Problem Keeping System Time Accurate

[Robert L Cochran]

On my Dell D420 laptop, when running Fedora 10, I am having a problem
where the system time is off by about 5 hours from the actual time in my
timezone -- Eastern Standard Time (EST). The date is always correct.
Eventually, the time resets to the correct time for my zone. This shows
up when I run Microsoft Windows XP too. I have thought it might be the
coin cell battery on the laptop's motherboard going bad, but if that
were so the date would be wrong too.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks

Bob Cochran