New imac 21, airport card anomalies...

Question

hello everybody
just to inform, as here apple ssupport  didn't ptopose such "simple`" solution  to a kind of network misconfiguration , bad access to web services, aso
1) after a few s=days, a brand new imac 2.5 g intel core i5 was not connecting to te router correctly.
2) when calling  apple support, describing the airport icon showing @no airport card connected@,(even if the system info[locations showed a card and even the  modem data on screen..) so  i had to pack tje machine and travel to such apple center downtown, Polanco, and here in Mexico it's a real pleasure to  ride some 2 hours in eavy traffic..
3) arriving there, no airport card problem, and the technician described me a probable motherboard saturation or even overheating situation, i said ok, will go home and see if everything keeps working fine.
4) a few days later, again, no access to web, automatic or personalized network or account adjustments seem fine.. but no way to receive or send mail, web pages crazyly slow, aso...
5) when  24 hours later no way to  see nothing, even  the airport icon with stripes shows just clear empty grayish icon..
6) calling again ther apple service center, again they  ask me to carry the stuff downtown, must be or could be probably a configuration problem, need to be checked there, aso, no way to look for or propose some solution just by calling them aso.
7) calling ip service, we tried for more than an hour to check , trying all options, f.i. using ethernet cable (modem always good,  and machine working fine then) we examined all options, accounts configuration, the automatic was not accepting a connection, system showing "Airport connected but no ip address because not attributed, or missing", aso)
8) and  when changing from automatic locatoon to the configuration  we had installed weeks before to help solve the connection problem , same result.
the directions of ip, router subnet mask aso were correct, changed eventually, no way, nothing was connecting.,  we tried quitiing such non automatic configuration to avoid possible conflicts, no results.
9) after an hour or so, the technician from my IP offered to quit the airport configuration (even with a green bulb visible that  airport  config was not connecting, the desktop icon was  sometimes greyish, sometimes empty, aso...)  and add a new one.
10) at the moment  it was created (as "airport 2") ... the automatic configuration looked instantly for another ip adress, and everything works fine now..
SOSO why doesn[t apple support technicians have suchj ideas ? why did  the airport icon even show a "not connected{ airport card message ?
I phoned  those apple guys around, explained them the solution offerde by phone by the IOP provider, no comment, answer or even a simpe "thanks" for  such suggestion , from them,  whan the received such info, Hopefully will eb useful  for others users, and eventually after a post here. tschuss
Form Mexico city...

Answer 1

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!