Where is my airport card?

[kernelitis]

Hi guys, first of all thanks for the website that was setup to sign our complaints, I will be sending my info as soon as possible. I had my first KP on saturday and from there on it became impossible to use my Ibook without a KP however I could work on safe boot so after multiple hours online (from a windows PC), tons of patience and installing my OS X two times from scratch I got my Ibook back to life through ethernet and with my airport turned off. So as many people here no more KPs but I have no wireless, however I can boot normally without the pressure thing that was mentioned here.

I'm not adding anything new here just sharing my pain. I was unfortunate enough to be the owner of a faulty G3 Ibook, the ones that had screen problems due to logic board failure and which apple did agree to fix free of charge, I had that one repaired twice by them and still had problems so I sold it as soon as I got it back from the second repair. Now I get this on my G4 and luckily I still have the extended applecare but I really don't think I can trust Apple anymore. I have always been a promoter of Apple over PC but although PCs are slow I've never had one actually break up on me like my G3 did and this one could do any day now. It all comes down to how Apple solves my problem on wether I keep on being their customer or not, I just hope all those other guys without Applecare can get their Ibooks repaired free of charge.

[R_Macs_all_that?]

Hi guys,

Same problems (KP's upon trying to go on the internet wi-fi-ly), same laptop (IBook G4, purchased Jan 2006 at Best Buy...the WORST!!!), same frustration directed towards Apple.

My brother-in-law works for Apple and it's like he can't/won't say ANYTHING negative. In his words, "My career would effectively be over". Big Brother is watching...

The pressing on the front left corner of the opened laptop ensures that it starts up correctly, or I get the chimes but then only a black screen. It seems like the computer is working, the caps-lock button lights when pressed. I can get to the aiport icon to turn the damn thing off, then all is okay except I use the computer for mostly internet stuff!!! Argh! Bah-humbug and all that.

The geniuses at the Apple store, San Francisco Union Square location, told me the hard-drive had died and I needed to send it in so they could re-set the damn thing, give it it's first birthday. Oh yeah, and it'll cost me $300. Well, methinks I could do that without spending $300. Am I right? Hells yeah!

So, apple.com, after searching HIGH and low gave me these pearls:
Reset the power manager by simultaneously pressing and then releasing Shift-Control-Option-Power on the keyboard. Do not press the fn (Function) key while using this combination of keystrokes.

Um...press for how long? how many times? WTF???? To me, this was classic Apple. So intuitive, so elegant...so whatever.

Anyway, I'll keep checking back. Thanks for confirming that I'm not totally crazy...er-at least not about this

[hank_belgium]

Hi Guys,

I guess i've become a member of the KP club also.
Same syptoms same model IBook G4 1.33 12" same serialrange.

I've contacted my lawyer and he advised me to sent registered letters to both my dealer and apple benelux.
I followed his advise and am now waiting for the answers.
Maybe this is something we all could do.

In Europe you have the right to a working product even when you are past your warranty date.

I also think we should create much more havoc on this matter.
Maybe KillerGull should add some extra info about the problem on his site and regularly update the list of serials. If we could get this site posted on a site like digg or delicious maybe apple will start to take us seriously.

Anyway i can only advise eryone of you to write a letter to your apple store and the apple headquarters in you're country and make an official complaint.
Only in this way we are going to apple to recognize that it is a design flaw.

regards
Han

[qwill01]

Hello everyone,

I'm new also on this forum and I joined you for one very good reason; I'm now also part of the KP Club unfortunately

I have all the same exact symptoms that have been described so far, and I iBook have been buy early September 2005. Before this trouble I have no encounter any specific trouble.

I can mention that I have replaced my HD and updated my memory 2 month ago but I didn't expect the issues until three days ago.

I really hope that we will manage to find a solution to this.

And if I could give an advise as Hank_belgium says we can try to digg this post or deli.ci.ous or any other way to really make us known because to find this thread I pass nearly two days googling before finding it. An other idea could also be to rename the thread because the title is a bite confusing.

Thanks for any further Help. I'm staying tuned.

Best regards to everyone
Qwill01 from France

[hank_belgium]

I sent an email to Steve Jobs yesterday about this issue. Well it's not really Steve but you reach Executive Relations. And just received a call from an Apple rep.

A very kind lady told me that she would move the problem on to the engineers to see if this is a design flaw.

