Ok, decided to swing by home during lunch to gather a bit more info:
This is the options screen after a cold restart (loss of clock, note upper right corner).
Didn't have time to test much but the AWG appears to work (with the wrong date):
The inactive and de-activated options don't list anytihng either (still with wrong date):
And after changing the date nothing seems to have changed:
So I have no idea what options have been disabled. Looks like the error message may be in error? Either way it still sucks.
I'll try Mike's suggestions later tonight (try and measure and/or wiggle battery).