Wireless Detection No Longer Functional

I have searched other threads and found some similar issues but not quite exactly the same as my problem:

I have a 2006 Macbook Pro that has been quite trusty until recently, when the airport suddenly started dropping my home wireless network and then failing to reconnect (it would prompt me for a password, even though it was saved, and then it would say "connection timed out" while connecting). Now it has gotten worse and it can no longer detect any wireless networks, both at home and at work. When I click the menu bar icon to find networks, it shows none. Other computers around me, including a new MacBook Pro and some old PCs, find the signal fine.

My airport does, however, pick up the wireless signal when I'm sitting right next to the wireless router at home. Can the antenna on the airport card suddenly lose functionality? Is it super weak now for some reason, and can't find the network through a few walls like it used to?

Sometimes I am also able to pick up a signal, and a full five bars at that, right after I wake my laptop up from sleep or boot it up in the morning. It also works shortly after rebooting the router, sometimes.

On a side note: my battery burnt out long ago (if I unplug my computer it shuts down), but I still kept the battery attached to my laptop. Yesterday, my battery kind of burst open at its seams (yikes), so I've decided to finally take it out of the bottom of my laptop, but I wonder if this somehow damaged anything related to the airport, since this fiasco coincided with my airport issues.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Two things:

1) You should have bought a new battery when the old one burnt out. You should also buy one now, because you didn't before.

2) You should buy an external network card and see if that helps your connection.

leopard-user1 said:

Two things:

1) You should have bought a new battery when the old one burnt out. You should also buy one now, because you didn't before.

2) You should buy an external network card and see if that helps your connection.

Click to expand...

i have the same wireless detection problem like eringh, with an early 2006 macbook pro. i would appreciate a better solution/fix than buying a new products. thats why we look into these forums.

getting back to my problem, i downloaded the airport software updates few days ago, and ever since i did that, my mbp has had troubles detecting networks, and even if it did, the connection was dropped after a few seconds. so i am also trying to figure out how to uninstall the software update that i download. i appreciate any help. thanks.

bump, anyone???

Glad I'm not the only one.

I've had similar problems with my 17-inch MacBook Pro, same age. My battery also started to burst about six months ago. And though it still kept a good charge, I brought it into the Apple store where they promptly replaced it for free (I bought an AppleCare plan that isn't expired yet, but they didn't even ask when they saw the battery).

Recently, I also have had problems getting a wireless signal when other computers have had no problems. I'm on vacation but intend to take it to the Apple store when I get back home.

Has anyone else had these problems, and if so, how was it resolved?