System resets date to 2003 at every reboot

[RICHINMINN]

A friend contacted me with a problem she's having:
every time she boots up her system, the system date is set to a year of 2003, with the month and day changed as well (though I can't tell you what they are, since she didn't tell me).

She sets the date to the current date, and all is fine... until she reboots.

Is this a motherboard battery issue? But I would think that this would affect the BIOS settings as well, which would complicate the bootup process.

This is a moderately old system (Athlon XP 1500+ CPU, MSI motherboard, 1/2 GB RAM, Windows XP Home, etc.).

Has anyone ever encountered this before?

Thanks for your input.

Rich (in Minn.)

 

[Lemon13]

Is this a motherboard battery issue?"

Yes

M. Knorr

MCSE, MCTS, MCSA, CCNA

 

[vacunita]

More than likely it is a battery issue. Other than issuing a message at boot-up, it would not cause any difficulties.

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Phil AKA Vacunita
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[goombawaho]

I saw one computer where I replaced the CMOS battery yet the computer was still resetting the time if the power cord was disconnected from the computer for a while. Never figured that out - just told them not to turn off the power strip.

 

[linney]

Does the date change if the machine is booted in to Safe Mode?

It does sound like a battery problem however. Are they changing the date and time in the Bios, or are they just changing it in Windows?