Sudden Resetting of Date & Time to 1969

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Level 1

10 points

Sudden Resetting of Date & Time to 1969

I was playing a computer card game on my Powerbook a few minutes ago. The battery also was recharging at the time.

Suddenly, the screen died. I restarted and the date and time were suddenly back to Dec. 31, 1969.
The computer gave me a warning that there was a date reset before 2001 but I hit ok. I was able to finally rechange the date & time back to the future (i.e. today's date) but that was really weird.

I checked the logs and it indicated about the time of the crash that I had 100 printing jobs and it couldn't handle it. However, while the printer cable was plugged in, the printer was off. And I had no printing jobs in queue nor was the printer utility software up at all.

I ran Disk Utility and it said that the HD was just fine. It seems to be working okay now.

Has this happened to anyone else?
Could it be a bad game software (sometimes it crashes)?

A power surge? Sometimes the Powerbook or the power cable goes blank (not orange or green) for no apparent reason. I have to unplug the cord and recycle the surge protector, replug the power cable and all is fine. Happens with every surge protector I've used. Could this be a contributing issue?

Or is my Powerbook getting old and tired like me? But back to the future of 1969 is a bit spooky.

Thanks for your help

PowerBook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.11), IPhone (on June 29), 2005 Prius

Posted on Feb 22, 2009 11:22 PM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

155,810 points

Feb 24, 2009 8:25 PM in response to bodhiness

The date December 31, 1969 appears when your system's internal clock memory becomes corrupted. Most often this happens when the Powerbook's internal battery simply becomes discharged but there can be a number of other causes. There's nothing to worry about, unless it starts happening with disturbing regularity. Then I'd begin to suspect a failing Power Management Unit (PMU). It's replaceable if necessary.

Are you sure your battery still has some life in it? They usually degrade progressively over a long period of time, but eventually become so bad they'll discharge in a matter of seconds - no matter what your battery meter menulet says. It sounds to me like that's what you're experiencing.

I checked the logs and it indicated about the time of the crash that I had 100 printing jobs and it couldn't handle it. ... I ran Disk Utility and it said that the HD was just fine. It seems to be working okay now.

I have no explanation for the number of printing jobs. It seems to me the number of them, large as it was, isn't sufficient reason to explain the crash you described. It's possible the crash-prone game software ran awry, but it's nigh impossible for software alone to bring down OS X. I don't have an answer, but if DU reports all is well and your system is generally behaving itself I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

A power surge? Sometimes the Powerbook or the power cable goes blank (not orange or green) for no apparent reason. I have to unplug the cord and recycle the surge protector, replug the power cable and all is fine. Happens with every surge protector I've used. Could this be a contributing issue?

Your surge protector may simply have been doing its job. If it's designed to shut off in the event of a surge, requiring you to reset it, that's a good thing. Poor power quality can cause all sorts of weirdness and is difficult to diagnose without expensive monitoring equipment.

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