Clock on my PC?

Yes does sound like your backup battery has gone, most of them are easy enough to replace, they're nothing more than a small watch battery, (normally a CR2032) just open the case find it flip it out and replace it, although if you don't want to do that (or if it's that old it's not a watch battery) you can get something like Banshee Screamer Alarm clock which will automatically load up on startup and you can set it to check the internet for the correct time.

Windows XP and Vista both automatically set their time by time servers on the internet, but Windows ME lacked that function, Banshee Screamer Alarm can do exactly the same thng (plus it also comes with a really cool alarm clock that will wake you up to your favourite mp3's and it's freeware!) - see http://www.hanovsolutions.com/?prod=alarm for more info.

Also that message from Gmail seems quite funny, I remember once having a really old Amstrad 386 PC that if you were in the BIOS when it hit the millennium a message would pop up on screen saying "Bloody hell I didn't expect to be still around now!" obviously a joke put in by one of Alan Sugar's apprentice coders!! LOL!

hi mate

yes this is a cmos battery problem and apart from the time and date errors your hard drive and dvd drive configurations in cmos soft menu will also be affected

carefully remove the cmos battery from your motherboard,do not use any implements to remove this battery as it may damage the cmos battery holder,gently press the battery and it should prize out

then gently place the new cmos battery into the holder and then once the side panel is screwed back on turn on your p.c

then you need to press "delete" to enter set up and then go to cmos soft menu to reset the clock and date,then also set any other options that may have been affected by the cmos battery(this can include sata drives and raid arrays),then after all this remember to "save and exit set up" to save the changes you have made to the cmos battery

the cmos battery is responsible for the permanent memory of bios information,so if your cmos battery starts to malfunction or fail then your p.c can be badly affected

any problems let me know !

good luck mate !

The correct thing would be to check the CMOS battery, however depending on age of PC, could be a CMOS/BIOS chip issue. If you are confident, and know the insides of your PC, locate the jumper that resets the CMOS, this will reset it to factory setup, when you locate (make sure power off), unplug the 20pin ATX cable from the mainboard, and move jumper from NORMAL to RESET, or it maybe worded diff, only takes about 5 secs. move jumper back, plug ATX power back to mainboard socket, power on and enter BIOS setup, this method will not destroy any info on the PC, it just restets the BIOS to factory defualts. you will need to go though the BIOS screens and set time, and date, if you have not played with BIOS before this should be enough, you wont need to adjust any other settings. its a long shot , but sometimes a reset of the BIOS does the trick, i have used this many times, when a PC fails to start for no reason.

Definately sounds like you need to replace the battery. Find it by opening the computer and looking for a big shiny disc. Prise the battery out, usually by pressing down on the tab next to it, and it will pop out. Go buy one and put it in. Might have to reset a few things in your BIOS but apart from that, its an easy thing to do if you are feeling daunted by it.

It does sound like the little CMOS battery is dead. Other than replacing that, you might look at using time synchronization. I _think_ this is a built-in option in Windows, although it's been a while since I used it. Regardless, if it is there, it is an option to connect to a time server (typically linked to an atomic clock) to set you time. I don't know how frequently it does the check, but that might be one way to get around the problem.

Change CMOS Battery, then its OK for next three years. CMOS battery is sometimes called motherboard Battery located on mother board, (round disk shape). Alls BIOS setting are are stored in CMOS Battery(Including date)

DiSHeVeLeD has got it right except for one thing. He described the battery as "a big shiny disc". It shiny, and it's a disc, but it's not very big. To be more precise, you're looking for something between the size of an American 5¢ coin (we call them "nickels") and the size of an American 1¢ coin (we call them "pennies").

Mostly I would say that if the battery is running flat replace it.... this is pretty much a zero cost. However, should you have reasons not to, there are things to consider and understand, and possibly, ways around them. It is not only your own files that are date stamped, but also internet files and subscriptions. You might find your own files are still in (belated) chronological order, not a problem, but also that you're "timing out" elsewhere. A plus side to timing out may be, for instance, that your virus protection doesn't reach it's expiry date quite so quickly ( it may still work and get updates until it thinks it's had a full 12 month), a down side may be that you keep getting booted from your favourite web sites. One possible solution, double click on the clock (bottom right) and select "Internet time" from the pop downs. Set it to a server, then let the clock automatically update itself whenever you're online. (Probably only available as an option on recent Windows versions, but certainly available to other formats should you look them up). I really wouldn't be too worried about losing cmos settings, without the power to rewrite them, they're pretty much set in stone.

It's probably the battery. Of course, depending on how old it is, it may not be Y2K compliant, so it can't process dates past 12-31-99.

Right click the time and Adjust time an date.Tick the Time Zone

and Internet Time to see if that fixes it.