MacBook Pro A1286 (15 Inch Late 2011) Bluetooth Help

[DuckRyder]

To start out, yes I know it is old and I should just get a new one - but I would like to delay that a bit longer, it is on the list though.

It is as shipped except for a Crucial SSD and 16GB of Crucial memory, it got a new logic board in 2013 or 2014 due to the video card issues.

It is running OS X 10.13.6 High Sierra which is the latest update it will accept.

The bluetooth has worked with the SSD and memory (in fact the memory has been in there since the first week.)

I went through all the troubleshooting a while back and determined it was a hardware issue.

Recently the speakers went bad (making FaceTime an issue) so I figured I would put a new bluetooth card (which is the same as the WiFi card) in it while I had it torn apart.

The speakers now work, but it still has no bluetooth. The icon is greyed out with a squiggly line through it in the status bar. if you click on it it says "bluetooth unavailable". You cannot enable the secret menu to debug or reset it.

Ive been through all the stuff online again today - reset nvram and SMC, deleted plist. unplugged everything rebooted rebooted and rebooted.

There is no bluetooth in system preferences and in "about this mac" > "system report" > "bluetooth" it says "no information found".

Any ideas?

 

[meep]

just a guess, it must be the exact same Bluetooth/WiFi card, as the macos does not load any drivers besides what they know it will be built with. Sometimes you can pull other Linux drivers and make it to work with some kind of Mac magic, but the guys that figure it out are true Mac fanatics - stitching non-apple drivers into their machines is rough. I used to run a hackintosh until I absolutely had to get something more reliable.

btw, I still have a 2009 white body MB pro; just ordered a new battery for it. It can do things that my newer PC simply can’t do. It’s the longest lasting computer hardware I’ve owned.

 

[OVERKILL]

To start out, yes I know it is old and I should just get a new one - but I would like to delay that a bit longer, it is on the list though.

It is as shipped except for a Crucial SSD and 16GB of Crucial memory, it got a new logic board in 2013 or 2014 due to the video card issues.

It is running OS X 10.13.6 High Sierra which is the latest update it will accept.

The bluetooth has worked with the SSD and memory (in fact the memory has been in there since the first week.)

I went through all the troubleshooting a while back and determined it was a hardware issue.

Recently the speakers went bad (making FaceTime an issue) so I figured I would put a new bluetooth card (which is the same as the WiFi card) in it while I had it torn apart.

The speakers now work, but it still has no bluetooth. The icon is greyed out with a squiggly line through it in the status bar. if you click on it it says "bluetooth unavailable". You cannot enable the secret menu to debug or reset it.

Ive been through all the stuff online again today - reset nvram and SMC, deleted plist. unplugged everything rebooted rebooted and rebooted.

There is no bluetooth in system preferences and in "about this mac" > "system report" > "bluetooth" it says "no information found".

Any ideas?

Does the WiFi work with the new card? I assume it worked with the old card?

Could boot a Linux liveDVD to see if Bluetooth works with that, that will let you know whether it's the hardware or not.

If you don't mind a fresh install, if you use OCLP, you can run Big Sur on that old girl:

Supported Models | OpenCore Legacy Patcher

My 2010 Mac Pro was dead-ended at Mojave, but I'm running Monterey now with it using OpenCore.

 

[DuckRyder]

WiFi does work.

This is Mrs Duckryders primary computer, I do not really want to try to run an unsupported release on it. Though that is interesting.

We need 2 new computers but trying to sell a house so i don't really want to drop 5 grand at the moment. Would be really nice if i could get the bluetooth working, but it isn't the end of the world I guess...

 

[OVERKILL]

WiFi does work.

This is Mrs Duckryders primary computer, I do not really want to try to run an unsupported release on it. Though that is interesting.

We need 2 new computers but trying to sell a house so i don't really want to drop 5 grand at the moment. Would be really nice if i could get the bluetooth working, but it isn't the end of the world I guess...

Understand your concern. I was adamant that I wouldn't do it on my primary PC either (this one) but then I started getting messages about software I was using (Microsoft Office for example) no longer getting updates on Mojave. Once I had Big Sur running, I was like, well, might as well try Monterey, lol. Glad I did, it runs MUCH faster than Big Sur on this computer, in fact, it's one of the best running OS's I've ever used on this box, it absolutely flies.

I have a dual boot through OpenCore with Windows 10 Pro as well, which is nice for gaming.

