Airport Hardware not found on macbook

[What_light]

I'm running a Macbook 2.0 GHz with Tiger 10.4.11 and Intel Core Duo. The screen flickered a bunch so I thought I'd Repair Disk Permissions. After I did that, the screen basically stopped flickering, but after a reboot, my computer can no longer find my Airport card. The system profiler says "No Information Found" for the airport card.

I've tried all sorts of things, I reset the PMU (I forget what the Intel Based PMU is called) and repaired the disk, in the disk utility.

I've read on a number of forums people having this problem with their powerbooks, but I can't find any info on how to fix it on my macbook. I didn't buy Applecare, and am afraid the repairs are gonna cost an arm and a leg. If anybody has any ideas they would be greatly appreciated. This is my first mac, and I'm all for learning some of the more advanced troubleshooting techniques.

[tlarkin]

if you type ifconfig in terminal and copy/paste the results here maybe we can see if your system is actually seeing the hardware.

[Las_Vegas]

Boot your OS X 10.5 DVD and try to connect with your Airport while booted. This will verify that the hardware is okay. Software's a lot easier and cheaper to fix.

[appleman_design]

try adding a new location to the network panel and see if it shows up there.

[What_light]

Quote: Originally Posted by tlarkin if you type ifconfig in terminal and copy/paste the results here maybe we can see if your system is actually seeing the hardware.

Here is what that looks like:

Last login: Mon Apr 28 00:24:55 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
ip-134-53-97-38:~ andy$ ifconfig
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280
stf0: flags=1<UP> mtu 1280
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::217:f2ff:fe26:bfaa%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
inet 134.53.97.38 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 134.53.97.255
ether 00:17:f2:26:bf:aa
media: autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>) status: active
supported media: autoselect 10baseT/UTP <half-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex,flow-control> 100baseTX <half-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 100baseTX <full-duplex,flow-control> 1000baseT <full-duplex> 1000baseT <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control> none
fw0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 2030
lladdr 00:16:cb:ff:fe:f1:3f:0c
media: autoselect <full-duplex> status: inactive
supported media: autoselect <full-duplex>
ip-134-53-97-38:~ andy$

Look good?

[What_light]

Quote: Originally Posted by appleman_design try adding a new location to the network panel and see if it shows up there.

here is a screen shot of what that looks like, note that the airport doesn't exist in my status menu:

[What_light]

haven't heard anything from anybody...can you tell if this is a hardware or software problem?

[tlarkin]

it should list two ethernet adapters, en0 en1, one for ethernet and one for airport. Your Airport card is turned off, can you turn it on?

[trevor]

What_light, in post #5, you revealed your actual routable IP address. It's the four numbers, beginning with "134.", and it's both in the ifconfig output as well as your prompt. For your own safety, you may want to obfuscate those numbers. Just edit your own post #5 in this thread, and everywhere the 134.x.x.x number is shown, add x's for the numbers after the first.

Second, as tlarkin has pointed out, you've got your Airport switched off. You need to switch it on. Then, if you want Airport to be the primary interface rather than Built-in ethernet, you need to drag the Airport entry above the Built-in ethernet entry in System Preferences > Network.

Trevor

[What_light]

Quote: Originally Posted by trevor What_light, in post #5, you revealed your actual routable IP address. It's the four numbers, beginning with "134.", and it's both in the ifconfig output as well as your prompt. For your own safety, you may want to obfuscate those numbers. Just edit your own post #5 in this thread, and everywhere the 134.x.x.x number is shown, add x's for the numbers after the first. Second, as tlarkin has pointed out, you've got your Airport switched off. You need to switch it on. Then, if you want Airport to be the primary interface rather than Built-in ethernet, you need to drag the Airport entry above the Built-in ethernet entry in System Preferences > Network. Trevor

I wish it was that simple, sorry if I offend you, but I'm not a dumbass that can't simply figure out how to turn on or off airport (i showed my ip address because i'm at school and our network is run by the biggest douchebags. i can't even bittorrent, so I'm not worried about putting that out there). Something is wrong with the hardware, I took my machine apart and disconnected, cleaned and reconnected the airport card. Still nothing has happened. I reset the PRAM and the logic board and nothing is working.

I'm just going to take it to the Genius Bar and have them make sure that it is just a hardware problem and buy a new airport card.

Thanks for the help all

[iMovieStar]

My sister's PowerMac G4 is doing the same thing right now. It says Airport is off and I can't turn it on, hell I even tried using a 3rd party Airport card and that didn't work either so I think it's a software issue.

So I just have to boot with the disc in the drive?

[tlarkin]

Quote: Originally Posted by What_light I wish it was that simple, sorry if I offend you, but I'm not a dumbass that can't simply figure out how to turn on or off airport (i showed my ip address because i'm at school and our network is run by the biggest douchebags. i can't even bittorrent, so I'm not worried about putting that out there). Something is wrong with the hardware, I took my machine apart and disconnected, cleaned and reconnected the airport card. Still nothing has happened. I reset the PRAM and the logic board and nothing is working. I'm just going to take it to the Genius Bar and have them make sure that it is just a hardware problem and buy a new airport card. Thanks for the help all

Try powering it off, then powering it on and holding down the power button until you hear a long beep. Then once it beeps (long) you can let go and this will reset all the power management.

[Las_Vegas]

You may also try booting the Leopard OS X DVD and see if you can configure the Airport card while booted from the DVD. This will tell us if the problem is hardware related or with your current OS X install.

[iMovieStar]

I just did an archive and install on her PMg4 and it still does the same thing. I so confused by this, just weird.

I'm gonna try doing a clean install of 10.5 on the backup drive and see what happens.