Severe new bug in firmware Q2D13?

[Mitch Bradley]

C. Scott Ananian wrote:
> I am in Brazil at the moment, without good access to email.  But since
> this seems to be a firmware problem, Mitch Bradley is the right person
> to help you, at this stage at least.  Please check the batteries as
> Mitch suggests (photos might be helpful for us to see what's going on)
> and let us know what you find.  Mitch, is there anything else which
> might trigger the "Invalid System Date" message from OFW?
>  --scott
>
>   

OFW depends on the date information that it reads from the Real Time 
Clock chip and has no other source of information.  So an "Invalid 
System Date" in conjunction with at a very early date means that either 
the date was never set in the chip or that the chip lost its battery 
power and thus forgot the date.

It is possible that the factory neglected to set the date on some units, 
but that is less likely than the "lost power" scenario, because we have 
already observed two "lost power" failure modes on multiple units - bad 
battery holders and defective coin-cell batteries.