If you try the Linux liveDVD route, at least you'd know if you were just dealing with a software issue. So, I'd recommend giving that a shot.

 

[DuckRyder]

Well I may have to explore this further, as it now won't play netflix or amazon video because it can't update to the latest browsers...

 

[DuckRyder]

So i was checking some you tube how to and it seems to be possible to do an in place upgrade.

I can't figure out if her model is actually supported though it has the "discrete graphics" which is to say it has intel graphics until you push it then it has an AMD board I think.

 

[OVERKILL]

So i was checking some you tube how to and it seems to be possible to do an in place upgrade.

I can't figure out if her model is actually supported though it has the "discrete graphics" which is to say it has intel graphics until you push it then it has an AMD board I think.

If you are going to use OpenCore (I recommend the OpenCore Legacy Patcher route, it is by far the easiest) then no, you can't do an upgrade, though you can install over top of your existing install so your stuff doesn't get wiped. Best course of action would probably be a backup to an external drive that you restore from and do a fresh install using OpenCore.

Just follow their instructions to the letter that I linked you to earlier, and it'll go pretty smoothly.

 

[DuckRyder]

OK well here goes on my 2012 Retina if I can not break that one I'll try hers maybe next weekend.

I think i may know whats wrong now with her bluetooth, it seems hers came with 2.0 even though iFixIt said 4.0 would work, i assumed it would install the correct drivers, and we know what they say about assuming.

Research continues on if i can fix that...

Wish me luck.

 

[DuckRyder]

Well, that was not completely uneventful but not bad...

Hello From MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012) Mac OS 12.3.1

The graphics patches are now built into open core for the 2011 so i think i can probably do it next weekend. Hopefully it will also see the 4.0 bluetooth.

 

[OVERKILL]

Well, that was not completely uneventful but not bad...

Hello From MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012) Mac OS 12.3.1

The graphics patches are now built into open core for the 2011 so i think i can probably do it next weekend. Hopefully it will also see the 4.0 bluetooth.

Awesome! Glad to hear it went well!

 

[DuckRyder]

So - Ive been googling, i'm not really into tweaking, especially not Macs but does anyone know if i upgrade it to Monterey will either the OS or Open core recognize it has the upgraded wireless/bluetooth card? Open Core says it "scans hardware" so I am guessing it will and will apply the appropriate patch / driver? Anyone know for sure?

 

[OVERKILL]

So - Ive been googling, i'm not really into tweaking, especially not Macs but does anyone know if i upgrade it to Monterey will either the OS or Open core recognize it has the upgraded wireless/bluetooth card? Open Core says it "scans hardware" so I am guessing it will and will apply the appropriate patch / driver? Anyone know for sure?

The post-install OpenCore Legacy patcher can add support for hardware that isn't natively supported, however, it may not provide support for that card if the OS doesn't already support it.

 

[DuckRyder]

Ok so I have updated her Mac everything seems to work but the Bluetooth will not turn on, it no longer has the squiggly line just the slash. The switch will turn blue, but it never actually works. I do now have Bluetooth in the system menu which it did not have prior. I’ve tried deleting and rebuilding the plist.

Any ideas?

 

[OVERKILL]

Ok so I have updated her Mac everything seems to work but the Bluetooth will not turn on, it no longer has the squiggly line just the slash. The switch will turn blue, but it never actually works. I do now have Bluetooth in the system menu which it did not have prior. I’ve tried deleting and rebuilding the plist.

Any ideas? View attachment 103189

This is the replacement card, not the original, right?

 

[DuckRyder]

Correct

 

[OVERKILL]

Correct

do you have the original? I'm curious if it might work with the new setup, lol.

 

[DuckRyder]

I might still have the old one. I will have to look when we get home.

 

[DuckRyder]

So it has some weirdness going on.

FaceTime won’t work, it briefly will look like it is going to but goes black within a few seconds.

It won’t load the accessibility preferences pane.

It won’t load podcast.

If anyone has these working tips would be nice.

Looks like Open Core may takes sometime to support Ventura.

 

[OVERKILL]

So it has some weirdness going on.

FaceTime won’t work, it briefly will look like it is going to but goes black within a few seconds.

It won’t load the accessibility preferences pane.

It won’t load podcast.

If anyone has these working tips would be nice.

Looks like Open Core may takes sometime to support Ventura.

Are you on 12.4 right now?