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Problem with the clock

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by mattw

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I have a user who's clock at the bottom right of his screen gkeeps falling behind. I have tried installing Tardis and configuring, and disabling the Energy Saver mode, but the problem keeps happening. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Matt

21 replies

by sheilau

We have had same issue - try going into Control Panel and going into Regional settings. Go to Time tab, and make sure time style is set to hh:mm:ss:tt - that seems to correct the issue. Good luck!!

by mattw

Hi ~

Thanks for the insight, although what does the :tt stand for?

Thanks,
Matt

by sheilau

According to the help in that function, the :tt dictates AM or PM, so the clock does not just read 9:41, it reads 9:41 PM. Hope that helps!!

by alex

I have had that problem before and it has been the battery is starting to fail. Even in a newr PC I have seen some bad batteries. I agree you should start there.

Alex

by Member 21361443

First off, try all the hardware items listed in previous posts first. You might also check to see if the latest MS Windows patches might fix it up as well. If you can't replace the failing hardware, you might just create a login script for the computers that have the problem, and use the NET TIME command to synchronize with a server on the network.

Now, on to this: I hate to even mention this one, because I am not convinced that this problem even exists.

I read an article some time back about a problem with computer clocks in the year 2000. According to the article, the extra time required to calculate the 4 digit year caused a slow-down in the clock of the computer.

Personally, my response is "Yeah Right", but I thought it would be interesting to bring up.

Brian Lusk

P.S. Mention of this is in NO WAY a personal endorsement of the supposed problem, but is merely an interesting tidbit I ran across. My personal feelings is that this "problem" is a purely theoretical one that has little or no basis in fact. I recommend that, should you desire to persue it further, you research the web and find it, since that is how I found it.

by rzan

I have this problem at home. Since I am running a home network, I have seen the clock on my Win98 machine drift off by 15 minutes or so. After some carefull investigation, I notices that the time on my server was off by that much. Don't forget that when you are on a network, the time on your machine is set by the server. If the clock on the server is off, then the whole network will synchronize the wrong time with the server. The server doesn't care what time it is, as long as everyone hasthe same time displayed.

by Member 21361443

I was actually thinking of a company server, but in reality PC time doesn't synchronize with the server unless you actually issue a command to do so (at least on Windows-based networks).

I have machines at work that are as much as one or two hours off, and I have to manually reset the time (about once every year, that is). I use the time synchronization with a server when I can't go ahead and replace the affected hardware.

Brian Lusk

by rlepage

The y2k clock issue was not that the clock slowed down but that the time in the clock buffer wasn't valid when it was read. If the chip was single buffered it was possible to read the time frome the buffer before it was completely loaded. The chipdesigners cheated and set the valid flag before the buffer was loaded as there was plenty of time to load the buffer before it was read again. Then cpu speeds increased and this time window was no longer there. Double buffered chips do not have this problem, there is always a valid buffer to read. The problem shows up mostly on machines that are power cycled frequently. The system reads the time from CMOS on startup and then free runs until it is booted again.

by pcservice.dtp

Try to set a new battery on your motherboard.
When your battery is too week, your clock keeps falling down.

suc7

mark

by chrisengland2

Software can also cause a loss of time on the "Windows Clock". This is a documented fact, and I believe it has to do with background programs that access the "Windows Clock" for time data, and basically take clock cycles away from the CPU. A good test is to check your "Windows Clock" time when it seems to be off a few minutes, then reboot your PC (this refreshes the "Windows Clock" to the CMOS clock settings) and see if the time is updated when you get back into Windows. Another approach is to set the time in CMOS, save settings, and turn off the machine. Check the CMOS time setting in xx hours - some length of time where you would have lost time if you were in Windows. If the time is correct, software is the problem. If the time is off - either the battery or the clock\motherboard is faulty.

by koss

1. I would try to isolate the problem by running the system stand-alone (not accessing any networks or the Internet). This will tell you if it is the system or some server it is connecting to.
2. If the time is off on your server (usually Novell) then when you connect to it it could be resetting the computers time.
3. If it is a stand-alone issue, is there a battery in it? It might be dead, everytime you turn the computer off it might be loosing time.

Good Luck Matt!

by candi.smith

Microsoft has a white page regarding the clock. This is a bug. It seems that the user is not rebooting their pc for a while (maybe a couple of days). Althought the bios is fine, the clock will be about 20 minutes behind after about the third day. Check the Microsoft knowledge base for exact problem.

by msamson

... are valid possibilities but...
Don't discount the presence of a cmos/boot sector virus. I remember a few years back having a similar problem on a win311 machine that had been infected with a modified empire.monkey.b

Just a thought...

M.

by tigre_269

Matt,

I was just working on this exact problem with one of my NT servers. It was losing about 3 minutes, every 15 minutes.

If you have a test system available, get a system that is exactly the same hardware as the system having the time drift problem. Ghost the image to another drive and install it on the test system. Check to see if the test system is losing time. If it is, most likely it's software related. If it's not, it's most likely a hardware problem with the original system.

I ran this test, the test server did not lose time, and it has been running(off the network or course) for a week and it has not lost any time. It appears to be a hardware problem with the original server. Will run further tests after system is replaced to try to identify exactly what was causing the problem.

Time syncronization utilites can be used in some cases. In my case, the time drift was so sever, the Time Service for NT would never get a chance to run, it would have tobe manually stopped and started to sync the time. Good luck!

by schwingk

Just shooting off, but it could be a battery issue, is this a laptop? Does it go back to 12:00 or is it just slow? What O/S?

by mattw

User has a Compaq Deskpro 550, running Windows 98. The symptoms are that the clock falls behind, and the longer it goes on, the farther the time falls back.

by ok

Recently I had the same symptoms with a stand alone "clone". I tested the volts => battery OK. After testing the problem vanished ! The reason was bad connection between the battery and it?s socket. So try turning the battery alittle.

if you needto change it, remember to download your compaq?s bios update first (www.compaq.com => support) and make a boot floppy with it before touching anything vital. May the force be with you and so on...

by java1024

I am seeing the system time in the taskbar lose 3 min out of every 10 min. This is on a new WinME "clone" system. I have replaced the CMOS battery and checked power to the system. Only software on the box is the OS. This problem does not appear when in 'Safe Mode'. Any ideas......

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