Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

broxy5 · Apr 21, 2005, 10:25 AM

.....so I finally dicide to up the stock 256 Ram. Read the book, no problem. Won't find it. So I go online (here) and find out that you've got to give the little mother-trucker a bit of a shove to get it in so you can barely so the contacts (why does the book fail ot mention this critical detail for the noob???). After that tiny detail, I put everything back together, and it won't start up!!. I remove the battery (step one, which I went on to repeat many a time over), gave the Airport card a wiggle, and off to the races! now, what used to be full strength wireless, is now two, sometimes only one tiny bar. What the heck! I go through steps 1-3, and look very closely at the antenna wire where it goes into the plug, and it looks like it's come out a bit. I push it into the plug to check, and it slides out again that tiny 1/16". The thing has come undone! Now, rest assured that when I saw the size of everything, I was very gentle, and I may be a luddite, but I am very mechancally inclined. Some people's version of 'gentle' may vary.

So, what to do now? Is the antenna a tiny little thing that can be installed myself?...do i take it in (3 hours away, but I fly there every week or so, but don't always have the time to run around) and not see it again for several weeks?

Aaargh! It was all going so good. Ever since I got this thing in Dec I've been one of Apple's greatest salesmen.

12" 1.2ghz

GSixZero · Apr 21, 2005, 02:17 PM

The antenna is not fully connected. Sometimes it takes some effort to get the antenna cable plugged into the card. There should be no straight antenna plug showing, it should all go inside the card. The antenna connector should go all the way into the card until it starts to get wider.

I connect the antenna before I put the card into the machine. I put my thumb on the connector that goes into the computer and my index finger on the end of the antenna plug and then squeeze until the antenna connector snaps in. Then I put the card into the computer.

broxy5 · Apr 21, 2005, 09:40 PM

I go through steps 1-3, and look very closely at the antenna wire where it goes into the plug, and it looks like it's come out a bit. I push it into the plug to check, and it slides out again that tiny 1/16". The thing has come undone!

The wire actually came out of the plug. I've got it taped in a position that gives not bad reception, but I used to get full reception almost anywhere in the house, but now it's down, usually at 2 bars.

GSixZero · Apr 21, 2005, 11:45 PM

Oh, I misunderstood. Yeah, it's busted, you'll need to take it in for repair to get fixed. That wire will need to get replaced.

broxy5 · Apr 22, 2005, 11:00 AM

Thanks. It is working well enough now, but i'm sure it will slip out again.

broxy5 · Apr 27, 2005, 03:12 PM

It stopped working almost entirely, but it's been fixed by a local shop, turns out there is an Apple repair shop in town, and they put a new plug on for $30 (couldn't get it in a warranty).

Back to normal now. Phew! Next time this thing comes apart, it's bigger hard drive and internal bluetooth. About $150 by the time the internal B/T is done. Wish I new more when I bought, I would have got both of these right away. What are you gonna do......