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General discussion

MacBook Pro Drops Connection after Snow Leopard upgrade...

Sep 3, 2009 2:48AM PDT

So I took the plunge and giddily purchased Mac OS 10.6 aka Snow Leopard the day it was made available. Usually, I have very little worries being an early adopter to new OS releases considering the successful upgrade experiences I've had through the years of being a Mac user.

Not so today.

After upgrading to Snow Leopard from 10.5.8, my MacBook Pro 17" (2.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, 200GB @7200 RPM HDD, non-unibody) would consistently drop it's internet connection whether it was via Ethernet (wired) or through AirPort (wired and wireless are using DHCP). I've applied several supposed fixes suggested everywhere on the Googled web with limited success:

* Reset Network settings, deleted "Automatic" settings and created a new setting (called untitled)
* Zap the PRAM (hold Command+Option+P+R on restart)
* Flush the DNS cache(using: dscacheutil -flushcache on the Terminal)

These 'fixes' worked only for a few minutes, and the internet connection would eventually drop again. NOTE: Although other computers and drives were visible on my network, and Instant Messaging via Adium is still functional, which is weird, I could not connect to the internet through a browser, or connect Mail.app or even to the iTunes store.

Tired and frustrated at this point, I decided to finally call Apple Support (Case #134733179) and was suggested to try the following steps:

* Shutdown the MacBook Pro, remove battery, disconnect the power, and then hold the Power Key for 15 seconds. After which I was told to replace the battery, reconnect power and zap PRAM and wait for 2 chimes before letting the keys go.

I was able to get connection for a while but lost it again after a few minutes of usability.

And so I called again and was told this time to try:

* Trash the SystemConfiguration folder (~/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration) and all of it's contents... then reboot.

The above suggestion seemed logical as it would obliterate any existing preferences that may be corrupted and affecting the connection setup. The system would then recreate a fresh preference file free of any lingering old settings. This again worked for a while, but sadly, my wired and wireless connection both drops within a few minutes of usage. It is also worth noting that simply restarting the MacBook Pro regains connectivity as well but drops after a few minutes on both Ethernet and Airport settings.

So today has been an unproductive day considering I spent all my efforts troubleshooting Snow Leopard (10.6) on the MacBook Pro, and couple that with the inability to use several key functionality such as SynergyKM to sync all three machines I have with one keyboard/mouse (not to mention the unpredictable behavior Adobe CS3 has been displaying (especially InDesign losing menus and drawing blank palettes!) and the loss of Letterbox's (plugin) features on Mail.app) and I am now forced to downgrade back to 10.5.8 via Time Machine Restore until Apple resolves or acknowledges this problem (or some knowledgable individual throws this dog a bone and help me out of this misery).

In the meantime, I need to get work done and something as fundamental as a stable internet connection should have been high on Apple's "must work" priority list.

Sigh... would have been nice if it worked without glitches...

Discussion is locked

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10.5.8 does it, too
Jan 12, 2011 3:48PM PST

I was thinking about upgrading because of this irritating airport fiasco...now, after reading your post - probably not - won't fix my issue, either. Mine started after I upgraded to 10.5.8. Go figure.

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Oh - and mine is an iMac, not a Macbook
Jan 12, 2011 3:58PM PST

But the issue is the same....

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may solve it
Mar 20, 2011 10:16AM PDT

I just changed DNS config of my connection to 4.2.2.1
it works now,!!