Resetting PRAM restored Wi-Fi

[Tidwells@aol.com]

My 2012 MacBook Pro on Catalina suddenly lost the use of all Wi-Fi today. It just quit working. After a little "Googling" with an Ethernet cable to connect me to the internet, I reset the PRAM (NVRAM). Now all is well. Just wondering: I've had this machine for about 10 years (bought it used). It's been great and this has never happened before. Is this a hint of bad things to come, or maybe a random occurrence that will never happen again? All opinions are welcome.

Doug

[Tidwells@aol.com]

Update: When the Wi-Fi was out and I did a system report, it did not show that there was an airport card recognized. Now that I reset the PRAM, it does show the airport card.

Doug

[mikehalloran]

I hate to break it to you but that was a coincidence. A simple reboot would have done the same thing—until it doesn't anymore. You will see this again and, at some point, rebooting or resetting the NV RAM will no longer bring that card back to life.

I've lost count of the number of WiFi/Bluetooth cards that I have replaced in 2010–2012 MBPs — over 50?

This is the correct OE replacement for a 2011–mid 2012. It's time consuming but, with patience and some really small Phillips drivers, it will work.
https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Wirele ... ref=sr_1_4

She sells a card costing 3x the above but it adds 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.2 to the 2012.
https://subtle.design/products/80211ac/

I installed these in my and my daughter's 2012s. They are easier to install (BT antenna is built-in and it doesn't reuse the bracket) but I can't say I noticed a big performance boost. OTOH, I did have one fail after a year and I was sent a replacement under warranty.

The original cover screws have threadlocker compound on them—that will be gone after you remove them. Also, the heads often strip on removal. These save time.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JY ... asin_title

I'll assume you've replaced the HDD with an SSD by now. If not, now's the time to give yours its Wheaties. I've tested every HDD that I've pulled from 2010–2012 and have never found one that passed without fatal errors—not one.
The Crucial MX500 with its 5 year warranty and their great customer service is my go-to.
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-50 ... ref=sr_1_1

Because it's the last MBP with a built-in Superdrive, the 2012 is still popular. In addition, these can often read data disks that later USB drives cannot. I have serviced five of these since May — all received new SSDs and three got new WiFi/BT cards.

Oh, this is the best bargain for maxing out RAM.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SN ... asin_title

[Tidwells@aol.com]

Thanks for the info, Mike! I neglected to mention I had already rebooted several times with no success before I reset the PRAM. But yeah, if it keeps happening I will have to do something. Just thinking out loud: Does anyone make a tiny wifi transceiver that plugs into an ethernet port and wouldn't be too cumbersome attached to a MacBook Pro? Guess I will Google it.

Doug

[James Steele]

I know there are WiFi adapters that will plug into your USB port. They usually require driver software to be installed. I am using one on my old MacPro5,1 as I screwed up the antenna connections on the Airport card. It ended up actually working better afterward.

Main thing is to make sure it's compatible with your operating system version.

I bought this one back in October 2021 and have successfully used it on my MacPro5,1 6 core running High Sierra and a MacPro5,1 12-core running Mojave.

https://a.co/d/f7nVrtD

Very occasionally, on my MacPro5,1 6-core it stops working and I have to unplug it and plug it back in but that might be only once a month or something...

[Tidwells@aol.com]

Thanks, James! Wow! That USB dongle is so small it won't hinder the portability of my MacBook Pro! And the $13 price is great, too! I'm tempted to buy one in advance even though my Airport card is currently working again.

Doug

[mikehalloran]

Thanks, James! Wow! That USB dongle is so small it won't hinder the portability of my MacBook Pro! And the $13 price is great, too! I'm tempted to buy one in advance even though my Airport card is currently working again.

Doug

I'd invest $13. The snaps for the antennae are difficult.

On the two that I recently upgraded without new cards, these had been used so little that the original batteries are still good—something no one should expect after 11 years. Husband/wife team owns both and they have my number when the cards go bad.

I have a few of these and keep Mojave on my keeper. When my iMac Pro goes away, I will still have a Mac that can run a few 32 bit apps. An MDP to HDMI cable lets me hook up one of my LG 4K monitors if I actually want to see what I'm doing on it.

[Tidwells@aol.com]

So, a month or 2 later, my wi-fi quit again. No amount of restarts or re-setting the NVRAM helped. I tried a USB to wifi adapter, but it had no compatible driver for Catalina OS. So I decided to take the hard drive and good battery out of this mid-2012 MacBook Pro and put them in an identical machine that's been sitting in the corner with a dead hard drive. After the swap, I tried to start the other laptop, but all it does it beep 3 times. In fact, it keeps doing the 3 beeps about every 10 seconds until I disconnect the battery. It never boots up. Does anyone know what the 3 beeps signify? Is there a watch-sized battery somewhere in the machine I should replace? Something like a CR2302?

Anyway, I put the hard drive and battery back in the first MacBook Pro, booted up, and amazingly wifi is working again! So this will buy me a little time. Surfing the net with an ethernet cable connected is a real drag, man! I just don't know if I can survive with that level of hardship in my life.... I guess they call this a "First World Problem"....

Doug

[mikehalloran]

After the swap, I tried to start the other laptop, but all it does it beep 3 times. In fact, it keeps doing the 3 beeps about every 10 seconds until I disconnect the battery.
Doug

Three beeps when your Mac starts up indicates the RAM is not passing an integrity check (Bad module? Poorly seated or wrong slot?).

Some 3rd party RAM worked fine until a MacOS update did a System Integrity test and then it failed. When this happened to my wife's, I threw the original 4GB (2x2GB) Apple RAM back in and OWC overnighted replacements for the 16GB I had bought from them. They did ask for a CC# in case I hadn't returned the defects in a timely manner.

I just don't remember the OS update that caused this for thousands of users.

The link I posted earlier is still the best bang for the buck I know for RAM that works in a 2012 MBP. Works out to a few cents more than $1 per GB.

[Tidwells@aol.com]

Well, Mike, you were "spot-on" as I imagine the British might say....One of the 8 gb OWC ram boards is causing the problem. When I remove the one, the MacBook Pro boots up. I wonder if it has a lifetime warrantee?? But here is the new problem: As soon as it start booting up, a thin black vertical line appears on the display about 2/3 to the right plus a couple more light blue vertical lines about an inch apart. The display was working fine when the hard drive crashed and I mothballed it. I will try to post the screenshot. Any ideas on these lines? Rebooting does not help.

Doug

[Tidwells@aol.com]

Interesting! The lines are not visible in the screenshot, which maybe tells us something????

Doug

[cuttime]

Interesting! The lines are not visible in the screenshot, which maybe tells us something????

Doug

It tells you that your monitor screen is at fault. Been there, done that on a 2011 iMac that required a screen replacement. The first thing Apple asked me to do was take a screenshot of the desktop to see if the defect showed there. I know it seems odd, but correlation does not imply causation.

[Tidwells@aol.com]

It's so weird that the screen would go bad just sitting in the corner of the room untouched for a year. Makes me wonder if I might have bumped the connector for the screen while doing the other work???

Doug

[cuttime]

I Makes me wonder if I might have bumped the connector for the screen while doing the other work???
Doug

That's entirely possible.

[mikehalloran]

OWC RAM has a lifetime warranty and they’ve replaced a ton of it for this issue.

Taking off the back can disturb ribbon cables and cause them to go bad. I won’t open a 2013-15 MBP without replacing the keyboard cable unless it’s been done recently — it covers the battery but I’ve had them go bad without the battery or cable being touched.

Components age. I’ve not had a screen issue with a 2012 MBP but they’re old enough.