Also your battery holder could be bad (corroded, contacts rotted away, etc.)
I always recommend an NVRAM upgrade for this as you never have to worry about batteries ever again and you remove the possibility of future acid damage to your board.
Big Daddy's carries PinForge NVRAM upgrades:
http://www.bigdaddy-enterprises.com/ProductPages/pinforge.html
and
Lock When Lit carries anypin NVRAM as well:
http://lockwhenlit.com/anyPin.htm