strange system clock issues

[Paul Lussier]

Hi folks,

I just noticed that my system clock doesn't seem to be working correctly
all of a sudden.  I wasn't running ntpd, but now I am.  And when I run
it, it keeps things up to date for a bit, but watching the "seconds"
tick by seems very slow, I can actually count 5 "mississippi"s between
"seconds" on the clock.

After the clock gets about an hour (maybe it's 2) out of sync, ntpd
fails to sync and gives up.  Is this a system clock battery problem ?
The system in question is about 10 years old...

--
Paul