MBA 13 problems (Safari and Internet issues)

Hi. I just bought an MBA 13 2011, and I am having these issues:

1) I cannot connect to my network if it is running mixed b/g/n (using wpa2 security). If it is only b/g, I am able to connect. I am using a 3g router.

2) Last night I am unable to open safari. The icon just bounces on the dock, and I get stuck with the spinning beach ball. On activity monitor, it says safari is not responding. I have forced quit and tried again, restarted and tried again, but safari still wont open. The only new applications I have installed before the issue happened is Cinch (which gives me the Windows snap ability) and Starcraft II. I have contacted Apple support and after they asked me to perform some steps like reboot while holding down some keys, making another user to try safari, and other stuff, it boiled down to reinstalling OS X. Does anyone encountered the same issue before?

My experience with this device is amazing, so I don't know what happened that it just went bonkers. I am afraid that after reinstalling OS X, it will be okay until after a few days I would be getting the same issue. One of the steps we have done on the troubleshooting was to remove Cinch, but the issue persists.

A bit frustrating on my side because I don't know how to troubleshoot OS X. I have been using Windows all my life and this is my first venture to this OS.

 

Though it didn't give me a problem to the extent it gave you, I had nothing but trouble with Cinch. Use Window Magnet instead - similar functionality, much cheaper ($0.99), and far greater stability.

 

What kind of troubles did you get from Cinch, if you don't mind sharing?

 

I use Cinch and for the three snap positions I use (left, right, top/full) it works perfectly. I also own Window Magnet but never switched from Cinch.

EDIT: And on topic, I have not experienced the issues you are. I would just do the reinstall and not worry too much. I haven't seen similar threads in here before so I wouldn't expect it to be a normal occurrence.

 

Actually, instead of performing a re-install first, there is something I suggest:

Make a backup of your system using Time Machine (or your program of choice). I suggest using Time Machine for this as it is built into OS X and you can easily import all of your programs/settings to another system (or a clean install) using built-in OS X functions. For example, I made a Time Machine backup of my 13" MBP, booted my 13" MBA, and used the migration assistant to get my MBA setup exactly as I had my MBP.

Try uninstalling and re-installing Safari. Simply open up your Applications folder, drag Safari to the trash, and empty your trash. Make sure you have another internet browser before doing this so you can download Safari.

Perform a clean install of OS X and go from there. You will need to hold down a certain set of keys when your MBA is restarting so you can boot from the recovery partition. You will then need to be connected to the internet so that your MBA can download Lion and install it. Make sure you format the partition that Lion is installed on, don't just re-install it.

As for your first issue, is your MBA not able to connect (as indicated by the wi-fi icon remaining gray and not full black) to your router or you just can't go online? Not being able to connect leads me to believe that the router is producing wonky wi-fi connections and that are conflicting with each other.

 

Can safari be deleted? I ask because I tried deleting itunes since I didn't have any apple devices, but OS X could not do it.

 

There's your browser problem. Use Firefox or Chrome


reinstalling OS wouldn't hurt, try it, it might solve the problem.

that's strange i can delete itunes and safari on my mac

 

Yep, both Safari and iTunes can be uninstalled from OS X. I actually had to uninstall iTunes when version 10.6 came out (a few days ago) as the upgrade process kept failing for some reason. Simply dragged the iTunes icon to the trash and emptied the trash. I haven't uninstalled Safari but a little searching showed that it can be done.

 

Thanks for the tips.

I have re-installed OS X as advised by the tech support guy (that was a long download), and everything seems to be working fine now after re-installin everything I had before. I still don't know what caused Safari to act like that, but I hope it does not happen again.

I didn't install any other browsers before and still won't now, for the same reason I didn't install Windows on this - I wanted to have this Apple experience, so that I would understand why so many people are into this. I heard stories of how well integrated Safari is to OS X, so I wanted to discover that (which I have discovered to be amazing, other than the glitch, as compared to windows with internet explorer which is supposed to be better than windows + 3rd party browser).

For my internet connectivity issue, I have tried a different router, but now I am getting an issue where it cannot detect my network on random occassions, even when I am just beside the router.

On a different note, I had to to a google search (prior to reading the replies here), on how to uninstall applications in OS X. lol

 

Did you try uninstalling and re-installing Safari first? Completely re-installing OS X may have been a long solution that wasn't required. When a program is acting up, the first thing you should do is remove it and then try re-installing that specific program (not the whole OS).

