My time and date on my computer wont maintain itself upon shut down and restarting. I have made several atempts to solve this using the trouleshooting help guide. HELP!!!

Most of the time, losing time is caused by a failing battery on the motherboard.

I agree with the first reply, in most cases, time loss is due to a failing battery. Also, some DOS-based programs running in the background could be causing your loss of time.

The first two respones are probably correct. The CMOS battery is probably dieing. On most motherboards, when the computer is off, the CMOS battery powers both the internal clock and low power CMOS ram that remembers the "CMOS Setup" parameters. As the battery dies and its voltage drops the CMOS clock slows down and finally stops. The clock problem usually occurs first. This is nice. When the clock slows down replace the battery. Normally a battery will last at least 2 years. Some last more than 5 years. Before you change the battery you should know your current CMOS setup and how to restore it. It may get wiped out when you change the battery. Especially if the battery is very weak or you take more than a few seconds to replace it. I'm not sure how much time you have to swap it out since I have always swapped them with the motherboard powered up. I don't reccomend you swap the battery with the power on unless you are very experienced with working on electronis with the power on. You can destroy the system or kill yourself!

One other thing besides the cmos clock which is most likely, could be. If you have Norton Antivirus 2k. It can sometimes have your time change frequently. You might want to go check norton's site for the patch if you have nav 2k. the patch is at. ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/symevnt/sevinst.exe

Suspect a conflict between the operating system, third party applications and the Advanced Power Management feature of some computer's BIOS. Finding the real culprit requires using a rather rigorous process of elimination. Try these things: 1. Disable Advanced Power Management in your computer's BIOS. For this step, refer to your original hardware vendor's printed or online documentation. Your goal is to allow Windows 98 to handle the functions of Advanced Power Management, thereby resolving the conflict. If this doesn't help, proceed to: Let the computer run in Safe Mode overnight. When starting in Safe Mode, only the mouse, keyboard, and standard VGA device drivers are loaded. Since Safe Mode bypasses startup files, including the Registry, CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, and the [BOOT] and [386Enh] sections of SYSTEM.INI, it's a great way to eliminate variables. With real-mode and Windows drivers out of the picture, you can tell if your System Clock is running right. If it is, you can reasonably suspect your problem is application-specific. To enable your computer to restart in Safe Mode (always a neat trick to have in your troubleshooting kit), perform the following: a. Go to Start > Run > and type in "msconfig", without the quotes, and click OK b. In the System Configuration Editor window that loads, click the 'Advanced' button towards the bottom right. c. In the 'Advanced Troubleshooting Settings' window, place a check next to "Enable Startup Menu" d. Click OK, then OK again. Click Yes as prompted to save changes. e. Restart your computer normally. When Windows 98 begins to restart, you will see a text-based menu appear. Select the option labeled "Safe Mode" and press Enter. Note: After troubleshooting the time loss problem you will want to remove this menu. To do so, repeat steps a - d above and De-Select the "Enable Startup Menu" option. Questions are good troubleshooting tools, too. Here are some Mole would ask in your position. If the answer to a question is "Yes", disable that application/function (one at a time, please) and let the machine run for a while to see if the change affects the time-loss problem. 1. What, if any, Anti-Virus software is being used (such as Norton Anti-Virus, McAfee's, etc.)? 2. What system utilities run when Windows starts (such as CyberMedia's First Aid, Norton Utilities, etc.)? 3. Is there a screen saver running on the computer? If so, is it a Windows screen saver, or one from a third party? If you've gotten this far and still haven't solved the problem, there's one more thing to consider. Mole hesitates to be Ageist here, but are the problem computers—ahem—getting on in years? Most CMOS batteries last for five to ten years. If your machines are approaching this age, check it out. Scott