Date/Time sporadic and jumping around on PowerBook 165c

Question

Date/Time sporadic and jumping around on PowerBook 165c

Got this PowerBook 165c which I made a thread about earlier, from its networking issues. I noticed that the date/time was off, so I corrected it with date/time Control panel, But when I tab out of this or close the window, the date/time changes sporadically. It may jump ahead half an hour, jump ahead a week, jump behind by 50 years, you name it. Each time an application is opened it does it. Or it does it on its own every 60 seconds.

I removed the battery (dead anyway) and left without AC Power for 10 minutes. I then held down both reset and interrupt buttons for 12 seconds or so. (in-line with http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1781)

This did not resolve the issue upon reboot.

I then postulated that the internal motherboard battery was bad, so I removed that, but it still does the issue.

I booted to a Mac OS 7.6 CD-ROM via an external SCSI CD-ROM drive. The issue still occurs booted here as well. Am I faced with a hardware failure? If so, any idea of DIY fixes, or which component specifically is bad?

PowerBook 165c, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier

Posted on May 7, 2010 11:28 AM

Reply

Answer 1

May 7, 2010 11:34 AM in response to sopranojam851

The internal mother-board battery, typically called a PRAM battery, is what maintains the Date/Time settings and other user settings. If the battery is dead or removed, you can get the unusual happenings you described.

Reply

Answer 2

May 7, 2010 6:17 PM in response to Texas Mac Man

In other PowerBooks (albeit slightly more-recent ones I've used,) I've removed the PRAM battery, with the only consequence being that if I take away power and reconnect, I have to re-set the date and time. But it always stays set as long as power is being supplied to the unit.

I too suspected a depleted PRAM battery on this thing, so I took it out, but there's no change.

Odd thing is -- the time seems to only change if something happens in the Operating System. Like changing to a different window, opening an application, etc.

Reply

Answer 3

May 8, 2010 7:15 AM in response to sopranojam851

Unfortunately this isn't a newer PowerBook so it could be a number of things including motherboard issues caused by components starting to fail.

What may be happening is pressure on the casing is causing something to short out and this is causing the reset or flakiness though I'd be inclined to suspect the PRAM battery as well.

Reply