Additionally, you don't need Safari to still get the full "Apple experience" on a Mac. It integrates with iCloud for bookmark sharing but that is about it. Safari is an internet browser just like FireFox or Chrome and it really isn't integrated into the OS. People who use Chrome, FireFox, Opera, or whatever are still having the same Apple experience as you. An internet browser isn't going to dictate how integrated into the OS you are. Otherwise a large portion of people would not be getting the full "Windows experience" because they aren't using Internet Explorer.

OS X Lion has been known to have wi-fi issues on some systems. On my early 2011 13" MBP, I would sometimes lose the connection to my router despite it being about 2 ft away. I also experienced connection issues upon waking my MBP and, in each case, I had to turn wi-fi off and turn it back on. My mid-2011 13" MBA will have a problem connecting to wi-fi when waking it up too but I experience that about once every few weeks whereas my MBP as about once everyday.

 

I reported this to Apple since I am also having the issue, and they said they already have the solution for this (I asked them to email me the steps)

"Your support Advisor, John, has a follow-up message for you:
• Open System Preferences.
• Click Network.
•Select the Wi-Fi interface and click the Advanced button.
• Click the TCP/IP tab.
• Click the "Renew DHCP lease" button.
• Click the Wi-Fi tab of the advanced AirPort interface (System Preferences > Network > Wi-Fi > Advanced).
• View the customer's Preferred Networks list.
• Remove each Preferred Network from the list by selecting that network and clicking the minus (-) button.
• Remove stored AirPort network passwords using the Keychain Access Utility.

Note: The next 3 steps will remove your customer's Wi-Fi network passwords. If the customer does not know them or if their network does not use passwords to restrict access, have the customer contact their network administrator before performing these steps."

I have tried this and no issues so far. I hope it really does solve the problem. Have you tried this before? I don't even know what exactly it does, but as long as it solves my problem, im okay with it. lol

 

WiFi connection issues date back to well before Lion. I had a 2007 MBP (one with the notorious GeForce 8600M) and from time to time would experience WiFi disconnects with Tiger and Leopard. My current MBP has issues, but like you, it's not frequent and only occurs when waking the machine up from sleep. I'd say 98 times out of 100, it reconnects just fine. I think a big part of the problem is the lousy Broadcom WiFi cards Apple uses these notebooks. I'm willing to bet these problems would go away entirely if Cupertino switched to Atheros or Intel.

 

Okay, scratch that, I cannnot connect my MBA to my network again. I went to my router settings and changed channel from 13 to 12 (it is in auto-channel selection, I changed it to manual) and after doing so my air is online again.

What is the difference between using channel 12 and 13?

EDIT: Crap, I am still getting a connection time out issue, this is so annoying, especially when it mostly happens when I just got home from work, tired and wanting to relax surfing the net, read some news online, and I cannot do it because this stupid notebook cannot connect to my network. I have a smartphone, 3ds, and my room mate has a windows notebook connected to our network without issues. I am returning this junk to the store. So much for trying apple.

 

At least not in Lion. I tested your theory by dragging both itunes and safari to the trash bin, but it gives the message "itunes / safari can't be deleted because it is required by the os x". I know in windows that IE is built on the explorer shell other than being the flagship browser like safari is on os x. I believe you can delete? IE but that was in europe where EU pulled some antitrust moves on microsoft.

 

But I was able to just do it on my MBA. I dragged Safari to the trash but I didn't try to empty it. As I said, I had to uninstall iTunes before and that was under Lion as well.

I had them in Snow Leopard too with my early 2011 MBP. I just didn't want to bring up past versions of OS X simply because the OP is working with Lion. I even knew a few people with PowerBook G4's that experienced wi-fi issues. I don't necessarily think it has something to do with the use of Broadcom cards. I have other units (my Gateway desktop, Acer nettop, and HP netbook) with Broadcom cards that don't lose their connection like that. Even my Droid X and iPad 2 have Broadcom cards and they are fine. I think it more has to do with driver implementation in OS X since other devices using similar hardware from the same manufacturer are fine.

 

Are you talking about the dock or from the application folder itself in finder? The option for it in app cleaner is also grayed out. I haven't looked under the package contents, but I bet it would give me the same message.

 

All under Lion:

If you actually try to drag the program itself from Finder into the trash you get:

If you try to drag it into the trash from Launcher, it pops back up into Launcher, no message.

If you try to drag it from the dock into the trash, it pops back into place, no message.