Dell Precision M4400 boot problems

I have a Dell precision M4400, with Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, that I updated the BIOS to the A27. After it updated I received the boot message "RTC mode fixed - time and date may be wrong- invalid configuration information - please run setup program - Intel matrix storage manager option - ROM v8.0.0.1039 ICH9M-E ...." then a space and just the time and date message, with F5, F2, F1 choices, I reset the time, date and it rebooted fine. Next day booted it up with the same messages. Reset time and date and rebooted fine but this time I let the battery die thinking that might be the problem. I then plugged in the A/C adapter and the blue light came on in the on/off switch which then turned off and the num lock light flashed, come to find out 23 times, with the other diagnostic lights solid indicating bad memory. I unplugged it, waited about 15 minutes and restarted. This time it went through the boot sequence but the last 1/4 of the blue scroll line took about a minute and I was back at the RTC message again, reset again, rebooted, did a memtest, all OK, reseated memory. turned off, turned on, same thing. I did some research and replaced the CMOS battery with a new one and changed the battery to a good 9 cell with 90% charge. The exact same thing the next time I booted, num lock light flashing, wait, reboot RTC message.... I then updated BIOS to A29, which I had read was giving problems, same thing in the same sequence. I then tried to clear the NVRAM by unplugging the CMOS battery over night. Still doing the same exact thing. I checked the system logs, in BIOS events there are 6 that correspond with the actual date. All are FLASH-ON-ON. The date it always returns to is the date of the Dell BIOS update, 05/15/2012. What confuses me is that it will always finally boot to Windows 7. Any suggestion would be much appreciated.