MacBook Air Constantly dropping home wifi when I open the lid

IT’s been doing this for a while. As soon as I open the lid the wifi connection dies (goes grey in the top right). The only way to get on line is to turn the wifi off on the mac then on again and it seems to connect fine. Sometimes it’ll drop off when the lid is up and the book in use too (not so much though).

Some more info that may help:

– It only happens on my macbook air (not my old macbook pro)
– I’ve updated the software a few times since it started happening about 6 months ago
– I’ve tried forgetting all wifi conections and just reconnecting to my home one
– I live in the sticks so no wifi interference form the neighbors to worry about
– Naturally I’ve rebooted the router several times

Any other ideas from peeps that have had similar issues?

This might help you [/url]– I suffer terribly with it on my home network (MacBook Pro) but never on the work network oddly.

Exactly the same with my partner’s macbook air.

Bookmarking this thread to look for solutions!

The yosemite problems I assume the above refers to were fixed in an update IIRC.

BT home hub by any chance?

I have an old (2007 ish) macbook with the same problem. I think a cable must be fraying or loose in the hinge, although it took it apart as far as I could and it looked okay.

Thanks johndo, I will try some of those

There was an issue previously with certain generation MBPros which was fixed by a software update, worth searching MacRumors and Apple support forums

Possibly log onto the router and change the channel it’s broadcasting on.
The details to do this are usually on a sticker on the router it’s self. Easy to do, don’t be scared off by it just take a look at a guide online that matches your brand/model of router. They’re much of a muchness. I find Apple stuff sometimes suffers more than windows on certain channels.

The Yosemite issue is resolved, I am typing this on my air at the moment without any issues what so ever.

I had an issue where my mid 2010 MBP 15, now with Yosemite, where the ‘powerd’ process would churn away at 80+% CPU. Killing the powerd process fixed that, but then it wouldn’t auto reconnect to the WiFi when coming out of sleep – requiring a manual network selection.

Google was my friend – seems resetting the PRAM (??) and SMC fixed this for me.
Something like this:
http://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2010/12/04/how-when-why-to-reset-the-pram-smc-on-your-mac/

Hope you get it fixed!

Had similar dead – either dead wifi or blank screen – problems with a 2012 MBP under Yosemite.
I think a complete wipe at the Apple Store was undertaken, they seemed quite familiar with the problem, and it seems OK now.

The yosemite problems I assume the above refers to were fixed in an update IIRC.

My MacBook is fully up to date with Updates yet it still does it and the fixes I link to temporarily repair the problem, but it does come back from time to time.

BT home hub by any chance?

Yup!

Yeah mine too it’s the one annoying thing about the my Macbook and the updates have never fixed it, bizarrely it only happens downstairs.

Restarting the BT Home Hub will allow it to keep connected for a week or so.

I have never had this problem on my MacBook, but I did have it constantly on my iPad for ages until I changed my router. I never figured out what it was.

Same here drac

The WiFi card on my early 2008 MBP died just as the wifi problems were found in Yosemite. Lots of swearing about rushed OS builds, until I bought a new card and haven’t had a problem since.

May be worth doing a backup, wiping the Mac and rebuilding. I do this every 2 years or so to keep things running reasonably happily.

Interested to see if El Capitan improves performance though.

The thing is, the problem that it causes isn’t consistent across all Macs so when some people claim ‘this update fixed it’ etc, it doesn’t mean it fixed all Macs of all specifications – it seems to be a totally random problem.

Hence my message earlier – it effects my machine at home but not at work (both on wifi). We had a student in the office and she never had problems at home but it was absurdly slow in the office – she followed the instructions I posted (second post) and since then it has been super quick.

If you haven’t tried my suggested link and you still have problems, it really wouldn’t hurt to try it – it really is a simple 2 minute task.

@johndoh, yes the problems where certainly model specific, the problems we had with 2012 MBP didn’t impact 2009 Mac Mini. They where due to specific wifi cards.

I had a similar problem with my MacBook Pro (mid 2012) – BT Home Hub combo when I upgraded to Yosemite. Tried a lot of the online fixes with no success. Changing the name of the 5Ghz band on the hub (so it wasn’t the same as the 2.whatever) seemed to fix it and I haven’t had a problem since – apart from the latest 10.10.5 update screwing up all my iCloud accounts…

The HH 5Ghz fix should do it.

The underlying issue is a clash between 2.4Ghz BT and WIFI on the machine itself, which seems to affect some machines and not others. Another fix (that I’m using at present on a Hackintosh) is to move the 2.4Ghz to channel 13 permanently.

Works for me, as the Hack only supports 2.4Ghz.

We had the same issue with our mbp and used the solution that marvinpines suggest ie renaming the 5ghz signal so you are connecting to a definite frequency (or something). Worked a charm. Problem arose again when we got a new home hub and redoing it sorted it out straight away. I’ve now done it for a couple of other people who all have said that their wifi now works faultlessly.

Changing the name of the 5Ghz band on the hub (so it wasn’t the same as the 2.whatever) seemed to fix it and I haven’t had a problem since

by jove, i think thats fixed it ***hopefully not speaking too soon***

thanks for all the suggestions everyone!

😀

Snap! Seems to done it for mine too.