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taylorpc

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 29, 2005
58
0
St. Louis, MO
About 20 minutes ago I was surfing the net, and my computer blinked off. Strange. I knew the battery was close to toast, so I brought it downstairs to plug in. I pressed power, logged in, and OS X booted up. However, I got a strange error message saying that my "computer's internal clock was set to a date before March 24, 2001... some applications may act erratically". Nothing would open, and everything usually in the upper right hand corner was missing - time, battery, etc... and I couldn't get on the internet at all. So I rebooted again, opened up system preferences and my computer was set to 12-31-1969. I set the current date, and now everything seems to be fine. What the HECK happened?
 

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
18,390
2,825
Sounds like your backup battery that stores things like date and time is dead. What computer is this?

This happens with my old iBook 500 MHz if I let the battery completely drain. I get that notice when I initially start it back up, but it quickly syncs with the time server and figures out the correct date and time.
 

taylorpc

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 29, 2005
58
0
St. Louis, MO
This is an ibook G4... yeah, that makes sense. My battery won't hold a charge for longer than 30 minutes or so. Wierd, because it will give me the low battery warning at like 40 or 50% power. Appreciate the response!
 

PYR0M310N

macrumors 6502a
Aug 29, 2006
543
0
that happened with my ibook when i was in the process of getting a non-exploding battery! but it would let me connect to the internet, so that is strange
 

wot58"slip

macrumors newbie
Oct 8, 2008
5
0
clock 1969 problem

I have also had this problem with my iBook G4, but slightly different circumstances...

The first time was just after I bought the computer (used). When I first started it up, I couldn't access the hard drive at all. After some time, the error message cited above popped up for no apparent reason, but as soon as I reset the clock, everything worked.

That was about 8 months ago, and it hasn't happened again until about two days ago. Two out of the last four days, the clock has been reset to 1969 when I open the iBook up first thing in the morning. The funny thing is that the computer was plugged in over these nights, and my battery generally holds a charge for around two hours.

Any ideas?
 

indefatigable

macrumors member
Sep 25, 2008
33
0
This happened to my powerbook (3 years old now) before I got a non-exploding battery—which I was way too lazy in getting. I would just connect to the internet, and the time/date fixed itself. Or, if I was in a place with no internet, you can set it yourself, I believe...
 

Sun Baked

macrumors G5
May 19, 2002
14,937
157
wot58"slip;6372039 said:
This thread started way old, but the issue is still out there...

Wasn't quite a thread from 12-31-1969, but close to it if you use the computer years to human years conversion. :p
 
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