Chosen Solution
My wifi frequently turns itself off and won’t turn back on unless I restart my macbook. Or it just disconnects and claims it can’t see any networks, again fixed only by restarting. I’ve tried resetting the PRAM ( although when I did this I held cmd optn P and R down a little too long so I got the boot up chime 3 times instead of twice, idk whether this matters). Is there anything else I can do to stop this from happening? It’s starting to really wind me up especially as after reseting the PRAM it almost lasted the day without doing it. Tristan Macbook pro mid 2009 a1278
This model has its AirPort board located in the center plastic clutch cover between the hinges. It’s a fair amount of work to get to (heres the IFIXIT guide: MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2009 AirPort Card Replacement). From the sounds of it you may need to replace it. I would start off inspecting the cable connection on the main logic board which you can see in Step5. You might want to re-connect it so the contacts are making a good contact. Make sure you don’t have any liquid damage on the logic board.
I would ping the gateway usu 192.18.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 and if the response time is all over the place either its your router of your wifi card. If it your wifi card you can either replace it or add an edimax wifi usb device from amazon for about $8.
