What causes the computer clock to change radically and how can I fix it?

13

My girlfriend just sent me the following photo:

Over nine thousaaaaand

Apparently that was what greeted her, along with a load of license expiry warnings, when she booted her laptop this morning. She then rebooted to be told it was now 2001. I believe it then died, and it now won't boot. It's a 2009-ish white Macbook running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

I'm at work so I'm looking for any ideas as to what has gone horribly wrong before I try to troubleshoot it tonight. All help is greatly appreciated!

Update: Apparently it boots into OS X fine, but still has a system clock of 2001. I'm guessing the motherboard battery died, though I won't know until later.

robotmay

Posted 2012-05-09T09:39:50.377

Reputation: 241

5that is beautiful, I have never seen it go into the future when the battery dies, usually it goes back to Dec 31st 1969 – madmaze – 2012-05-09T09:45:03.333

9Yep, definitely looks like a dead or dying CMOS battery. Get it replaced. – Indrek – 2012-05-09T09:57:14.360

1Looks like they're ~£15, so this is a job for the Apple store as the laptop is still (just) inside its warranty. Will update with an answer once it's fixed! – robotmay – 2012-05-09T10:49:25.533

4Crap, you have a time machine, don't fix it! – Moab – 2012-05-09T14:04:21.670

Something's strange -- though the symptoms do point to the CMOS battery, the CMOS battery should last 5 years or longer. – Daniel R Hicks – 2012-05-09T18:40:37.483

Answers

7

The CMOS battery on the motherboard is (nearly) depleted and must be replaced.

user16115

Posted 2012-05-09T09:39:50.377

Reputation: