized at all in tiger) and it ALSO worked in Tiger! I also had WPA support right away! So I bought the card and was all happy that it was all working again! I then figured out what the problem was with the old one.
My original card was one of the "original" originals. Then, Apple "changed" the original cards and replaced ones with "128bit" support. (this is all before the extreme cards) I then found out that the newer original cards (the one the guy just sold me) are worth MORE because these are the cards that are compatible with the newer update (128bit WEP, and WPA) The cards looked exactly the same, but the newer card has "128 Bit" printed on the bottom of the card.
SO, it ended up, I was "asking too much" out of the card I had - as the card I had did not support what I was trying for it to do. Where as the newer card I bought IS compatible with the update, and worked like a piece of cake. So all in all, the first card I had isn't "dead" it just wasn't working with what I wanted it to. So I'm going to end up selling it. Hopefully craigslist, but I will get more for it on eBay. so that is what I'm going to do. I'll just make sure to tell people this "story" so they don't try and do the same thing I did. But for someone with an even older laptop, an older OS, or an older router, this card will work just fine for them.
So thats basically it! Looks like I got everything working!
-Scott
Message was edited by: sdschramm

No internet access in public unsecured WLAN environment with Airport card

Dear community
I do face the following problem:
I am not able to open any internet pages in a particular unsecured public WLAN Hot Spot, although my iBook (over an Airport Card) has been successfully assigned a TCP / IP address. Other public Hot Spots work fine, but not this one.
With my Windows Pocket PC there exists no problem. After starting my browser, I immediately get redirected to the login screen.
This does not work with my iBook. There is no automatic redirect. Then I tried to directly address the router TCP / IP address. This worked and the login screen appeared. But then, after clicking the login button, an error appeared: "Can't read cookie" - but cookies are enabled (no success with Safari, Firefox and Opera).
The router is a D-Link.
Another guest with an iBook had no problems, we compared setups - the only difference which we found was, that he was using a new Airport Extreme card, I do only have an old Airport card.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thank you very much
Gary
iBook G3 Mac OS X (10.4.5) Airport Card

Dear Ronda
Thank you. Seems not that this is the problem.
Found that in the Airport Forum - others do face the same problems - no solution yet:
D-Link Wireless Access point. PC works great..Mac is SLOW on internet.
Posted: Apr 5, 2006 8:16 PM Reply Email
This has really got me frustrated. I own a hotel and am working to get it set up with a wireless internet connection. I've got a qwest dsl modem going into a D-Link router, and then today added another D-Link access point (actually, the computer tech added the new access point). I needed this additional access point because there were too many dead spots in the hotel with only one D-link.
The new D-link seems to be working perfectly, for PC users that is. People using a PC laptop can connect to the wireless network and browse the internet at fast speeds. However with my G4 1.33gh Powerbook with Airport Extreme is having problems. I get a very strong airport signal, but internet browsing is crawling along. Some pages work for minutes to load, and some won't load at all.
The settings for the wireless connection is the same on my mac as they are on the PC. Is there something else I need to change?
Thanks for any help,
lw
G4 Powerbook 1.33 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Substitute for original Airport card

I have a DVD Special iMac with a dead ethernet port. I had been using it with a USB ethernet adapter. Going through the junk in the closet, I found the Airport adapter card that came with the Airport card for my iBook and the old graphite base station that went with it. Since Apple dropped support of the graphite base station with OS X Tiger, it went in the closet and a new Netgear WiFi router went into service. It happens that the guts of a graphite base station is a Lucent WaveLan Silver PCMCIA card. I got to wondering if the WaveLan card would work in the iMac adapter. The WaveLan card is longer than an Airport card since it has an antenna built in, but a bit of snipping with a wire cutter removed part of the plastic bracket on the adapter which was in the way. There's an antenna jack under a tiny plug on the card, and lo! the iMac's antenna plug fits it. I plugged it all together and plugged the iMac back in to the wall.
It works. No extra drivers or anything. OS 9.2.2 works. OS 10.4.11 works. Apple System Profile sees it as an Airport card. The old graphite airport base stations are cheap (there's a big pile of them at our Goodwill store for $15 each). You do need the adapter, which is also usually cheap because people who bought Airport cards for their iBooks didn't need the adapter.
I figured the WaveLan card might work in OS9 because they were supported on Lombard and Pismo PowerBooks, but unlike the PowerBooks, it also works in OS X without a 3rd party driver.

John, Welcome to the discussion area!
The second choice would be an Ethernet wireless adapter. These devices require no drivers and therefore will work with any Ethernet device.

Airport Card (Powerbook) not seeing network after Update

Using software update, I updated the Airport file. Somehow it seems to have knobbled my airport card and which now wont recognise my netgear dg834gt modem.
I've been trying to fix this for two days now. grrr.
Is this update for Base stations and Express units only? hmm.
Is it possible there may be a shift in the password access? Maybe I need to reconfigure the router? I am currently trying all possibilities.....
I'm on a Powerbook 1.25 @ 10.3.9 - and have reinstalled the essential system software, but I think this screwed things up even more. My main Admin name has also been changed to 'root' ?
The router seems to be fine, (connected via ethernet right now) but the airport just wont find the network and i'm sitting right next to it -- ??
All was fine before -- but now it sleeps. boo.
Am looking all over all help sites and forums but can find no answers yet -
thanks for any assistance in adv.
J.

