Clock and date resetting to 1969??
- Thread starter Graphix
- Start date
While setting up network time may end up fixing the problem, it is still a good idea to follow Jadey's advice and replace the internal battery. The reason why the date is resetting to 1969 without network time synchonization is probably that the information in PRAM is being erased. Dead battery = erased PRAM. Using network time sychronization is a fine workaround for the date and time being reset, but there are other parameters stored in PRAM which are being reset because the bad battery. I can't say I recall exactly what these are, but its a good idea to play it safe and replace the battery, rather than risking some system info being lost.
As for it not affecting MacOS 9...I don't know. I'd run into this problem years ago running MacOS 7.0.1 on a Mac LCII, and the date and time only reset intermittantly. Batteries are cheap, and fairly easy to install (Apple has decent walkthroughs). Better safe than sorry...
As for it not affecting MacOS 9...I don't know. I'd run into this problem years ago running MacOS 7.0.1 on a Mac LCII, and the date and time only reset intermittantly. Batteries are cheap, and fairly easy to install (Apple has decent walkthroughs). Better safe than sorry...
LordOphidian
Adjutant On-Line
Another reason that checking your battery is good, is that if your battery is dead and the clock is resetting every time you turn the computer off, you will get massive (30+ years) uptimes since NTP only sets the clock after the computer has been started up, so it takes the 1969 date as the startup date, then the time is changed, and it compares that to the 1969 date to see how long its been up.
Although maybe you should just leave it the way it is, since it will make for good screen shots
Although maybe you should just leave it the way it is, since it will make for good screen shots
yeah, well I get the same deal but when I boot 9 the clock is back to normal, so it isn't my battery. When I boot X the clock doesn't get fixed, and I have network time set on. I just have to open date and time and tell it to sync everytime I boot up, that's my work around. I should make an apple script to do this and throw it in my startup or I mean login items if it is possible...
I am also having my date and time reset every second time or so when starting up into X 10.1 . I also have a DP 450 G4 Powermac. I have no such trouble when booting into 9.2.1 . One thing I do notice is that the times the clock is reset the computer takes an unusually long time booting up pausing for about 40 seconds on the grey screen with the little folder (?) icon on it - and occassionally not booting up at all with the folder icon showing a break in the middle of it.
This must be a 10.1 software issue with DP 450's or DP's in general
This must be a 10.1 software issue with DP 450's or DP's in general
Solaris
Official something...
Just a bit of general unix info:
1 Jan 1970 is the unix epoch. The unix date command works out how many seconds have passed since 00:00:00 1 Jan 1970. eg:
[localhost:~] spencer% date -r 1000000000
Sun Sep 9 01:46:40 GMT 2001
That was the 'bi-lennium' that passed recently. So when your clocks get set to a pre epoch date, something is screwed!
1 Jan 1970 is the unix epoch. The unix date command works out how many seconds have passed since 00:00:00 1 Jan 1970. eg:
[localhost:~] spencer% date -r 1000000000
Sun Sep 9 01:46:40 GMT 2001
That was the 'bi-lennium' that passed recently. So when your clocks get set to a pre epoch date, something is screwed!
TommyWillB
Registered
Maybe you have the time synchronizing under OS 9. (I think that setting is in the Date & time control panel.) If that is on, it could be masking the problem under OS 9.
Radio Shack usually has these batteries... I think I paid less for it last time than you pay for camera batteries. ($3-$10)
After you do this, run something to fix all of your file modified times. They will all be out of wack...
TommyWillB
Registered
That too is related to your PRAM getting zapped... thus also related to having a dead/dieing battery.
TommyWillB
Registered
The combination of the battery dieing, the PRAM being zapped, and the date being reset probably can be combined with some Daylight Savings time oddity to make the date look like December 31, 1969.
Thanks for the suggestion of replacing the battery - which I did a few days ago, but low and behold my clock has been reset to 1 Jan 1970 again today apon start up. It must be a software bug with DP 450's. Any more suggestions anyone? P.S I am now running 10.1.1 and it still reset the clock
It seems this is a pretty common thing now on the DP machines (there's a quick blurb about it at xlr8yourmac).
Do you see something like,
in /var/log/system.log? I think that may be the first clue, at least on my G4/500DP.
Do you see something like,
Code:
ApplePlatformExpert::getGMTTimeOfDay can not provide time of day RTC did not show upin /var/log/system.log? I think that may be the first clue, at least on my G4/500DP.
I have a PM G4 450DP (Gigabit Ethernet) and I have the same problem. I have spoken with Apple and they confirm that it is a bug and will have a fix for it soon.
It is not the clock battery, as Mac OS 9 is fine. It is not a PRAM issue, as Mac OS X does not rely on PRAM other than for start-up info.
Once again Mac OS X, designed for dual processor machines, has a glitch with dual processor machines. First PPP and now this.
It is not the clock battery, as Mac OS 9 is fine. It is not a PRAM issue, as Mac OS X does not rely on PRAM other than for start-up info.
Once again Mac OS X, designed for dual processor machines, has a glitch with dual processor machines. First PPP and now this.
I was at my Dad's house tonight and he has a G4 400 Yikes tower which is also reverting to 12-31-69. I arrived, the Mac was sleeping, woke it up running in OS 9, the clock was correct. I then rebooted into OS X(10.1.1) and it was 12-31-69. The battery was never replaced, but he runs in OS 9 for many days without a problem. The battery was still @ 3.1v (the battery is 3.6v) as measured with a volt meter.
There is no additional hardware in this machine other than a second IDE drive!
There was at one time an Adaptec 2906 card, but it was removed when I installed X.
I looked in Console and could not see any messages what I thought related to the problem.
Rebooted in OS 9 and back again, all was fine.
On a slightly different note, during the time I upgraded some apps, I had problems placing any item in the dock. Nothing would stay there. I deleted the com.apple.com.dock.plist file and that fixed the problem.
There is no additional hardware in this machine other than a second IDE drive!
There was at one time an Adaptec 2906 card, but it was removed when I installed X.
I looked in Console and could not see any messages what I thought related to the problem.
Rebooted in OS 9 and back again, all was fine.
On a slightly different note, during the time I upgraded some apps, I had problems placing any item in the dock. Nothing would stay there. I deleted the com.apple.com.dock.plist file and that fixed the problem.
