Your computer's clock is blah blah blah...

Aiki · Mar 12, 2012

As far as I can tell I have set my computer clock to he proper time, a time after Jan 1, 2008, as the screenshot below shows.

However my Mac, since a recent update to Lion, keeps informing me that my clock "is set to a date before Jan 1, 2008 "(which it isn't) and "is not set correctly" (which it isn't quite though it was when I set it as far as I can tell), blah blah blah.

So can anyone tell me what the deal is? Any Time Lords here?

chscag · Mar 12, 2012

Reset the PRAM. You didn't tell us which Mac you have but a bad or dead PRAM battery will also cause the same problem.

Aiki · Mar 12, 2012

chscag said:
Reset the PRAM. You didn't tell us which Mac you have but a bad or dead PRAM battery will also cause the same problem.

Thanks, I tried the following, and will try to set the clock again. Will post again only if it doesn't work...

Resetting PRAM

Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

Your computer's PRAM and the NVRAM are reset to the default values. The clock settings may be reset to a default date on some models.

pigoo3 · Mar 12, 2012

As "chscag" mentioned above...you could have a dead PRAM battery.

You can reset your time a million times...and do all sorts of troubleshooting...but if the PRAM battery is dead...the settings will not be retained (this is what the PRAM battery is for)...maintaining the correct time...and other settings.

- Nick

Aiki · Mar 12, 2012

That worked, sort of, BUT I'm encountering another weird Mac time anomaly...

Below is a screenshot of a screenshot of a screenshot of my current system time.

The system time is right, but the icon of that screenshot of that time (5:30/correct), says 4 PM (incorrect) and the screenshot of *that* screenshot (confused yet?) which I made for the image below says 1 PM!!! Weird!

So can anyone explain this next episode of Bizarre Mac Time Warps?

Someone may want to suggest the icon was from my earlier screenshot by mistake; it wasn't -I checked it twice, the icon is of the picture you see to the left of it -they have different times.

Chuckoir · Mar 12, 2012

I'd put money on the fact, that if you extrapolated that icon to the right of that screenshot's name, it would say "5.31.04 PM" - It looks like 4 PM because it's been abridged.

As for your other problem - Dunno, as you've lost me.

Dysfunction · Mar 12, 2012

Yeah, I agree with Chuck's observation. The ellipse is a dead give-away

Aiki · Mar 12, 2012

Ah, thank you Time Lords, you are correct; both the "4 PM" and the "! PM" sceenshots do indeed extrapolate the 5:30-ish time.

How my Mac extrapolates 4 PM and 1 PM abbreviations of 530-ish I'm not sure, but that seems pretty minor. Only time will tell if my clock will wander due to a bad PRAM battery (seems a fair possibility since it wandered in the first place), so for now it's wait and see...

Thanks to all!

Dysfunction · Mar 12, 2012

Ok, so this is how it works.

The screenshot (only one is showing btw) is called

"Screen Shot 2012-03-12 at 5.31.04PM"

Because you're listing in an icon mode (it's a desktop, that's how it'll display files) and the filename is SOOOO long, the OS shortens the DISPLAY of the filename to..

"Screen Shot 2012...4PM"

Below is the same filename, with only the displayed parts highlighted.

Screen Shot 2012-03-12 at 5.31.04PM

Aiki · Mar 12, 2012

WOW!!!! I just looked up changing the PRAM battery -why did I think this sounded simple?

What a total NIGHTMARE!!!!!!! (and/or *major* labor expense). Disassembling what seems to be virtually every sub part of every sub part in the computer and some 150 screws of some 90 different sizes...? Multiple warnings at different stages to "be very very careful you don't break the fragile X Y and Z, -but if you do, you can get Kit A B and C")

And how long should we expect the replacement to last? I haven't mentioned it here, but I had to replace the harddrive (Macbook Pro Core Duo) a month after the warranty expired and now this.

"Difficulty: difficult..." Link must be seen in its entirety to be appreciated:
Installing MacBook Core Duo PRAM Battery - iFixit

(*stops whining*)

pigoo3 · Mar 12, 2012

Aiki said:
WOW!!!! I just looked up changing the PRAM battery -why did I think this sounded simple?

What a total NIGHTMARE!!!!!!! (and/or *major* labor expense). Disassembling what seems to be virtually every sub part of every sub part in the computer and some 150 screws of some 90 different sizes...? Multiple warnings at different stages to "be very very careful you don't break the fragile X Y and Z, -but if you do, you can get Kit A B and C")

And how long should we expect the replacement to last? I haven't mentioned it here, but I had to replace the harddrive (Macbook Pro Core Duo) a month after the warranty expired and now this.

"Difficulty: difficult..." Link must be seen in its entirety to be appreciated:
Installing MacBook Core Duo PRAM Battery - iFixit

(*stops whining*)

Changing the PRAM battery is easier/harder in some models than others. If the time still does not remain correct after everything you did thus far...the more & more it's likely to be the PRAM battery.

- Nick

Your computer's clock is blah blah blah...

Aiki

chscag

Well-known member

Aiki

pigoo3

Well-known member

Aiki

Chuckoir

Dysfunction

Aiki

Dysfunction

Aiki

pigoo3

Well-known member

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