Replace? MacBook? Er, I‘m afraid I’ve got to tell you something …
this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2024
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I had a terrible time getting wifi working on my Macbook Pro from about the same year. 2012, I think. It semi-worked but was horrifically unreliable and slow.
In the end I just got a tiny USB wifi dongle and plugged it in, rather than using the internal wifi card.
I got tired of fooling around with mine and just plugged in a Panda USB Wi-Fi adapter. It’s ugly, but reliable.
It’s just mini pcie. As far as I know there isn’t any whitelisting.
They’re cheap little things, buy one with Linux support and see if it works!
Intel AX200 is pretty known
I worked on repairing Macs during that period and I suspect that no wifi card except this specific one would fit in the relevant slot of the machine.
They weren't standard formats as far as I know and couldn't be used across models because the shape of the actual card was never the same. It's possible the connectors didn't change though, or that a third party manufacturer made new cards specifically for that model, although that seems unlikely.
Another commenter (u/bloodfart) wrote that the connector was a standard mini pcie connector; I can't confirm but that's plausible and would mean it's a lot more likely that an upgrade may be possible
One note of caution, it was really easy for an uninitiated repair person to sever the antenna wire from its connector when trying to disconnect or reconnect them, the cables are quite thin
Not just an uninitiated person. I had done thousands and still occasionally severed them.
I believe in this model the antenna is replacable though?
We had to replace the entire screen assembly for that at the time but I'm sure it's possible to do something less drastic if you are just working on your own machine
Ah might be right. I believe the one side hinge replacement netted you a new display cable, not a new antenna now that I think of it.
How about an USB WiFi adapter?
An alternative always is to use the LTS kernel, currently 6.6
That one may break less often.
https://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Pro_15%22_Retina_Display_Late_2013
I didn’t see a specific guide, but you may see something if you go through them or the teardowns.