Wifi toast on logic board - options?

[Mbull]

Technicians at Apple store say my “No wifi installed” problem was traced to the logic board on my 13” Macbook Pro that was purchased in Dec. 2010. Not willing to spend the $700+ to replace the logic board, so I’m wondering if anyone has experience with wireless options. Do the wifi dongles a) work in general, and b) work if the wifi on the logic board is shot?

Looking beyond that, are there such things as wifi receivers that would pick up the signal from my wireless router and have an ethernet-out jack that I could then run a short cable from? Trying to avoid a long ethernet cable running through the house. Appreciate any useful suggestions.

 

[Avan]

Same Thing happened to me

You have plenty of options.

Mywifi died and also needed a logic board replacement to fix it, here is what I learned from my experience.

There are many usb wifi options out there that work for mac. In fact, most of the products use one of a couple different chipsets. And the manufactures will have a mac driver even if they may not say mac on the box.

I'm using a TP-LINK (TL-WN823N). This one was a little annoying, The driver on the tplink website won't work on Yosemite. You have to go to the chipset manufacturer page to get it.

Realtek <-- Manufacture RTL8192CU <-- chipset #

osx 10.8 Drivers worked for me on 10.10

Drivers:
Realtek

Other options, I have not personally tried but should be easier than what I did:

Edimax EW-7811Un 150Mbps Wireless 802.11b/g/n... in stock at OWC
OWC has other usb wifi adapters that should work as they sell mac only products
I like the size of this one
The Edimax provided driver should work but here is the chipset (as you can see it's just realtek again)
Realtek RTL8188CUS

Here is a comprehensive list of specific USB wifi adapters for hackintosh and will work for a normal mac.
The Best USB WiFi Adapters For Your Hackintosh

There are also many more that will work you have to go to the company page and see if there is a mac driver. They never say osx on the box. For example D-Link DWA-171 is not advertised for mac, but you can select mac on the driver download page.
DWA-171 Wireless AC Dual-Band Nano USB Adapter | D-Link UK

^^Once More it's a realtek
Realtek RTL8811AU

Ethernet solution - No driver required:
This is what I almost got I did a lot of research on it and seems like a great solution.
I got my off brand wifi usb to work with yosemite so I didn't get it.


This one will do up to 300mb/s (same as your old internal)
WNCE2001 | Gaming & Home Theater Adapters | Connected Entertainment | Home | NETGEAR

This will do up to 600mb/s (your built in was up to 300mb/s)
WNCE3001 | Gaming & Home Theater Adapters | Connected Entertainment | Home | NETGEAR


They both can be powered over usb or ac wall adapter.
Best buy keeps these in the home theater section.
Intended for putting your ethernet enabled TV on you wifi.

Benefit here is they will keep working regardless of how apple changes osx.
with a usb you might have to wait for a driver update.

 

[Mbull]

Thanks for the suggestions! Will see what I can do with these. Appreciate your time and insights.

 

[dtravis7]

What exact Macbook model do you own? Specs please.

Most that I have worked on have a separate WiFi board that can be changed.

The USB solutions mentioned will work but if it were me I would check and see if there truly is a WiFi board. I can check if I know for sure which Macbook Pro 13" you own.

 

[Avan]

What exact Macbook model do you own? Specs please.

Most that I have worked on have a separate WiFi board that can be changed.

The USB solutions mentioned will work but if it were me I would check and see if there truly is a WiFi board. I can check if I know for sure which Macbook Pro 13" you own.

He seemed to have indicated that the problem was traced to the logic board side of the wifi connection.

I had the same problem. I replaced my wifi card and it was still broken.
13" mac pro's (not retina or air) all have replaceable wifi cards, won't help if it's a logic board issue.

 

[Avan]

@Mbull,

Let us Know what solution you go with, This is not uncommon for older macs will be good to know what works for you.

 

[Mbull]

Prior to my post I took the computer to the local Apple store and ended up leaving it for several days. The technicians tried replacing the wifi card and even tried another display since the airport card (and its wiring) on this model is in the base of the display. They presented as quite certain that they had isolated the problem to the logic board. Given the age of the machine, and a battery that isn't holding much of a charge, I decided not to put many of hundreds into it. Looking into suggestions Avan made. Will update when I have progress to report. Thanks for the help!

 

[Mbull]

OK. I looked at the dongles, but decided there was a significant risk of getting bogged down with drivers and altering bits of code etc. Decided to try the Netgear Universal N300 Wi-Fi to Ethernet Adapter (WNCE2001) and it was an easy fix. Plugged it in, went through an auto configure, entered the password for the wifi and was done. The unit is very small and has been working fine for three days now. I actually think it is faster than the internal card had been. Anyway, for $42 and very little setup it is keeping the otherwise functional Macbook in business. I purchased a 1' ethernet cable with my order, but found the unit shipped with one. I am using the supplied USB charging cord to power the setup. Happy camper.. thanks Avan and Dennis for the help.

 

[Avan]

Thanks for the update, Looks like you have a good solution.

I may still pick one of those up so I have a backup if my usb dongle fails next osx update.