I think that it is very important that all of us suffering from this problem inform Apple about it. You can do this by calling the phone support or have a local service center register the complaint in their system. All these will be sent on to apple. The more complaints they have the more chance we have that it will be registered as a design flaw.

I'm going to try and get mine fixed under belgian consumer warranty (2 jears).

So all of you in start mailing or run to the nearest service center and have it registered.

[Anti]

This thread's been linked to in Low End Mac, so it's definitely getting noticed.

[doki_3]

Hi guys,

I wrote earlier open the ibook G4 but sorry I changed my mind for some reaons that are very strong.

My congratulation for the people that made this advance here that I follow it all the time. Out of this topic other China made products has problem so this
problem can belong for that problem somehow but all these not help us.

I wandering very much what the Apple engineers will check and find in this G4 ibbok. Wait, see and hope.
doki_3

[filup]

add another to the list...

g4, 12", 1.33 ghz, 1 gig ram, purchased feb'ish 2006. i am going to the apple store tomorrrow, this will likely lead me to only frustration but i thought i would give it a shot. will report back here tomorrow.

[filup]

also.. one other question for everyone...

have the folks that got a logic board replacement had success after the change-out? skinkie? ferdinand?

also.. has anyone had success just pulling the airport card out altogether and accessing the web through a USB wireless card or something similar? this is an unfortunate way to fix the thing seeing as how we paid for airport, but would this hypothetically work?

thanks!

[doki_3]

Hi filup,

To take off phisycally the airport card you need to take off the whole computer. It is not under the keyboard in this one. (in type I have list.)
I asked a question if possible to take off the driver from boot or after but never got an answer.
USB if you find one can work I think even you close the airport from the software.
As you know must not work the two airport system together.
By the way as suggested here better write to the Apple store a certificated letter.
b.r.
doki_3

[filup]

this potentially answers your question doki_3.

Quote: Originally Posted by VeryBadApple Hi All For ALL OTHERS, who would like to take their chances on a "handmade" solution _that will NOT allow you to use the AirPort card, but WILL, most likely, allow you to use every other function of your machine, including access to the net via hardwired Ethernet_ , do the following: A) start up in Safe Mode (holding down the _Shift_ key at least until machine shows grey screen with the little clock-like icon spinning) B) Once machine starts up and you log in, Double click your Hard Drive icon (usually named Macintosh HD, or something of that sort) and open System/Library/Extensions C) Look for, and remove, the file named AppleAirport2.kext. Move it someplace else, and remember where you stored it so you can put it back in place if/when our beloved Cupertino buddies decide to / manage to provide a solution. D) Close all windows, and select "Shut Down". (Confirm when asked, Windoze style, Did you actually tell me just now to shut down, or did I dream it up?). WinDummied Mac finally shuts down. E) After, say, 30 seconds, Push the Start Up button as you normally would. My experience with this homemade solution was as follows: The first startup resulted in what seemed like a very long time (several minutes) worth of a blank light blue screen, supplemented after a while by an unusually loud/very active fan noise. (I later surmised the machine was probably doing a self-check of the hard drive, which - being 160 Gig - takes a fair amount of time. Of course the 21st Century Apple software, having evolved "way past" Apple's own "Human Interface Guidelines" won't bother to tell you what in the world is happening). Tired of waiting and wondering, I did a forced re-start (hold down start up button for as long as it takes for machine to turn itself off, wait a few seconds as above, then activate the button again). Second time around I got my usual login screen fairly promptly, and was able to go to work as usual, MINUS the wireless access. Have since run the Sec Update 2006-08, and machine continues to work fine via wired Ethernet. I have resisted the "temptation" to slip the file back in the Extensions folder after the update, to see if things had magically gone back to normal. Like some others on this thread have pointed out, I spent money on this gadget because I actually need it to do work with, rather than lock myself out of it, and spend countless unpaid hours troubleshooting it. Hope this helps. Bye now.

this is the route i am going if all else fails. i figure disabling the airport and buying a wireless USB adapter is much less harmful on the pocketbook than a boatload paid for logic boards, tech help, etc. thoughts?

