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  • Re: Wi-Fi dying on my iMac?

    From Alan@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sun Jun 25 17:47:45 2023
    On 2023-06-25 17:30, Alan Browne wrote:

    Yesterday my Wi-Fi on this iMac went off.

    No way to connect it to my router.

    I could see other (familiar) neighbor's routers.

    Fired up iStumbler - usually I'd see a dozen or more local WiFi's over 2 bands.  Now only seeing a few at a time.

    Did all the usual stuff.  The names of the routers would change from
    time to time.

    Occasionally it would connect to one of my 4 WiFi spots (2 private + 2 guest).  No internet traffic.

    Reviewed and reset everything.

    Removed and restored the WiFi from Preferences.

    "Make Service Inactive" - reboot - "Make Service Active".

    SMC reset
    PRAM reset

    Briefly today, one of the guest WiFi's worked for about 10 minutes
    before dropping out again.

    <sigh>

    Took the iMac screen off (this is the slim edge edition - I never
    re-sealed it after a disk change, so just removed the packing tape that
    was holding the screen on....)
    Disconnected and removed the display.
    Disconnected the RF connectors, examined them - fine, restored.

    Unscrewed the antennas from the edges, examined, cleaned (in case of
    metal particles).

    Noted that the grounding "fingers" that bond <cough> the backshell to
    the display assembly around the main electronics could potentially touch
    the antennas.  Put Kapton tape in between to make sure there would be no contact when the display "pressed" these in again.

    Re-assembled.

    Still no Wi-Fi other than a brief burst of 2 or 3 minutes on a guest
    access.

    Deleted a pile of related files in
    /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ (per a guide online) and
    re-booted.

    The behaviour smacks to me of failing WiFi hardware - the intermittency
    of known WiFi access points appearing and disappearing.

    At first thought the antennas or cables - but they are fine as far as I
    can see.

    No bluetooth issues - but not sure if it's the same chip.  From the h/w config I don't believe so. (Both are Broadcom).

    Any ideas appreciated.


    At the very least you should reboot in Safe Mode (hold down the Shift key).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jun 25 20:30:17 2023
    Yesterday my Wi-Fi on this iMac went off.

    No way to connect it to my router.

    I could see other (familiar) neighbor's routers.

    Fired up iStumbler - usually I'd see a dozen or more local WiFi's over 2
    bands. Now only seeing a few at a time.

    Did all the usual stuff. The names of the routers would change from
    time to time.

    Occasionally it would connect to one of my 4 WiFi spots (2 private + 2
    guest). No internet traffic.

    Reviewed and reset everything.

    Removed and restored the WiFi from Preferences.

    "Make Service Inactive" - reboot - "Make Service Active".

    SMC reset
    PRAM reset

    Briefly today, one of the guest WiFi's worked for about 10 minutes
    before dropping out again.

    <sigh>

    Took the iMac screen off (this is the slim edge edition - I never
    re-sealed it after a disk change, so just removed the packing tape that
    was holding the screen on....)
    Disconnected and removed the display.
    Disconnected the RF connectors, examined them - fine, restored.

    Unscrewed the antennas from the edges, examined, cleaned (in case of
    metal particles).

    Noted that the grounding "fingers" that bond <cough> the backshell to
    the display assembly around the main electronics could potentially touch
    the antennas. Put Kapton tape in between to make sure there would be no contact when the display "pressed" these in again.

    Re-assembled.

    Still no Wi-Fi other than a brief burst of 2 or 3 minutes on a guest access.

    Deleted a pile of related files in
    /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ (per a guide online) and
    re-booted.

    The behaviour smacks to me of failing WiFi hardware - the intermittency
    of known WiFi access points appearing and disappearing.

    At first thought the antennas or cables - but they are fine as far as I
    can see.

    No bluetooth issues - but not sure if it's the same chip. From the h/w
    config I don't believe so. (Both are Broadcom).

    Any ideas appreciated.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Alan on Sun Jun 25 20:59:27 2023
    On 2023-06-25 20:47, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 17:30, Alan Browne wrote:

    Any ideas appreciated.


    At the very least you should reboot in Safe Mode (hold down the Shift key).

    At the very least I should have posted this in the right newsgroup.

    I'll try that tomorrow. Thx.


    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)