I have a problem with the dates of emails that I send and receive. They sometimes come up with very bizarre dates that are nowhere near the current date (like 1984). This happens sometimes on my incoming email but more on the outgoing email. People I send the messages to then lose it in their inboxes because of the date. I am running Windows 3.1 with IE 3.01 I think, on a Pentium 133. I rang up my service provider and we tried to work through it by fiddling around with the clock settings in control panels, but the date there was fine. What can I do to fix this problem?

Places the dates are stored on your computer are Windows (which you have already checked and it is OK), DOS, and the BIOS clock. To see if your DOS date is correct, exit to DOS and type ‘date’ at the command prompt. It should list the current date and then give a prompt for you to enter in a new date (if listed one is incorrect). If it is OK then abort by pressing ‘esc’ then enter at the following prompt without entering anything. If DOS checks out OK , the problem may be with the BIOS clock. The BIOS is your computer’s way of telling itself where certain things like hard drives, floppy drives, etc’¦ are and if you actually have these devices attached. The computer clock is a component of the BIOS. When your computer is going through its startup procedure you may notice that a message appears for a few seconds that says something like ‘Press DEL to enter setup’. If you press this, you will see the BIOS setup menu. Select ‘Standard CMOS Setup’ and then a new menu will appear. There will be a section that has the date in it. Make sure that date is correct and if it isn’t make the necessary adjustments. NB: If you make any mistakes or change any other settings while in here abort and DO NOT save to CMOS when prompted. Changing other settings could have severe implications on your computer and it may stop functioning properly. If you are not confident doing this yourself ask someone knowledgeable in computers to assist you. As a last resort I recommend that you download an updated version of the email software you are using in case the version you are using has a software bug.