I have Windows 98 and am experiencing a problem with my PC clock not holding the correct time. It loses both date and time, and correcting the time manually does not help. I’m assuming there is something wrong with the BIOS or something else. How can I fix the problem and get my PC to keep the correct date/time?

This is a very interesting problem as there are so many possible reasons for this problem occurring. However, two of the most common and probable reasons are because your BIOS clock is set incorrectly or the battery on your motherboard is running flat. To see if your BIOS clock is set incorrectly, when you start your computer and it is going through the power on self test (POST) you still see something like ‘Press DEL to enter setup’. When this message appears, press the key it specifies (in my case, the ‘Del’ key) and the BIOS setup will appear. If you are unsure about doing anything in the BIOS, don’t do it and exit the setup without saving any changes. The BIOS is a vital part of your computer system and should be treated carefully. Now that you have heeded the warning and the BIOS setup is up, go to the ‘Standard CMOS Setup’ and you should see the date and time. Verify that this is correct, and if it isn’t, then correct it. If you did correct it, you will need to use the option of ‘Exit CMOS Setup and Save Changes’ (or alike), however, if you don’t change the time or date, use ‘Exit CMOS Setup and Don’t Save Changes’ (or alike). If the time and/or date was incorrect, then you have more than likely fixed your problem. However, the reason for the clock having the wrong time may have been that the battery which enables the computer to keep all the BIOS settings saved when it is off may be running flat. If this is the case, I suggest that you do not attempt to replace it yourself but get a computer technician to do it for you. However, if all of this seems a bit much just for the time running incorrectly, there is another solution for you, use a time synchronisation client. These will synchronise your computer’s clock with atomic clocks at various places around the world to give you a very accurate time reading on your computer. There are many different programs available, ranging from freeware to commercial software. I suggest that you find a freeware piece of time synch software which suits your needs. You can find a wide variety of these at: softseek.zdnet.com/Utilities/Clocks_Alarms_and_Reminders/System_Time_Synchronizers/ .