2007 Macbook (A1181) Wi-Fi Problem

[TerraMati]

Hello,
My 2007 White MacBook doesn't detect the network card. This happened today, just a few hours ago. Before this everything worked fine. I didn't do anything. Just after a bit of time I woke it from sleep and saw an information that it doesn't see any network cards. It has newest Lion on it's main drive and on an external drive with probably the oldest Lion version I've seen (10.7 without anything at the end). I also booted from the external drive to see if it was a problem with the system or something but no, the same result on the external drive.
Any help appreciated!

 

[TheShortTimer]

Hello,
My 2007 White MacBook doesn't detect the network card. This happened today, just a few hours ago. Before this everything worked fine. I didn't do anything. Just after a bit of time I woke it from sleep and saw an information that it doesn't see any network cards. It has newest Lion on it's main drive and on an external drive with probably the oldest Lion version I've seen (10.7 without anything at the end). I also booted from the external drive to see if it was a problem with the system or something but no, the same result on the external drive.
Any help appreciated!

I experienced this on a A1181 where the Wi-Fi icon would sporadically vanish and return till eventually it vanished completely. In my case, the Airport card had failed and once I replaced it, Wi-Fi was restored. It's likely that yours has failed too but it's worth opening System Information and checking what's listed under the Network heading. If you can't find any details regarding the Airport card then it's a dead cert that the unit has died. The fact that you've run Lion from both an internal and external drive strongly points towards this.

Carrying out the replacement isn't that difficult and as usual iFixit can be relied upon to supply a guide to take you through the steps.

 

[TerraMati]

Thanks for the reply, I also have another problem with these (I have two). This one with the network problems has a very weird problem. It doesn't detect the charger (it isn't glowing). My only way to power it on is to charge it's battery on my second one and then put the battery in the first one. Also in my second one the fan isn't spinning, I don't hear it and it says in MacsFanControl 0 rpm. If I replace the Airport card I will also check the fan on the second MacBook. The Mac was pretty cheap though (25$). Again, thanks.

 

[TheShortTimer]

You're welcome, the Airport cards are widely available and they're not expensive either.

If you haven't already, it's definitely worth resetting the NVRAM and SMC: particularly the latter because it's often a source of power-management issues. In case you're not familiar with the procedures, this article will help you.