Wifi issue

I have a 2009 MacBook5,2 2.13 GHz. The signal is very weak and slow and i can't figure out why, here are all the things i've tried but have not worked at all.
Changed the DNS
Renewed DHCP lease
Changed the wifi channel
Switched with a different hard drive
Tried starbucks wifi
Replaced the Airport Card

Still haven't figured it out and I'm running out of ideas

Try resetting your network configuration completely:

In Finder go to:
yourMacHD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist

Rename the preferences.plist to preferences.old

Restart your Mac

Attempt to reconnect to your network and try again

If that doesn't work then do the same thing but for the whole SystemConfiguration folder that the above plist is in.


You don't say if you've completed a clean install of OSX or tried a new user. Have you done either or both?

Tried both of those and they didn't work. reinstalled the OS x and it didn't help either

riverside1 said:

I have a 2009 MacBook5,2 2.13 GHz. The signal is very weak and slow and i can't figure out why

Click to expand...

How far is the computer from the router?

- Nick

10-15 feet, every other macbook i've used works just fine from here

It has to be a hardware issue if all the things you've described have been done.

A broken or disconnected antenna cable, a cable grounding, connectors to the wireless card on the mainboard faulty etc.

sounds fun

You stated in your first post that you replaced the airport card. That requires some work and getting inside the machine. I'm assuming the reason you replaced the airport card was because of the weak signal? Note that the antenna leads are located in the display case of your MacBook and attach to the airport card. Was the machine dropped or the display changed at one time?

Yes i thought it might have been a problem with the airport card so i replaced it. I'm not the original owner so idk it could have been dropped. Would just buying a USB wireless adapter fix the problem?

Ah, OK. That explains a lot. I suspect the original owner may done something to disturb the antenna leads or connectors. As for the USB connector, you can give it a try if you find one that's compatible.

chscag said:

As for the USB connector, you can give it a try if you find one that's compatible.

Click to expand...

@ OP Even if it says Mac compatible make sure you know what the return policy of the vendor. I've had a few of these that were working under earlier OS versions but stopped working after an upgrade. Some haven't updated their drivers in quite a while.