MBA Issue - Random Time and Date Reset

[Silviar]

I have a MBA which I purchased in 2009. Things have been mostly fine, but in the past 3 months, I've had something happen with my laptop that I'm not sure if I should be concerned about or not.

My laptop boots up (although I swear it should be in sleep), and turns on fine with a full battery, but a message pops up warning me that my system may be unstable due to having a date before 2008. Sure enough, it's reset to 2001, and my wireless network information is wiped.

I re-enter the network information and it fixes my date and time, but I can't find a common link. This has happened about three times over the past 3-4 months. Is my laptop in danger of a major malfunction? Do I need to get something replaced, or is this just a quirk I can blame on something internal that has no real problem to it, other than being annoying?

 

[old-wiz]

Typically this kind of issue used to result from the little battery that keeps the clock running when the system is powered off. I have an ancient Dell laptop that when you try to boot it it says "need setup" and the clock is reset to base of 1/1/2001. I know there's a little battery somewhere but haven't bothered to try to fix it since I almost never even use it anyway.

I don;t know the equivalent on the apple laptops though