Clock is wrong everytime I boot up!

[#1]

Dell Inspiron 2200  about 5 years old..... main battery is dead, but does get "some"  charge when plugged into the mains.. (enough to keep it  going for about 1 minute! ! )....
Everytime I boot up. the clock shows the wrong time....strangely by five hour slow... the minutes are correct..... could this be the BIOS battery.... or is it "defaulting" to the US time because of low voltage?

[#2]

As you know the usual culprit in this case is the onboard 2032 battery and normally the date is reset to a much earlier one.
Can you check the time zone in the clock settings?

[#3]

Have you tried going into the bios screen and checking the time there.
At least this will rule out the operating system or not as the case may be as what you are describing sounds like a time zone problem not a CMOS battery problem

[#4]

I'm with Jim on this. If the minutes are right and it is always 5 hours out it's a time zone setting problem and not the BIOS battery.

[#5]

Quote

sounds like a time zone problem not a CMOS battery problem

Although if its defaulting to -5 hours, it could be a timezone setting in the BIOS (which would then be offset by the OS), depends how decent the BIOS on the Dell is, ive just refurbed an E5410 - and the bios on that is pretty slick! its like opening System Information in windows
Regards

[#6]

Have checked the timezone thing and it looks like it was defaulting to that.... so have re-set it with my own location, and will see how it pans out next time I boot up..
Thanks guys. 

[#7]

Quote from: shutter

Dell Inspiron 2200  about 5 years old..... main battery is dead, but does get "some"  charge when plugged into the mains.. (enough to keep it  going for about 1 minute! ! )....

I'm curious.. you know its duff but you still keep it? (and then wonder why your system is screwy?) 

[#8]

My money goes on Strat.  it sounds like the CMOS battery needs changing.
here's some info on it:
Battery

[#9]

Quote from: okrzynska

Quote from: shutter Dell Inspiron 2200  about 5 years old..... main battery is dead, but does get "some"  charge when plugged into the mains.. (enough to keep it  going for about 1 minute! ! ).... I'm curious.. you know its duff but you still keep it? (and then wonder why your system is screwy?)

A bit like your car then  
I do have two more up to date laptops,.... this one is being used to trial Linux MINT with the intention of getting used to the way it works, and eventually dumping Windows.... AND ... I keep it in the boot of the car, so I can use it on our journeys around the country, (with my 100% reliable and extremely economical {{ {  65 + m.p.g. } }} SKODA FABIA 1.9 SDI 10 years old and 162,000 miles on the clock, of which I have enjoyed driving over 105,000  of them ! ! ! ....   )

[#10]

Lol... thats fixed and running (Ok, still got a couple of electrical gremlins but it starts, runs, moves etc).
162k? Blimey thats good going for a skoda.. I still prefer Volvo lumps myself.. you'll get 500K out of one of them before its considered run in (and in that time the rest of the car will drop apart first before the engine dies).
Anyway, change the CMOS battery My mate had non-stop problems with one of his machines years ago where it would randomly freeze. CMOS battery was low and was basically causing the clock to do weird things which Windows couldn't fathom and would consequently hang. CMOS batteries affect computers in odd ways so you really are better off spending £2 and changing it.

[#11]

If it was the CMOS battery it wouldn't retain the correct minutes either.
It would always reset to the same hour as well.
Sounds to me like it is doing a check with a time server at start up that is 5 hours different to us.

[#12]

Yeah, I think it was the settings,... cos the minutes are definitely correct... ... still running at the correct time... will see how it is in the morning after being shut down for the night.

[#13]

@shutter, So is it working ok now?

[#14]

Yes, thanks,..... working fine.... it was the settings... so the old machine is still firing on all points ! ...  
Oh, and I forgot to say... It is running LINUX MINT 11..... with quite a few of my windows progs working too !... so am chuffed to bits...

[#15]

Quote from: shutter

Yes, thanks,..... working fine.... it was the settings... so the old machine is still firing on all points ! ...

Maybe that should be running on all ports