So my most excellent wife got me an XBOX for my birthday. I'm digging it, but it keeps making me reset the clock every time I turn it on, unless I do so by opening and closing the disc tray. Is this normal?

It should only do that if the unit is being unplugged. As long as it is getting power you should not have to do that. Do you have it in a power strip that's getting turned off? That would do it also.

Not only that, but the power has to be out for a long time. I'm guessing you might have a dead battery. You might consider taking it back to the store.

Actually, I just realized that I have it plugged into a socket that's connected to the primary light switch in the room. At the end of the evening, I turn off the lights, which would shut down the power to the unit all night. That must be the problem. I'll switch it to another power source and see if that fixes the problem.

Thanks, guys.

Since we just moved to a new apartment things are still a mess.. so I had my SNES hooked up and I was playing a game one night.. figured it'd be nice to have the lights out, flipped the swtich.. bye bye game.

Boy was I mad.

Incidentally, the PS2 does not have this issue. I left my PS2 unplugged & unused for several months, and the internal clock kept running.