Update;
Things are looking v. dodgy for PB. have archived and installed, but still a dead Airport. Can this all have been done by an airport update?! -- hmm. Maybe a full erase & install will help. Maybe its something stoopid I've not done in my Airport network prefs...?
Airport Pref. 1 is set to 'Automatic'
TCP/IP is set to 'DHCP'
Apple talk is 'off'
Proxies -- all are not ticked. (is this correct?) Passive FTP box is ticked.
Am reconfiguring Netgear as should be done - restarting, P.B., etc...
The more this goes on, the more i'm feeling somethings blown up in the ariport card. grrr.
Thnx for any help in adv.
J.

Installed updates--now Airport Card vanished

Greetings,
I have the most recent 21.5" iMac (3.2 GHz) with the most recent OS installed.
Last night, I installed three updates: iTunes 10, Snow Leopard Graphics Update 1.0, and Security Update 2010-005 1.0. I restarted the computer.
This morning, I went to get online and my Airport was gone. It said "Airport Card Not Installed." This is odd because it's worked fine since January.
I went to Networking, and Airport was off. When I clicked "Turn Airport On" nothing happened.
I tried holding shift and restarting, restarting again, and shutting down. It's dead. My Windows laptop gets internet without a problem.
Some forums have recommended holding P and R while restarting. What is that? Other ideas as to what has occurred?
Thanks!

I recently bought and installed iLife '11 and since then (few weeks ago) I have had intermittent issues with the airport card not working and a message saying 'airport not installed' showing. I mention iLife '11 as it is the only significant change to my system since I bought the iMac. Until now I have never experienced any issues with airport cards on this or a long serving previous iMac. The point is nothing I have done (I've hunted out many discussion threads on this and other forums) has made a blind bit of difference (gone through all of the things so far suggested here - nothing worked). The only solution has been to switch off and try again the next day. So far that has worked but I would rather know why this happens and how to stop it then just be at the mercy of a random error / bug. Anyone else had random failures of airport cards? I have grown to expect Apple equipment to be reliable... having re-evaluate that of late!
I have a late '09 iMac with the latest OS updates installed. Linked to a secure wireless network, shared with a Dell PC (also wireless).

Can you disable 802.11g and 802.11a on an Airport Card?

Does anyone know if there is a way to disable 802.11a and 802.11g functionality on a MacBook Airport card? I have a very old 802.11b access point and the airport card seems to be making it fail. I was hoping that by turning off 802.11g or potentially adjusting some other airport parameters I might be able to keep the AP from crashing. I'm hoping to keep the AP I have because it has an integrated print server which has been great. If there is no way to modify the settings on the airport card, I guess I'll need to upgrade my AP.
Thanks.
Macbook Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Well, I should have used the advice I give to everyone else. Even though my wireless router is very old, there was a firmware upgrade for it. Even though the release notes for the firmware said nothing about it fixing a problem with a MacBook, I upgraded to the latest firmware. After a week or so of testing, it seems to have resolved the problem with the AP going dead when the MacBook was using it.

G4 867 Quicksilver + Airport Card - Not seein' any wireless signals

Hi hello there,
I got this G4 running 10.5 for surfin and music - but I can't seem to get the Airport workin on it.
I have a laptop that is currently using the Airport Express... So I know how to set it up. And I know it's sending out the signals
I installed an Airport card - It's in my "About this mac" so I know it's recognized.
I rebooted (held if for long until it beeped {thanks IT guy}) I zapped the p-ram - It's ON. I got a lil Amber icon next to it in the Network controls. And It's in my Shortcut Airport menu - but I don't see nobody - no networks.
What am I doing wrong?

Hi,
we had a poster here who had the same problem with a card still under warranty. Apple service checked it and it was dead, he got a free exchange.
Hans

Airport card in PB G4 has "self assigned IP address"

I've been using a PB G4 with my Linksys router for quite some time, and now it won't connect to the internet. I shows the signal strength, and that's it's connected to the router but no internet. I've run all the utilities, and diagnostics, but nothing has been fixed. The only thing I see is that the Airport has a "self assigned IP address and may not be able to connect to the internet." This message is in the network preferences.
I'm not sure if this is in the correct forum, but if anyone can help that would be awesome.
Thanks in advance for your help.

When I came back to it, the battery was completely dead and the clock had reset to 1969.
It sounds like you need to replace the PRAM battery on your PB. I would suggest doing so before attempting any additional troubleshooting of the AirPort Card.
Please check out the following iFixit link to see if your PB has a PRAM battery and what it would take to replace it.

Dead AirPort Card?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for