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[Apocalypse Dude]

A lot of bios's go back to the date the first BIOS of that model was released. with AMI this usually is somewere around 1988 and a lot of Phoeniz Bios's go back to 1997, so it could be that his bios battery is empty

[Danny252]

if the battery goes out and you change the time, would it change back afterwards without battery power?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Depends. On an AT-machine, it definitely would when you turn off the PC. On ATX, as long as the motherboard is connected to the power supply, the BIOS is powered and the settings (including clock) won't be lost. I know, because we have an ATX machine with a faulty battery here in the office. Actually, not really sure if its battery or not, since no batteries worked with it so far.

[A. J. Raffles]

Sorry to be bumping this thread, but I believe I'm having a similar problem with my old laptop. Whenever I start the damn thing, I get an error message because it has set the date to 1 January 1988. After I correct the date, everything else seems to be working the way it should, but it's still a bit annoying. Is there anything I could do to fix it, or is it something which ought to be done by somebody who actually knows something about computers?

[xoopx]

there is another possibility - some program you're running is changing it.
i know there are a couple of old DOS games that set my clock to crazy times for reasons known only to themselves.
possibly a bug in one of the copyright cracks

[A. J. Raffles]

Hmm, I don't think that could be the reason, actually, because I haven't played any games (other than ADOM) on that computer for the past two years. I mostly use it for writing essays. And it hasn't been connected to the internet for about two and a half years, so I don't think a virus is very likely either...

[xoopx]

take the backup battery out, and use the 'reset cmos' jumper.
then leave it for a few minutes
put the battery back in, and set up the bios again.

sometimes the cmos memory gets corrupted and does really weird things

[A. J. Raffles]

Erm, thanks, xoopx, but I'm a bit of an idiot when it comes to computers, I'm afraid. Could you rephrase that for computer morons, perhaps? What is a 'reset cmos' jumper and how exactly do I set up the BIOS again??

[omg]

the reset cmos jumper thang is pretty easy on a desktop pc but for a laptop?
need to know the make of laptop you are using to find a motherboard plan as some motherboards are festooned with the damned things and you dont wanna be just randomly changing jumpers around.

[xoopx]

Originally posted by omg@Jul 23 2005, 07:30 PM
the reset cmos jumper thang is pretty easy on a desktop pc but for a laptop?
need to know the make of laptop you are using to find a motherboard plan as some motherboards are festooned with the damned things and you dont wanna be just randomly changing jumpers around.

i got confused with who was asking what LOL

for raffles, its simply the battery needs replacing.

this can be tricky to do yourself.. laptops are very easily broken inside.. especially old ones with plastic connectors that might be brittle. etc etc.
dont attempt this if you're not experienced at screwing around with such things (you arent if you had to ask about the battery!)
best to get it changed by a store (ask them the price BEFORE they do it)