glee wrote:

The CMOS battery in an old laptop of mine is dead.
Is there any reason why I can't stick a batch file in my
startup items folder in Win98 First Edition with two lines
date
time
to prompt me to set the date and time

Oh, should I use startup items or edit the traditional
autoexec.bat?

Using the DOS date and time commands isn't going to do you any
good, if the BIOS Setup is showing the wrong time and date.
Those DOS commands just get date and time from the BIOS....

No, what he's proposing will work just fine.

When you issue a date or time command from the dos prompt (even before
win-98 boots) the system clock and calendar will keep that date/time for
the rest of that session until you power down the laptop.

and the BIOS is wrong due to a dying CMOS battery.

That's not being disputed.

Where did you think DOS gets the time and date from?

DOS and windows will get the Date and Time from the system clock.

The user can set or re-set the system clock at any time. Once the user
sets the system clock via a DOS command or the system tray in windows,
the system clock will be correct for the rest of that session as long as
the system remains powered up.

I would have thought that unless the laptop's internal main battery is
completely dead, that it could rely on it to keep the cmos settings (and
system clock) powered.

At the very least, if external power is supplied to the laptop when it's
turned off, that should enable the system clock and calendar to keep
operating without resetting.