Time and Date Problem - PLEASE HELP!

[kjv146]

Hi all

I have a macbook pro that I purchased in april of last year. REcently, about two weeks ago I realized that all my messages in my inbox in my mail program had the exact same date and time in the received column. I thought maybe the internet connection or something is messed up. Then, however, I realized that all applications I use that show a date and time for anything, such as date last played or modified, such as in itunes, or the date I uploaded pictures or videos into iphoto or imovie, even the conversations I had on ichat and Skype, all show the same exact date and the same exact time. This is extremely confusing and I have no idea what the problem is. I even talked with apple on the phone, and they had no clue either. They said to check my internet connection. But it seems to me that it woudn't be the problem of the internet connection, considering that this problem occurs in iphoto and imovie as well. And I don't use those with the internet at all, don't have a mobileme account. If anyone has any light to shed on this issue, anything at all! I'd be greatly appreciative. Thanks

Kyle

 

[Javalux]

Hi Kyle,

I know from my experience in the PC world that motherboards have a button-cell battery (called a CMOS battery) - and that if that battery dies, it can sometimes wreak havoc with the date/time and other things.

Now, I DON'T know, or claim to know, whether this also applies to Macs or even to your particular situation. I'm not sure if you have a Mac Pro desktop, or a Macbook, etc. - so it's hard for me to say. I just figured that perhaps this could be a tip in the right direction. I wish you luck.

Edit: I should've read a little closer! It's a macbook pro. Whoops! I'm not sure if apple laptop mobo's have CMOS batteries, does anyone else know?

 

[Denarius]

Edit: I should've read a little closer! It's a macbook pro. Whoops! I'm not sure if apple laptop mobo's have CMOS batteries, does anyone else know?

Pretty sure Javalux is right: It does sound like CMOS battery although it's surprising that it's failed so quickly. April of last year is still within the one year warranty so you may as well make it Apple's problem rather than yours.

Those settings are normally stored in PRAM though. Just on an off chance that the PRAMS gone a bit screwy rather than the battery failing, although I don't hold out much hope for it, hold down Command-Option-P-R when you turn on the computer and release when the computer sounds the chime for the second time.

Having written all of that I've just thought of a question for you though: is date and time in system preferences showing movement on the clock or do you mean it's resetting every time you restart? Just occurred to me if it's not moving then that kind of suggests there's something pretty spectacularly wrong with the system clock.

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

The reason Apple suggested you check your internet connection is because OS X syncs its system time from online. You can check if this is enabled by going to date and time preferences and see if the box about setting the time/date automatically is checked.

Upon checking the logicboard images from the www.ifixit.com teardown, I can't find a battery on the mobo, akin to the BIOS's battery on the PC side of things. The fact that the Mac doesn't use a BIOS setup may negate the need for the battery, not sure though.

 

[Denarius]

Upon checking the logicboard images from the www.ifixit.com teardown, I can't find a battery on the mobo, akin to the BIOS's battery on the PC side of things. The fact that the Mac doesn't use a BIOS setup may negate the need for the battery, not sure though.

They list them on ebay, although after our recent experiences with eBay that might not be any indication at all!

 

[kjv146]

Denarius

The system clock and date are fine. This is really crazy, and I can't seem to find anyone out there that has had the same problem. Whenever I restart my computer the system clock and date are correct and are problem free. But everything else that uses a date, mail, imovie, iphoto, itunes, anything that seems to have a date or time for a file or whatever, shows the same date and time. Not sure if there's any relevance or meaning behind it, but the date and time is December 12, 2009 7:01PM. Not sure if that's significant in some way. But that's what it says, EVERYWHERE

 

[kjv146]

Eureka!!!

Solved the problem.

Date and time pref/open international/format/region/united states

Have no clue in the world how it got messed up. It was on custom. Interesting. Anyhow, thanks all for the responses. Much appreciated.