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I need to start a new, totally new wireless config. My 17" MBP 4,1(1261) wireless died. Card removed was 3 wire but new one has only 2. ifixit.com says connect black, then blue, and grey does not get connected.

El Capitan does not see that card at all even after resets of all 3 types with battery out. Since, I've used at least 3 different USB adapters; now, I just want to start clean.

And this OS install was a clean install on to a 1 TB SSD which runs fast with the full 6GB RAM.

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  • Can you link the guide? And to what .plist are you specifically referring to? – JMY1000 Dec 17 '17 at 8:12
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    Have you considered that your new card could be defective? – jksoegaard Dec 17 '17 at 12:38
  • Close Voters: This question is quite clear. The OP has an issue with macOS detecting a new WiFi (Airport card) and wants to make sure there are no driver issues. – Allan Dec 17 '17 at 14:26
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Removing the plist is not going to solve the issue. The 3 wire versus the 2 wire are for the WiFi and Bluetooth antennas, and have no bearing on whether or not your Mac sees the hardware.

If you go into System Information (About this Mac > System Report) then scroll down to WiFi, it should give you information about the WiFi adapter. If it doesn't, it's not being detected and no amount of jiggering with plist files will fix it. It's time to look at either the new WiFi card is defective/incompatible or the mPCI slot on the logic board is faulty.

Given that you are attempting to fix a 2008 MacBook Pro, I wouldn't spend too much time trying to repair a WiFi adapter or deal with a potentially bad mPCI slot.. Instead, get a USB WiFi adapter like the DLink DWA-171 which supports 802.11ac and is fully Mac compatible (I'm using it on a 2009 MacBook Pro as I type this).

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  • I did some review and realized this card has not been found since installed. 10.11.6 may not compat issues with it so I put back in the card BCMM94321MC which had gone intermittent (meaning it is always seen but does turn off after awhile. Today it worked about 10 min. Then off. I logged in under a new user and it was back on for awhile. So that card is bad. What card can I get that will be most likely work in this 1261? I would like one to last a year. Also I have used 4 different USB wireless cards but they won't function now and I fear – JimInChicago Dec 20 '17 at 3:07
  • it's time to uninstall the drivers or somehow install one fresh. There is no uninstall so how to do? Is this where Plist comes into play? Please assist........Jim – JimInChicago Dec 20 '17 at 3:07
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    Plists aren't your drivers - they're config files. kexts are your drivers. Regardless, you need to understand that there is "identifying" hardware (no driver at all) and "operational" hardware (driver loaded and OS recognized). If your hardware isn't recognized, nothing you do will fix it. – Allan Dec 20 '17 at 3:36

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