Clock resetting about a week after battery dies on PB

[bellang]

Have had a PB for about 6 months. All fine and dandy, yet when the battery needs a charge, if it doesn get one within about a week, next time I start the laptop i need to reset the clock.

Is this something common with all Apple laptops, would have thought a small battery would have kept things like the time correct when the main battery is low?

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Thanks for any help.

 

[mad jew]

Yeah, a small battery is meant to keep track of that sort of thing. Try resetting your PMU because one of the settings may have been corrupted. This will reset your clock again though, but hopefully it'll fix any firmware-based problems.

If this doesn't work then it may be that you have a flat internal battery and there's really no point in getting it replaced IMO. I imagine it'll be almost impossible (or expensive) but I could be wrong.

Of course, there could be a third perfectly simple explanation.

 

[bellang]

Excellent, I'll certainly give it a go.

Anyone know if my years warranty (thats standard with each purchase?) should cover this if the PMU reset fails?

 

[mad jew]

Yeah, your warrantee really should cover the internal battery AFAIK.

 

[Makosuke]

I could be wrong here, but PowerBooks don't even have an internal battery, do they? I thought they just used the main battery, and for cases where you're swapping it out there's a capacitor that holds enough charge to keep data in ram and the clock running for a few seconds.

In which case, if you're runing the main battery completely down to dead and letting it sit for a week and/or taking it out for more than a bit, then its a given the clock is going to reset. If it's just low, but the lights still go on, then I'm not sure--perhaps it is some problem with the internal clock circuitry.

 

[bellang]

Ah, this makes a fair bit of sense. i'll see how i get on, and I'll take note of the battery indicator on the back.

thanks for everyones help.

 

[mad jew]

I could be wrong here, but PowerBooks don't even have an internal battery, do they?

Interesting. All I'm basing this on is the fact that when I change batteries on my iBook, it remembers the time settings.