Date: Fri, 24 Mar 1995 07:39:30 -0500 (EST)
From: Thomas Basil <
[email protected]>
Subject: Mac 1956 Date-Compilation of Answers
Dear Info-Mac:
Below is a compilation of answers received from an inquiry I posted to
INFO-MAC. I'd asked:
Can anyone shed light on why a Mac would always reset its date to 8/27/56
on start-up? I thought a bad battery would cause date to default to 1904.
The 1956 date is popping up on two separate Macs. Both check out as clean
under Disenfectant 3.5. Many thanks for any tips or suggestions.
Thanks to everyone for clearing up a mystery.
Tom Basil
[email protected]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Replies received...
From: "Jingcai Zhu (Mizzou1.Missouri.edu)<
[email protected]>
When the battery is dead, not only the date will be reset to 8/27/56 at
the start up, the color monitor setting will usually go back to B/W also.
So, change a new battery will solve the problem.
From: zeev fraenkel <
[email protected]>
you have a bad battery in both your computers. i have a classic II and
when it reverts to the date of 1956 i know its time to replace the battery.
for some reason this already happened to me twice despite the fact that
the battery is supposed to last 6 years and my mac is barely 4 years old.
something is wrong somewhere but it is not enough of a bother to do
something about it, so i replace the battery and forget about it.
i wonder how widespread this problem is. replacing the battery
in a mac II takes 5 minutes. zeev fraenkel
From: Matthew Damo Alverson <
[email protected]>
I just recently had this problem myself but along with I also had all my
presets changing, In particular my default printer was no longer coming up
as the default, and my system beep was not what I had set it as. So
everytime I turned on my mac I had to select chooser and select my printer
again. Then I noticed that the documents I had worked on in the last week
were dated 1956. I replaced the battery and that fixed both problems.
From: Benjamin k Grossman <
[email protected]>
No, some newer Macs hit other dates, I think this is one of them.
From: Roy Cruz <
[email protected]>
I discovered the problem around two years ago and I even asked Apple
support (through Applelink) but all they suggested was it could be the
battery or a virus. This bug appears on different Mac models, System 7.x
(I haven't tried using 7.5.1 on those Macs yet), and reformatting and
installing System software from the CD won't help. Also, aside from the
date and time other parameters are being reset on my old Mac like the 32
bit addressing and color. Last year, however, I noticed that it happens
to me (and to others I know) when a certain SCSI device is connected. Do
you have an external hard disk connected? If so, have you tried
disconnecting it temporarily to see if the problem occurs? There's a
solution though that I hope will also work on your Mac. Try not
disconnecting your Mac from the power line even if your Mac is turned off.
If your Mac is connected to a surge protector, don't turn its switch off
after turning off your computer. Please mail me if this helps or if you
got a better solution. This mystery has been bugging me for quite a long
time.
From: Matthew Damo Alverson <
[email protected]>
My mac is a classic II also, it is not a hard job but does require two
special tools. A nine inch long ?allen? wrench and a clamp that is used to
spread the case apart. To open the case remove the four screws in the
back two are back in the handle grip (a pain to get to but can be done
with either a long ?allen? wrench or a long torx driver. Once the screws
are out the casing needs to be pried apart. The necessary tools can be
ordered for $6.95 + $3.00s/h from MacConnection or most likely any other
mac catalogue. The battery is located (with the back of the machine
towards you) in the far right corner. The battery is 1/2 AA battery I
purchased mine from my local computer store for about $10.00 but these
people are always over priced I suspect you can most likely find it cheap
else where. They told me a battery last about 3 years.
From: Glen Hoag <
[email protected]>
Try the battery, especially if the Mac is a couple years old. A dead
battery will cause the clock to power up to some default state. I have
seen other reports of certain models coming up with a date in the 1950's.
You might check to see if other settings are retained, such as the mouse
tracking speed. If not, the signs are even stronger that it's a dead
battery.
