OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) Wifi connection problem

[kvic]

Is this simple to install on a 2015 iMac?

yeah thin iMac already have Broadcom based airport cards.

I feel lucky to own a last generation of thick iMac. More room inside the chassis. The screen is attached to the chassis by strong magnets. Thin iMac are near lockdown. Much less expandability. The screen and the chassis are glued together.

 

[sfx2000]

yeah thin iMac already have Broadcom based airport cards.

I feel lucky to own a last generation of thick iMac. More room inside the chassis. The screen is attached to the chassis by strong magnets. Thin iMac are near lockdown. Much less expandability. The screen and the chassis are glued together.

The new ones are not too bad to work on - need to use the right tool to separate the screen from the frame - but need to make sure you have the replacement tape on hand...

Little reason to get inside them, except maybe to upgrade the HDD perhaps..

I do like the ones with the magnets better - they're easy to work on (relatively speaking) - the Mac's that drive me nuts are the Mini's - the 2010 and later are pretty tight inside, and there's a very specific sequence to work on them - I have a Mini 2010 Server that I had to replace both drives (word to the wise - on a Mini server, if one drive dies, replace both of them proactively) - RAM is easy enough, but once inside, they're much more fiddly than most laptops...

 

[kvic]

The new ones are not too bad to work on - need to use the right tool to separate the screen from the frame - but need to make sure you have the replacement tape on hand...

Little reason to get inside them, except maybe to upgrade the HDD perhaps..

I do like the ones with the magnets better - they're easy to work on (relatively speaking) - the Mac's that drive me nuts are the Mini's - the 2010 and later are pretty tight inside, and there's a very specific sequence to work on them - I have a Mini 2010 Server that I had to replace both drives (word to the wise - on a Mini server, if one drive dies, replace both of them proactively) - RAM is easy enough, but once inside, they're much more fiddly than most laptops...

I added an additional SSD and booted from there. Also replaced the Wifi card (11n > 11ac) and the Bluetooth (2.0 > 4.0). Cleaned away some dust. Not much in mine after 4 yrs of service but I heard some guys got horrible dust inside. Feel like having a new machine after the changes.

CPU and graphic card are upgradable too as long as you didn't top off the spec initially.

Thick iMac have airport and bluetooth cards separate. Later iMac integrated both onto a single combo card like BCM94360CD. While the Wifi card is connected to PCIe bus, the bluetooh connects to USB. And the two cards are placed far apart on the chassis. It was quite a surgery to re-wire the internal USB to the combo card as I didn't want any irreversible mod. I had to solder three USB wires on the adaptor like this guy did:

The above thread on Macrumors btw shows interesting tidbits. For one, late comers have an easier life installing the replacement as parts from Alibaba improve with each iteration. Apparently sellers are also readers of the thread!

Sandy Bridge iMac was a good buy IMO. I would be happier if it had come with USB3. Nothing that followed can urge me to buy a replacement yet. Mainly due to lack of disruptive progress from Intel like what Sandy Bridge brought. On laptops it's a little different..