So several months ago, in a quest to replace the non-native Dell WiFi & Bluetooth card I'd bought to replace my motherboard's built-in Intel WiFi/BT, I purchased a purported BCM94360CD card + PCIe adapter from Ali Express. I installed it in my machine and… no additional WiFi interface appeared, but the Bluetooth module worked, and it worked well enough that I disabled the Bluetooth part of the Dell card but left it in my motherboard for networking (and because it was a pain to remove). So I was using the BCM94360CD for Bluetooth, the Dell card for WiFi.
This worked okay, but the whole reason I'd bought the BCM94360CD card in the first place was because hopefully having a fully native WiFi/BT card (no need for FakePCIID or all the Airport patch kexts) would be getting consistent Continuity/Handoff and maybe even Apple Watch unlock capabilities—which I still didn't have. So I was a little frustrated, figuring perhaps the kexts needed to make the Dell card work were conflicting with the new card, or perhaps having both cards in the system at the same time was doing it, or something. I didn't, however, feel like completely disassembling my computer to get to the on-board WiFi module (requires unscrewing the plastic IO shroud and little WiFi module box from the back of the mobo) to remove the Dell card. So I left it as it was and lived with it.
Flash forward to today where I finally decided it was The Day For A Project™. I finagled my motherboard out of the machine, removed the Dell card, re-assembled everything, and booted up. Still no WiFi, Bluetooth still worked great. Now I was without networking. Great. I removed all the kexts from my Clover partition I'd been using for the Dell card and rebooted, just in case. Still no dice.
Feeling like I had few options left and not wanting to disassemble my whole computer again, I removed the external antennas and swapped the PCIe card containing the BCM94360CD up from the lowest PCIe x1 slot on my motherboard to the one above the video card, and booted up again. This time, I had WiFi! I was connected to my network! OH JOYOUS DAY!
…Except now my Bluetooth peripherals weren't working. I plugged some USB ones in, logged in, and opened DPCIManager and System Information. DPCIManager showed the AirPort module with the correct Vendor and Product IDs and everything, which it hadn't been doing before (also confirming I'd gotten a legit Apple BCM94360CD and not a fake one). And, under USB, the Bluetooth module was showing up as a BRCM20702 Hub with the Vendor ID for Apple and the correct Product IDs, just like it had been before… what could be wrong?
It was only after I shut down my Hack one last time and was staring at its innards did I realize: in my haste to see if WiFi popped up as a device when swapping PCIe slots, I hadn't reconnected ANY of the external antennas! And although WiFi had connected without them, it was a much stronger signal than Bluetooth peripherals, even ones sitting on my desk mere feet away from my machine. Feeling confident this was the only issue (given that both "sides" of the device were showing up properly as devices), I shut down, routed the USB cable for the Bluetooth hub behind my graphics card for Improved System Appearance™, buttoned up the machine, and reconnected the external antennas.
Upon boot up, I connected my Apple keyboard with a Lightning cable, signed in, and saw the alert that it was wirelessly connected. I unplugged the cable, AND IT CONNECTED! I quickly re-paired my other Bluetooth peripherals and all worked flawlessly. Finally, the big test: I went to System Preferences > Security & Privacy, and lo and behold the "Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac" option was showing up. I checked it, entered my password, and it stayed checked! I locked the screen, hit escape to close the password prompt and sleep my monitors, waited a few seconds, then tapped a key on the keyboard; my watched tapped my wrist and I was in!
So, the moral of this story is: if you buy a PCIe adapter card in pursuit of native AirPort functionality and it doesn't work at first, check more than one PCIe slot on your motherboard even if it's annoying… and make sure you have the damn antennas plugged in.
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