Will External/USB WIFI Help "Wifi: No Hardware Installed Issue

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For the last few months, my Macbook Pro (Mid-2009 model) has continuously and randomly dropped wifi. At first, simply restarting it fixed this. Eventually, I ran into the "Wifi: No Hardware Installed" Message at the top, where the wireless symbol at the top would be a solid gray with a white "X" through the middle instead of little bars. I did every suggestion I could find here and on other forums, and eventually read that the antenna for wifi was in a funky place, and I found that if (sounds weird!) I move the screen just right and hold my thumb down on the bottom corner of the left side of the screen, it gave me my signal back. This worked for a while, since my screen was starting to come apart slightly, so keeping a "chip clip"-like thing on the bottom left corner kept it from returning. Lately, nothing has been keeping this issue at bay. I rely on my laptop for work as a webmaster and website designer, so this is very frustrating to me. I was wondering if there was some way to disable the internal wifi antenna and only use an external (usb may be?) antenna for my wifi connection. I find a lot of conflicting reports on whether this works or not, and was just curious if anyone has any experience with this or advice for me! Thank You :)
 

pigoo3

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This worked for a while, since my screen was starting to come apart slightly, so keeping a "chip clip"-like thing on the bottom left corner kept it from returning.

I think that this is the key statement. A screen/display that's coming apart means that this computer has sustained damage of some sort. Which means more than just the display coming apart could be damaged.

Maybe you're right. Maybe the wifi antenna wire got damaged, frayed, broken, etc….when the computer initially sustained the damage. Then the opening & closed of the laptop display could have worn the antenna wire over time. This is why the problem has slowly gotten worse & worse over time.

The key is to replace the part/parts that are worn or broken. And to determine this…the computer must be opened up to investigate.

- Nick
 

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