Windows Time Problem

[Mike950]

Recently my Windows Date and Time has been acting up. I set the date and
time and within four or five hours the time is wrong. Example: "At 1pm I
set the time as 1:00 pm. By 5pm the Windows time displays 3:35, almost an
hour and a half late. If I don't check it for a day or two, it actually
shows the date and time as some time on the previous day. Is this a CMOS
battery problem or something else. If it were a Cmos battery problem,
wouldn't I be having boot problems (ie: error and boot to BIOS?). Thanks for
the help.

PS: I thought I posted this this morning but it didn't show up.

 

[sgopus]

Most systems don't care what the date and time are, unless it's a y2k issue.
they will boot disregarding the time/date. and yes this could be a Cmos
battery problem, how old is your system?

Replcing the Motherboard battery is easy, just open the case and look for
something round about the size of a nickel or it could be smaller, check your
motherboard manual

 

[Mike950]

Thanks for the reply sgopus. I'll try testing the Cmos battery. What I
meant by "If it were a Cmos battery problem, wouldn't I be having boot
problems (ie: error and boot to BIOS?) is that the last time I had a bad Cmos
battery, it wouldn't boot to Windows. It would boot to the BIOS screen and I
would have to set the CPU speed, etc. then it would allow me to boot to
Windows.

 

[Big Al]

Recently my Windows Date and Time has been acting up. I set the date and
time and within four or five hours the time is wrong. Example: "At 1pm I
set the time as 1:00 pm. By 5pm the Windows time displays 3:35, almost an
hour and a half late. If I don't check it for a day or two, it actually
shows the date and time as some time on the previous day. Is this a CMOS
battery problem or something else. If it were a Cmos battery problem,
wouldn't I be having boot problems (ie: error and boot to BIOS?). Thanks for
the help.

PS: I thought I posted this this morning but it didn't show up.

I would think that while on power, the clock should have sufficient
power to run properly. If I recall, the cmos battery is only to save
the time and bios settings when power is off.

 

[Andy]

Recently my Windows Date and Time has been acting up. I set the date and
time and within four or five hours the time is wrong. Example: "At 1pm I
set the time as 1:00 pm. By 5pm the Windows time displays 3:35, almost an
hour and a half late. If I don't check it for a day or two, it actually
shows the date and time as some time on the previous day. Is this a CMOS
battery problem or something else. If it were a Cmos battery problem,
wouldn't I be having boot problems (ie: error and boot to BIOS?). Thanks for
the help.

PS: I thought I posted this this morning but it didn't show up.

According to How Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Handles Internal Time
<http://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/ew-doc/PROGRAMMER/NTandTime.html>,
NT 4.0 synchronizes the system time with the CMOS clock every hour,
though this behavior can be disabled. Whether Windows XP behaves the
same way, I have no idea.
What you can try is to set the system time accurately, tne turn off
the PC. