I have a Mac Mini with an intel Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz. With in the last week when I turned it on it came up with the message that the System clock was set to 12-31-2000 and certain app might not work correctly. I first suspected the 3V Lithium battery as being bad. I purchased a new one from the local electronics parts store and after verifying it was good by checking it with a volt meter I installed it. My Mac Mini still comes up with the same message when I turn it on even with a good battery. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks…….
— Leonard Bryan
The first thing I I would do would be to reset the PRAM (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379). If that doesn't work, take it in to the Genius Bar.
Well reseting the PRAM did NOT work. If I leave my Mac Mini hooked up to a surge strip that is on all the time and have ALL the other peripherals hooked up where I can shut them ALL off after I power down the Mac then it works fine. The closest Apple store to me is over 300 MI away so I have no Genius Bar to take it to. I was wondering about getting a UPS like the APC model BN600 to hook up the Monitor, the Mac Mini, and the Time Machine drive.
So it works fine if you only shut off peripherals after you shut off the Mac? That's weird. Do I understand you right? I would suspect a problem with one of those peripherals then.
I use a UPS for my Macs. They are worth it, mostly for when you get 1-second outages during storms or something. Even if you only have a few minutes, it is nice to be able to gracefully shut down your Mac when there is a power outage.
No I mean that when I have it hooked up to to a strip that is on all the time then it works fine. If I have it hooked up so the the power is completely disconnected from it after I do the shutdown, and I flip the switch on my strip to disconnect the power from everything then the next time I turn it on it comes up with the clock set at 12-31-2000 and the message that the clock is wrong and some programs might NOT work correctly. Even though I put a new 3V battery in it. Can you recommend a good UPS that will handle that will handle two external hard drives, LCD Monitor, Mac Mini, and printer that can be hooked up USB and controlled by the Mac that is reasonably cost?
So how will a UPS help the situation? Just keep the Mac plugged in to a strip that is not turned off. A UPS will only assist this in the case of a power failure.
As for a recommendation, I don't have one. I use some APC ones, and some Belkin ones, but I haven't had that many that I can know which is best.
Do you have "Set date and time automatically" turned on in the system prefs? If so, does that help the situation? It should reset the clock pretty quickly after you restart.