Clock reset after synchronizing

Hi,
Yesterday I noticed that my computer's clock was not synchronized to the correct time after the British Summer Time ended, so I manually synchronized the computer with 'Internet Time'. It told me there was an 'error' synchronizing, but it seemed to have synchronized regardless so I didn't take much notice.

Today when I switched on my computer, it booted with the Compaq logo, a couple seconds, it told me to press F1 to start up my computer normally. When the computer had started up, I noticed that the date had reset back to January 1st 2007. Other than this, I also noticed that my free memory was down from 320GB to 319GB and that my computer had also supposedly installed a floppy disk drive, even though my computer doesn't have a floppy drive...? Thankfully, other than these minor defects/oddities, the computer seems just fine.

I tried syncing with the internet again; it told me there was an error again and this time it would not sync with the internet's time so I had to set the clock manually. It's a few seconds behind the actual GMT time which is a bit annoying, but it otherwise seems fine.

When I restarted the computer, it came up with the Compaq logo again (it doesn't normally do this), though the computer started normally a few seconds later without me having to interact with it. Plus, the time and date remained the same (31st October 2012) thankfully.

I was wondering if this is a sign that my CMOS battery is dying, or something else? I brought the computer brand new from an electronics store back in July 2009, so it seems a bit early for the battery to be dying in my opinion. The CMOS battery on my old 2003 XP computer only died about 2-3 years ago.
My clock has been perfectly fine up to now and it used to automatically sync with Daylight Savings.

I wasn't sure if it was necessary to post my computer's specs for this, but let me know if it's required. To keep things basic, it's a Windows Vista 32 bit desktop, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz with 4GB RAM and 450GB hardrive space.

 

Yes.

 

Is there anyway of repairing my current CMOS battery?
If not and I have to replace the battery, would I have to buy a specific CMOS battery for my computer or could it just be any unspecified battery?
I just watched a couple videos on YouTube on how to replace the battery, looks simple enough, but none of them stated if it had to be a certain brand/type/etc. of battery.

Sorry, probably seems like a nooby question; still an amateur when it comes to computers.

 

Hi,

CMOS batteries do generally last up to 5 years but depending on how long the computer sat in the warehouse it is possible for them to die in a couple of years. You can verify that yours has gone bad by unplugging the computer overnight after shutting down through Windows. If the clock is wrong then the battery is bad.

It doesn't matter which brand you buy. They are almost all CR2032 batteries. Most large supermarkets or drugstores sell Duracell or Energizer versions for about $5, some on this forum have said that dollar store batteries work just as well for them.

The above information is for a desktop, just want to make sure we are on the same page and this is a desktop.

 

Thanks for the reply.
I managed to replace the CMOS battery yesterday. It was easier than I expected and everything seems just fine now. I did still get the 'CMOS checksum error - defaults loaded' the first time I switched on the computer after replacing the battery, but after I set the date & time, my computer was operating like nothing ever happened.