Mandrake 9.1 keeps giving me the wrong time. Every day i boot up my laptop just about every possible time appears BUT the real time. Does anyone know how to fix this? Has anyone else had this problem?

You've got a hardware problem. Linux gets its time from the hardware clock at bootup, and most RedHat-derived distributions (not sure about Mandrake, since it split from the main Red Hat tree quite a while ago) save the current time to the hardware clock at shutdown.

If you are getting random times, you probably need a new laptop. If they are not entirely random, you probably just need a new CMOS battery. Try the battery first, it's cheaper.

If you always boot connected to a network, you can set up ntp (network time protocol) and sync your clock to a trusted timeserver. If nobody local runs a timeserver but you are connected to the internet, you can use the US Naval Surface Warfare Center's atomic clock for a server.

try setting the timezone, and then the time again. when i install mandy 9.1 the first few boots the clock is always screwy, but when i change the timezone and set the time to the correct time, and then restart X, it works.
i hope this helps, cause the crazy clock was driving me crazy as well.
btw, you might wanna check this url, it has some info about fixing mandy's clock:
http://pgshopping.com/mdkxp/?c=ttrls/clockfix

You gotta be kidding me... I've always heard Mandrake was more "user friendly" than other distros. Go figure.

Incidentally, if the source of the problem is GMT offset, the time should precess backwards or forwards the same amount on every boot, depending on your timezone settting.

Thanks alot this worked great!!

No more time problems at all.