Computer system time malfunction?

[ripper]

Hi,

Is it possible for the system time to display incorrect time even after you had reset it to the right time? On my first encounter, my system time was 30 minutes slower. I set it back to the correct time. After a few weeks, I realise that it was 30 minutes slower again. I did not pay attention on this problem as I thought probably I mistakenly set it to the wrong time in the first place.

Anyone had or heard of such a problem before? I'm using Asus P3V4X motherboard with it's original Award BIOS. BIOS had never been updated as the updates does not apply to me. Please advise.


Cheers! :confused:

[Scorpio69]

That's a pretty fast rate of change. The way I look at it, it's not a matter of whether your computer's clock is inaccurate, but HOW inaccurate. When you boot into your OS, it takes over the time keeping. It is not a real clock keeping track. It will be wrong one-way or the other, fast or slow.

There are some applications you can run that will synchronize your computer's clock to an atomic clock. Here's one I like:

http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-3356748-100-1550358.html?tag=st.dl.10000-103-1.lst-7-7.1550358

Just for fun try running it once, wait an hour or a day, and run it again. You'll be amazed at how inaccurate a computer can be.

[Scorpio69]

Oh, and BTW I always keep my BIOS current, even if it does not sound like the updates apply to me. Just my opinion, there's always a risk involved flashing a BIOS. I have not been sorry yet. (Knock on wood.)

[cadetstimpy]

Make sure the time zone is correct.

If your running a server/network then make sure the server time zone etc. is correct first.

[ripper]

Thanks all. I'm merely running a home PC, WinME that is. Umm...Scropio, I didn't mean that my system time is inaccurate compared to the atomic clock. I compared the time to the clock I had at home and to my watch, it's 30 minutes slower than both my watch clock.

Anyhow, that's wierd. Hmm......maybe the first thing I should check is the BIOS time. Anyway, got rid of my WinME last night. It's giving me way too much headache. I'm putting back my Win98, or maybe WinXP, depends.

Thanks all for the help.

Cheers! :cool:

[Scorpio69]

My point was that any clock is inaccurate. They even have to tweak atomic clocks a hair every few years.

When your computer boots your OS, the software actually takes over. The motherboard's RTC only does the job while the computer is off. The OS will likely be much less accurate than your wall clock. Maybe I was unclear?

If you change the time in Windows, it will change the time in your BIOS also.

I also have reverted to Win98SE. ME was a big headache.

[ripper]

Hahahaa.....Long live Win98SE, which some of us here used to hate it so much some time not long ago.

I was thinking of going into WinXP, but driver support aren't available yet. My SB Live! Player for WinXP is not available until probably the mid or end of October.

Probably later I'll go into WinXP

Cheers! :p

[ZENYO]

I thought I heard once that a dying cmos battery could also cause your time to be slow.

Is That True?

[Mr. NoOne]

Yeah! I was about to say that....it's happened to me once when my computer battery was dying, every time I would shut the machine down it would stop the clock, it would not loose the time, it would just stop & continue when I turn it back on.

Something even stranger happened with another computer, it had winNT & when I changed it to win98 same thing as above happened, but when I put winNT back all came to normal....weird, uh!? I even tried with win95 & winMe (yeah i know i lost my mind for a minute) & everytime I went back to WinNT it got fixed...

[SophiesDad]

I would concur with Zen and No. The first thing I would check is the battery. Your symptoms point to that. Remember if your battery goes dead you will lose all your CMOS settings :( so it would be good to check it out.

Batteries are normally inexpensive.

Hope this helps :D

[DutchMaster]

Before replacing the battery, write down your BIOS settings. Replacing the battery can cause the settings to be erased and you have to set them again.

Good choice in downgrading (well is it??:p) to win98SE b.t.w.

[ripper]

As I'm running Win98 now, the system time seems to be running well. No signs of of inaccurate time display.

BTW, I thought the CMOS battery is made to last (virtually). At least last way longer than the PC itself would be. It's like the tooth in the biological body. Everything dies off and decay, except for the tooth. But of course, I've seen a dead CMOS battery before, but that's on a very old 80086 machine, that has not been switched on for months. That's not something peculiar then.

Anyhow, how long is the life span of the CMOS battery anyway.


Cheers! :(