MacBook Firmware Update Kills My Bluetooth, Wi-Fi

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I only have my MacBook checking for updates weekly, I don’t like to introduce changes more often. This lets me control when the update is applied, and makes sure I can do so when I have time to deal with any issues that such changes introduce. Like last night.

Yesterday afternoon the MacBook informed me of a firmware update that was ready to apply. I admit I didn’t pay much attention to the changes the update was making; I have come to believe that firmware updates are important for notebooks and should be applied when available. I duly fired up the update process and it went without a hitch. This is one area I believe that Apple does a good job — potentially dicey updates such as firmware updates generally work properly.

The update applied properly and I headed out the door for a holiday party. I returned late in the evening and decided to check things and I opened up the MacBook lid. The system resumed as always but with a little problem. Actually, it was two rather large problems — the MacBook did not report any Bluetooth connections and I couldn’t connect to my home Wi-Fi network.

The Bluetooth problem was insidious; the reason no peripherals were detected was due to the system’s not recognizing the presence of any Bluetooth hardware. The Bluetooth icon in the system bar indicated that “no hardware detected” was the culprit. No matter what I did, including a couple of reboots, would the system acknowledge the presence of Bluetooth hardware. This was disturbing, and obviously a result of the firmware update just applied.

I couldn’t research the problem online as the MacBook would not log onto my home network, no matter what I did. It could see the network, but would not connect to it. I tried inputting the encryption key again but no dice. Things were not looking good at this point.

I stepped back and realized that the first step to figuring out the problem was to get online to research the problem. I fired up the trusty MiFi and was online in less than a minute. I Googled the Bluetooth problem and got a hit that looked like just what I needed. I hit the link and was surprised not only to find that it led to an article here on jkOnTheRun but to one that I had written a year ago!

It became clear why this Bluetooth problem was nagging at the edge of my recollection, I had seen a similar problem before. That one was the result of an OS X update, and it didn’t affect the Wi-Fi connectivity, but it killed the Bluetooth, too. I followed the instructions in my own solution:

  1. Shut down the computer.
  2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
  3. Turn on the computer.
  4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
  5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
  6. Release the keys.

This resets the PRAM/ NVRAM in the MacBook and sure enough it worked! My Bluetooth was back after the reboot and I was able to connect to my home network first try. Apparently the firmware update had whacked the PRAM/ NVRAM and the reset caused it to get back to normal. I must say that while I am not happy the update caused this problem, I am impressed with OS X and the ability it provides to recover from a nasty problem like this.

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