Chosen Solution
I did a post on this about a month ago but since then I’ve found out more about the problem. Sometimes when I shut the lid on my macbook it can no longer see any wifi networks when I open it again. It doesn’t happen every time but fairly often and the only way I have found to make it see wifi networks again is to restart it. I know it only happens when I shut the lid because I tried leaving it open for over a week, sleeping it from the apple menu and I didn’t get a problem the whole time. I’ve reset the PRAM and SMC and I’ve even tried running the laptop off an external hard drive with a clean osx install on it but no luck. If anyone can help me with this it would be appreciated as I’m hoping to use the macbook for school, where I will be constantly opening and closing it all day. If I have to, I’ll buy an external wifi adapter but I’d rather have it working properly.
I don’t think its going to be a setting more likely to be a damaged wifi wire that often go thro the hinges and around the screen or the other thing it could be is a lose wire on the wifi card, think back did this start happening just after it got dropped/Knocked/Sat on/Wrestled with?
I think you guys are on the wrong track here. Lets simply the issue first then see if something deeper is involved. Click on the WiFi Menu Icon, Open Network Preferences entry. Hi-lite the WiFi entry and it needs to be the top entry (drag it their if need be). Click on the Advanced Button which will open up your WiFi AP’s your system has connected to. Remove all of the unused networks and place the one you are using to the top. Save the settings and restart your system it should now be connected to this network. Put your system to sleep and wake it give it a moment if you had let it sit more than a few hours it should then automatically hook back up. Did that fix things? Update (02/17/2018) Well I was hoping we didn’t need to replace the Airport board and may need to replace the cable as well. Here’s the IFIXIT guide you’ll need to follow: MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2009 AirPort Card Replacement and heres the two parts you’ll need: AirPort Card - Apple P/N 661-4766iSight Camera Bluetooth airport WiFi Cable for MacBook Pro 13" If the cable needs replacing you’ll need to pop off the to get the iSight camera as the cable also services it. Here’s the IFIXIT guide you’ll need to follow: MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2009 Front Display Glass Replacement One Last Thing While I haven’t done it, the 2010 AirPort Extreme board should also work in your system: AirPort Card Extreme - Apple P/N 661-5593. It will get you better WiFi connections.
Do you have xfinity by any chance? I have the same issue except when I open lid it searches for a network and finds xfinitywifi hot spot instead of my preferred network. Xfinity thinks it may be an issue with their router. 2014 macbook air
