System clock messed up/shuts down on its own

[Cronmoax]

Hello-
I have a 3 year old Powerbook G4. I just recently replaced the battery (with an Apple one).

Starting last week I keep getting the "the system clock is set before March 21, 2001" message every time I start the computer up.

I am also having a problem where...when I close my computer (still on) it'll shut down completely (after a bit of time). If the computer is open and the battery runs out, it'll also shut down.

What's going on?

Is this all related to the PRAM?

 

[JediMeister]

Sounds more like a hardware issue than anything fixed by RAM. Inside the computer there's a battery (separate from the one that powers the unit) which allows the computer to remember that information. On PCs its called the CMOS battery. There is an equivalent from Macs but the name escapes me at the moment. You probably need to have that replaced before the computer will work as it should.

 

[Cronmoax]

Sounds more like a hardware issue than anything fixed by RAM. Inside the computer there's a battery (separate from the one that powers the unit) which allows the computer to remember that information. On PCs its called the CMOS battery. There is an equivalent from Macs but the name escapes me at the moment. You probably need to have that replaced before the computer will work as it should.

yeah I saw it on here...it's called the PRAM battery.

 

[Cronmoax]

specifically...

I guess I should note that I'm specifically wondering if this PRAM battery failure is contributing to the random shutting down of the computer.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Have you corrected the date and time setting in System Preferences, and it still goes back to 2001?

 

[Cronmoax]

Have you corrected the date and time setting in System Preferences, and it still goes back to 2001?

the date in the corner of the screen hasn't changed at all...it's always correct when I get the error message.

 

[IJ Reilly]

That's weird. Have you tried resetting the PRAM?

 

[Toppa G's]

Hello-
I have a 3 year old Powerbook G4. I just recently replaced the battery (with an Apple one).

Starting last week I keep getting the "the system clock is set before March 21, 2001" message every time I start the computer up.

I am also having a problem where...when I close my computer (still on) it'll shut down completely (after a bit of time). If the computer is open and the battery runs out, it'll also shut down.

What's going on?

Is this all related to the PRAM?

I have the same issue with my PowerBook, but did not recently get a new battery. Even when the battery meter shows a 1/3 charge, the computer will suddenly shut down, and then reset the computer time & date to 1969.