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This is an unusual problem. A firmware or hardware or OS idk.
It had been two weeks since I had been on Catalina when something strange started happening. I will get to the strange bit at the end but the main problem is as follows.
Main Issue
My wifi would automatically disconnect, then periodically reattempt reconnection. As it would keep trying to reconnect the UI would being lagging. Eventually the computer becomes unusable. The UI literally freezes, barely responding at all.
Lagging symptoms
- Massive Delay when moving the mouse pointer, feels like I'm dragging a heavy object.
- Force Touch trackpad clicks are out of sync, and there is delay in the haptic feedback.
- General Slowlness and beachballs galore when trying to do anything, even shutdown.
Other issues
The more you try to reconnect the more the UI lags
The wifi pane in Network settings stops responding and the text on the buttons turns into this:
from <Localizeable.string> (something similar)
What Have I tried to do so far?
I have turned off ipv6 via
networksetup -setv6off WiFi
Have tried deleting the configuration files in /System/Library/LaunchAgents/
Repeatedly zapping SMC NVRAM
Resetting to Factory OS (Yosemite). Although this stage is difficult as the recovery keeps giving me the error -2002F. But after repeated attempts I can get it to download and do the reformat.
Downgrading to Mojave (I'm Currently on Mojave) but the issue is still present.
Changing WiFi Bands etc
OTHER INFO
Strangely this lag also happens sometimes within recovery. Like recovery has a wifi connection and once in a while the recovery would also struggle to get the connection and cause the mouse pointer/UI to lag. Preceding this problem I had tried to change the computers preferred DNS service to Cloudflare or some other, I don't remember but the problem started right after that. Could be related I don't know
STRANGE PART
The strangest part in all this is that this problem somewhat reduces in frequency if I move to another room in the house, my office in my house is right next to a big building with lots of homes and routers. This building also has a mobile tower on top of it. That is where I usually sit and the issue is most severe here. But I am still testing this.
How can moving to another location cause my laptop to not freeze so much.
SYSTEM SPECS
LAPTOP: MBPr 13 inch early 2015 Base Model Currently running Mojave
Boot ROM Version: 189.0.0.0.0
SMC Version (system): 2.28f7
Serial Number (system): C02Q4DR0FVH3
Hardware UUID: 1DD468B0-0F96-5B61-B818-9E9934609653
WIFI Software Versions:
CoreWLAN: 13.0 (1375.2)
CoreWLANKit: 13.0 (1375.2)
Menu Extra: 13.0 (1380.2)
System Information: 12.0 (1300.2)
IO80211 Family: 12.0 (1200.12.2)
Diagnostics: 1.0 (805)
AirPort Utility: 6.3.9 (639.9)
Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x133)
Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (7.77.61.3 AirPortDriverBrcmNIC- 1305.9)
I heard there was a Kext swap you could do, but the originals thread has been locked by apple. >> https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250724937?answerId=251555697022#251555697022