WiFi problems and Greyed out Screen

[Saluki Alex]

Okay, I have two questions.

First is that my Internet has been sporadic lately, my airport signal is always full, but Safari goes from fast to not responsive (the internet is non-responsive not the browser). I've tried Firefox and Camino and they do the same thing, sometimes fast sometimes not. This all started a couple days ago when I reset Safari. I've shut down my whole network and still it occurs. I called AppleCare and they had me set "Interference Robustness" and that seems to have countered the problem, at least for now.

But this leads to my second problem, after talking to tech support and getting things working again, I closed the lid on my MacBook to put it to sleep. When I come back about an hour later, I open it and then the screen greys out (I can still see what's on my screen, it's just got grey filter over it) and it tells me to restart. What caused this?

 

[Eniregnat]

I might suggest searching the forums, or looking at this thread. (It's just a couple below yours right now.

Resetting Safari should not cause problems, especially for all of your browsers. Have you checked you connection speed? I would first test your local area network. Ping out your router. I would use a wireless tool to see what the drop outs are. Is there something new in your home, a phone, broken microwave, something moved, a small toddler covered in tin-foil?

[I am recycling this text from another post I made]
I wonder if this isn't an ISP thing.
This link will give you Cnets internet benchmark.
Run it with Safri IE5 and FireFox.

Run it a few times with each of the browsers and figure out the avrage DSL speed for each of them. (I know that browsers don't affect the speed of an external digital line, I am just trying to create a baseline.)

Now, if the load time is about the same for all three browsers, then your DSL line has issues. Trouble shoot with them and let them know that you have done all the normal trouble shooting, power cyceling the modem and the router, computer etc...

Edit- Safri as a stand alone is linked above, if you ever need to reinstall just Safri.

Online Internet Benchmarks

• 
  *Cnet
  *Toast
  *Microsoft
  *Speed Test
  *Your Speed
  *List of Tests
  * Ping know servers, ie Apple.com 17.254.3.18, etc...

• 
  To ping a server, Find Network Utility (Found in Applications->Utilities)
  Trace Rout may also show bottle necks.

I can't help with the greyed screen. I don't have a MBP.

 

[blackstone]

But this leads to my second problem, after talking to tech support and getting things working again, I closed the lid on my MacBook to put it to sleep. When I come back about an hour later, I open it and then the screen greys out (I can still see what's on my screen, it's just got grey filter over it) and it tells me to restart. What caused this?

Grayed-out screen with a restart message sounds like a kernel panic. Has it happened again, or is this the only time?

 

[Saluki Alex]

Grayed-out screen with a restart message sounds like a kernel panic. Has it happened again, or is this the only time?

This is the only time it's ever done it, I figured it might have been a kernel panic, but since I'd never experienced one, I wasn't sure.

As to the previous post, I know what my average connection speed is, it fluctuates between 370 to 460kbps, it's always been somewhere in between there.

Again, I don't think it's a WiFi dropout, that would cause me to lose signal (I think), which I never do.

But that problem isn't really a big deal anymore since using the Interference Robustness seems to have done the trick. Anyone know what that actually does? And besides that, I'm planning on moving my router into my office and connecting it directly to my MBP, that way I'll avoid any future problems, and I'll get a little speed boost.

 

[blackstone]

I wonder if your Airport card isn't plugged in all the way? That might be the cause of both the kernel panic and the poor Wi Fi performance. Maybe try unplugging the Airport card and then plugging it back in, and see if things get better after that...

 

[Saluki Alex]

I wonder if your Airport card isn't plugged in all the way? That might be the cause of both the kernel panic and the poor Wi Fi performance. Maybe try unplugging the Airport card and then plugging it back in, and see if things get better after that...

I have a MBP, there is no way to unplug and plug in my airport card, and this didn't start until 2 days ago (I've had my MBP since March), so I'm going to say it's just some interference issues and that's it (we have a 2.4GHz phone network in the house which is bound to cause occasional problems with my WiFi network). Now the kernel panic on the other hand is something I can't explain.