MacBook AirPort Update – Hinge Position
Posted May 16th, 2010 @ 09:15am by Erik J. Barzeski
I've recently come to the nearly final conclusion that the hinge in the MacBook is affecting the AirPort card. A loose wire or a loose connection somewhere is likely at fault, because when the screen is in a range of about +/- 20° from a right angle to the keyboard portion, the wireless signal seems to work.
It could also be one of the many software things I tried to fix, but for now Carey's computer isn't going to sleep and it's working out well.
Update: This comment says: "You might have one of those models where the airport card is inside the cllutch/hinge of the display panel. Those machines are quite sensible to misplaced flex cable connectors…"
The comment goes on to talk about booting off an external system or using Target Disk Mode, but since it has no Firewire, that ain't happenin' any time soon, unfortunately.
Posted 15 Dec 2010 at 10:48am #
I've got a three year old MacBook and the Airport has now stopped working.
I would agree that it is probably in the hinge and although I'm probably not technically competent to repair these things, I will try some investigation.
Regards
Simon