[doki_3]

Hi filup,

Please, let me ask also a question; from where you got this writing?
I already bought one and such a one not solved at all the problem.
For the most freness if company make a mistake they have to repair it.
I read that made the most advanced company that Apple want to belong.
b.r.
doki_3

[filup]

i got it from a message here on the forums...

from what i can gather, if you go through and disable the airport and then purchase a USB wireless adapter (from afterthemac.com for example) it seems like you should have full functionality of the laptop.

has anyone else done this? i would really like to know if others were successful doing this.

[gijze]

hello

I use a wireless ubs stick (from asus). Most usb-sticks are originally manufactured by Ralink (even though there may be something else on the stick itself). I just had to install the osx driver (found on the Ralink site), and everything worked. Well, it worked kinda.

The problem with USB sticks is that the reception is very bad. When i sit more than 10 metres away from my router, i have no reception. The problem is that if you are used to using an iBook (which has the best reception I have ever seen in no matter what pc/mac), it is quite frustrating in the beginning. But, in the end, it works.

[hank_belgium]

for those of you who want to send a mail to mr jobs too
here's a copy of the mail i sent.

Remember to stay polite, add as much info as possible, if you have a report from your dealer add it to the mail etc.


the emailadresses i sent this to are steve at mac dot com and sjobs at apple dot com



Mr Jobs,

In October 2005 i decided to make the switch to apple so i decided to buy an ibook G4 1.33 12".
I was so happy i made the switch. In fact i was so enthusiastic about my Ibook that even some of my pc addicted friends also made the switch to apple.

But 3 weeks ago things went wrong. All of a sudden my Ibook started to have kernel panics. A little search on the internet soon learned me that there was something wrong with my airport-card. Apparently there seems to be an issue with the connector of the airport-card on the logicboard. So i took my ibook to a service center where they confirmed this.

In the mean time i had to buy a new macbook pro so i could continue my work.

A little more searching on the internet also shows that i am not the only one with this problem.
On several forums users report the same issue with the same ibook

http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=62622 this particular forum even has a list with affected serial numbers. The serial numbers seem to be in one particular range. And so is my serial.
And it also seems to be only affecting those ibooks where the airport-card is located on the logicboard rather than under the keyboard.

So it appears to be some kind of design flaw.

When i brought this to the attention of my dealer they told me they could do nothing about it since it was not a recognized fault. So i called and emailed apple benelux to explain the issue and hoping to get my Ibook fixed. Or at least have someone recognize the fault.


So here's my question. Can something be done about this issue? Can someone at apple please take a look at what is affecting our ibooks and see if there is some kind of fix possible?

thanks

Han

[doki_3]

hi hank_belgium,
thanks for the letter. Hope they will answer.
b.r.,
doki_3

[R_Macs_all_that?]

This is what I've done and so far, everything is working great:

I disabled the airport, but did not remove it.

Connecting via the ethernet, while a drag, is working completely satisfactorily.

I never had to do a factory reset, spend $300 and not have my computer for god only knows how long.

Beyond this, I am registering an Skinkie's site, and writing the letter referenced above to Mr. Jobs.

I'll keep everyone posted if I get anywhere.

[hank_belgium]

great to see everyone is getting involved.
If possible also contact your local apple office (in my case that was apple benelux in brussels) and tell them about the issue. the more we get things moving the better.

Maybe we should create a website ex/complaining the issue and integrate the form skinkie made.

I have a hosting company and have plenty of space to host such a page. If skinkie sends me the files and someone who's english is better than mine can write a text explaining the issue I am willing to host the thing.
Maybe if we can make a good story of it we can get it on digg.com that way apple won't be able to keep ignoring the problem.
I'm pretty sure they would not like to see their reputation go down because of this.

let me know if i can be of any help.

grtz
han

[leapinguana]

Also a kp victim, since the 10.4.10 update from what I can tell...July anyway. Driving me crazy!

I have a 12 inch iBook, bought in Dec 2005, with a 4H55 serial.....all is fine if airport is off and I'm on a cable...

Mainly posting to follow along with the progress and stay informed....I want to call Apple since I'm still under warranty but it sounds like they don't have many answers....

I've been a long time fan... they better fix this before Leopard is out as I'm all set to buy a new iMac but feeling hesitant!

best of luck!

[ThreeDee]

Rumor has it that 10.4.11 is in testing phase and is going to be released really soon. Perhaps it will fix the problems you are having.

I can't believe this thread had over 30000 page views!