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NickTB

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 16, 2008
4
0
Hi all. New here and I have the following problem(s) hopefully someone can shed some light on this!

Woke up this morning and switched on the Mac. I was told my date and time was pre 2010 ?!?! checked and yup it was showing Jan 1st 2001.. set the date and time manually charged the iphone via USB then went out.

Tried to text my wife and noticed her number was no longer recognised (Number only showing, not name) and that all texts sent this morning where appearing at the bottom of my text list not the top as normal (Figured this out as the iphone had synched with the messed up time and date on the Mac). I re entered her number and when I try to call it it tells me the number is not recognised??

Came back home and switched the Mac on and got the same message as this morning. So I searched the net and found a fix for it (Some migration issue or something). Then my mouse stopped working (Not connected) then the keyboard stopped working (No Bluetooth detected) I mean. ***????

Currently I have restored the iphone and the mouse and keyboard are working again...

Is it a poltergeist? or disgruntled Microsoft employee bugging my Mac?

Anyone got any Ideas?

Thanks,

Nick
 
How old is your Mac? I had similar date issues when the internal PRAM battery died on my iMac. If it's a few years old, perhaps the battery is dead and it's losing all of the settings when you switch it off.

That being said I never switch my Mac off...always just sleeping.
 
How old is your Mac? I had similar date issues when the internal PRAM battery died on my iMac. If it's a few years old, perhaps the battery is dead and it's losing all of the settings when you switch it off.

That being said I never switch my Mac off...always just sleeping.

It was bought in June last year.. I don't know if it's an old model with new software or not though.. It's an iMac 10.1 running Snow Leopard OSX 10.6.6
 
Did you buy it new?

Software versions wouldn't matter in my case, just age of the hardware. But thanks for posting that as someone else may be able to offer other suggestions.

Go to About This Mac under the Apple menu and post the model number of this computer/ Intel chip info..etc.

Although if you bought it new, that is probably moot. These batteries should last 3-4 years....although maybe turning it off every night shortens the life of the battery since it needs to utilize it when the power is off? I have almost always just let my computer sleep over the last 10 years.

My 2000-era iMac Sage needed a replacement battery in around 2004...if I recall correctly. Maybe since you turn it off each night and it draws from the battery for 8-10 hours each and every day more than mine did, you might already need a new PRAM battery?
 
Sorry...missed that. :eek:

Seems a bit soon to need a replacement battery, but again...the issue sounds the same as I had when my battery died. The loss of the date after shutdown/restart is the red flag.

Anyone know how long a PRAM battery is expected to last? I had thought it was around 4 years. What about with as much 'use' as the OP gives his battery? (arguably a much greater battery drain than I have seeing as how I am almost never needing power from the battery as my iMac is always on, but sleeping 90% of the time.)

Is there a tool to see how much charge is left in a PRAM battery?
 
Last edited:
Did you buy it new?

Software versions wouldn't matter in my case, just age of the hardware. But thanks for posting that as someone else may be able to offer other suggestions.

Go to About This Mac under the Apple menu and post the model number of this computer/ Intel chip info..etc.

Although if you bought it new, that is probably moot. These batteries should last 3-4 years....although maybe turning it off every night shortens the life of the battery since it needs to utilize it when the power is off? I have almost always just let my computer sleep over the last 10 years.

My 2000-era iMac Sage needed a replacement battery in around 2004...if I recall correctly. Maybe since you turn it off each night and it draws from the battery for 8-10 hours each and every day more than mine did, you might already need a new PRAM battery?

This is what is on there:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac10,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM101.00CC.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.52f9
 
+1
sounds like a dead pram battery , cheap to replace , but unusual to give up that quickly
 
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