Airport Extreme card won't even show up in System Profiler

A

alpinedad

Registered
So I've searched high and low, to no avail.

We have an old Powerbook G4 17" with built-in Airport Extreme card. Some time ago, the Airport Extreme stopped working, and stopped even showing up in System Profiler. So we plugged it into Ethernet and worked around it. Then it stopped working altogether, so my wife brought it into the Apple Store, which diagnosed a failure from the RAM card being dislodged (presumably when it was dropped). The tech reseated it and we were good to go. Except that my wife forgot to mention that the Airport wasn't showing up either. So we were back where we were.

This evening, I tried opening it up to see if I could figure out where the Airport Extreme card was and reseat that, on the theory that whatever dislodged the RAM might've dislodged the Airport as well. No dice -- I can't find the card anywhere (is it on the motherboard?). So I tried to tighten the connection on anything I could find, closed it up again, started it up, and...

Still nothing. No Airport listing in System Profiler, no Airport menu, Network panel in System Preferences shows Status: "No AirPort Hardware Found".

Help!
 
alpinedad said:
So I've searched high and low, to no avail.

We have an old Powerbook G4 17" with built-in Airport Extreme card. Some time ago, the Airport Extreme stopped working, and stopped even showing up in System Profiler. So we plugged it into Ethernet and worked around it. Then it stopped working altogether, so my wife brought it into the Apple Store, which diagnosed a failure from the RAM card being dislodged (presumably when it was dropped). The tech reseated it and we were good to go. Except that my wife forgot to mention that the Airport wasn't showing up either. So we were back where we were.

This evening, I tried opening it up to see if I could figure out where the Airport Extreme card was and reseat that, on the theory that whatever dislodged the RAM might've dislodged the Airport as well. No dice -- I can't find the card anywhere (is it on the motherboard?). So I tried to tighten the connection on anything I could find, closed it up again, started it up, and...

Still nothing. No Airport listing in System Profiler, no Airport menu, Network panel in System Preferences shows Status: "No AirPort Hardware Found".

Help!
Click to expand...

If the card is part of the laptop, it is in general seated as part of the mainboard, so having it dislogged would be difficult. It is more likely that the airport died when the laptop was dropped. Even then it should show up. Check the network control pane for possible network cards, Maybe the airport is mentioned, but disabled.


Good luck, Kees
 
NOTE: Check the site to make sure the link is indeed your 17" laptop.

On 17" PBooks, you have to take the top case off to get to the Airport card. If you're feeling adventurous, you can find a take apart here:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/PowerBook-G4-Al-17-Inch/Airport-Extreme/55/12

Just be VERY careful to disconnect the keyboard flex cable (which is sometimes "hidden" if you have both RAM slots filled) before lifting the top case off. The take apart makes a point of telling you this, but I can't stress how important it is (if you break that plastic clip holding the cable in place it's new logic board time)
 
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