Duo 230 Dead PRAM or Battery

[Christopher DeRose]

Hey folks, newbie here w/ a quick question.  

My duo 230 hasn't been booted up for a while and works fine in the dock but won't start up by itself.  I thought it was probably just that the battery is finally dead but, after reading an auction looking for a new battery on ebay, I read it could be the PRAM battery.  I had a hard time starting it up from the adapter and my clock is reset to 1/1/04 after I finally got it to boot from the power adapter.  Could it be both?  Could the PRAM battery prevent the battery from charging?  

thanks for your infinite wisdom and your time,
Chris