Thanks I can do that but it is also re-setting the time back to 01/01/10 each time the laptop is turned off/or bluescreen.
I've checked the battery status & it says that that's okay, so unsure why the time is being re-set too.
if it's the DRAM, perhaps I can just replace both of them.
if it's the motherboard then I'll bin it as the laptop is 3-4 years old