[cms]

I had an Airport card in my iMac 15" flat panel that worked flawlessly for well over a year. Then a couple of weeks ago, it started playing up. It would work fine for several hours and then just go completely dead. No signal, no network detection, nothing. Then, I would shut down the system for a while, restart and everything would be fine....for a couple of hours and then the whole cycle would start again.

I opened up the Mac, took out the card, checked for bent pins and to see if it was properly connected. There were no obvious problems. I ran the hardware diagnostics CD that came with my original system software. It reported that everything was OK with the Airport card.

Then, as a last resort, I replaced the Airport card with a brand new one. It's been running perfectly now for 8 days straight. So obviously the problem was the old card, although I haven't a clue what was wrong with it.

Hence my question: Do Airport cards break? And if so, why?

I'd appreciate some feedback if anyone would care to share some light on this.

Thanks!

[ghporter]

Break? Not really, at least not without some outside action, like dropping the computer or opening it up and messing with it unnecessarily.

Wear out? Sure. Anything can fail from internal problems, though it's not common. Have you contacted Apple to see if they can do anything for it, even if it's out of warranty?

[cms]

Originally posted by GHPorter:
Break? Not really, at least not without some outside action, like dropping the computer or opening it up and messing with it unnecessarily.

Wear out? Sure. Anything can fail from internal problems, though it's not common. Have you contacted Apple to see if they can do anything for it, even if it's out of warranty?

Thank you for your comments.

I appreciate your point about things only breaking because of "outside action" but I definitely haven't dropped my computer and the only time I have opened it up was to look at the Airport card, prior to replacing it.

Which brings me to my next point.....

If there had been some deep-seated internal problem with the computer, then surely simply replacing the Airport card witha brand new one would not have fixed it. You will recall from my original post that the brand new Airport card, installed some 10 days ago, works perfectly. The fault has to lie with the original (Apple-installed) Airport card.

I will, as you suggest, contact Apple direct and see if they can shed some light on this. I'll post back when/if I get an answer!

[ghporter]

I completely agree with your conclusion-your original card failed. I hope Apple will be interested in how and why, so they can prevent such problems in the future, and that they do the right thing by you in the process.

I'm looking forward to hearing how things turn out for you.

[cms]

Originally posted by GHPorter:

I'm looking forward to hearing how things turn out for you.

So, this is what happened:

I called Apple (UK) tech support yesterday and spoke at some length to one of their Airport "specialists". He had no idea what the problem was but agreed that clearly, there is a fault with the card.

My system is out of warranty, so I'm �60 poorer for the experience -- the price of a new Airport card here in the UK -- but still none the wiser. This chap I spoke to said he had never come across a situation such as mine before, where a card simply stopped working. But pointed out that just because it hadn't happened before doesn't mean it won't. Yeah, right.....

Not a very satisfactory answer, I'm afraid. I offered to return the card so they could look at it but he said it wasn't worth Apple's time and money to put resources into researching something so minor.

So I guess the moral of this tale is: If it's broke, and it's small, Apple won't fix it.

Rather disappointing, really......

[robot prom]

Originally posted by cms:


So I guess the moral of this tale is: If it's broke, and it's small, Apple won't fix it.

Rather disappointing, really......

you forgot to mention out of warranty.

[cms]

Originally posted by robot prom:
you forgot to mention out of warranty.

You miss my point.

I had no reason to expect Apple to replace my Airport card, as I clearly stated in my earlier post that my warranty had expired. I have already bought the replacement and am very happy with it.

My intention, as stated clearly in my earlier post, was to see if Apple was interested in looking at the "broken" Airport card to see what the problem had been -- if only to recognise and address the potential for problems to surface for other users.

It was the reponse to that suggestion that was so disappointing.