2

Score

Avatar
leon
25

Asked

Airport doesn't pick up wifi after hard drive switch.

History

Hi All,

I used this guide to replace my hard drive (which works great btw), but somehow in the process I messed up my airport card. If the iMac is right next to the router it will pick it up, but move it to the next room and it see's nothing, even though my laptop gets full bars.

This makes me think I unplugged the antenna for it (does it even have one?), but going back through the guide I didn't see it mentioned. Also, I'm not sure if it matters but I was never able to get the front bezel latch to close correctly when I put it all back together.

Thanks!

Post Answer

3

Score

Avatar
tesserax
91

Answered

PermalinkHistory

The iMac has an internal AirPort Extreme card. Attached to this card is two antennae cables. See the image for Step 10 in the following iFixIt link:

1

Score

Avatar
Robert Stone
13

Answered

PermalinkHistory

Hi Leon,

It was deja vu all over again reading your problem since until 5 minutes ago I had the exact same issue. I tried opening the iMac back up, checking the airport card connection and even repaired the tears I had made in the shielding with aluminum tape all to no avail. I got it working again by doing something very odd that I read in a post somewhere about I think a MacBook Pro:

Try logging onto your airport with airport utility and take it off the "automatic channel" setting in favor of a specific channel (I happened to choose 6). For reasons I don't understand this fixed the problem for me and I hope it will do so for you, too!

-Bob

1

Score

Avatar
Barry Hill
13

Answered

PermalinkHistory

I bought a used iMac with the same issue. The previous owner had the hard drive replaced. I replace the card - exact same. So I was still puzzled and did a little experiment. I could never find any documentation on the two different antenna leads so switched the two antenna cables - PRESTO - works great.

0

Score

Avatar
Willem
1

Answered

PermalinkHistory

I find to have the same issue as described by Leon.

Problem is, I tried to reopen my iMac, but it won't open the front bezel with the card trick..

So I opened it from the bottem and undid the EMI shield. It appears there's only one antenna attached to my airport card.

does anyone know if this is normal, or should it always have two antenna's?

Is there a way to fix this? Maybe by creating my own antenna somehow?

Thanks!

Add Your Answer