I see that Rick asked a similar question (21 Feb or so) and has not provided additional details so here is my problem, with as much detail as possible.

My daughter's PB will not charge (shows 0% in menu bar) and no green lights on the battery itself when connected to the AC thus this is obviously a dead battery.

And, it does run when connected to the AC supply so I believe the DC-IN board is still good.

Since she can not afford to purchase the battery right now, she has continued to use it via the AC supply.

Now, whenever she turns on the laptop, she gets the message during boot that the Time/Date has been reset to 24 March 2001 but when the boot is complete, the menu bar shows 7 Dec 1969. Strange.

She resets the date/time and uses the PB.

Is it possible the PRAM Battery is also bad, maybe due to running the laptop without a functioning battery?

PRAM Batteries are fairly inexpensive ($39.95 here) and the replacement guide is straight forward and relatively easy (I know it says Difficult under difficulty) .

So I am going to purchase a new battery but need to know if I should also by a PRAM battery...

Suggestions?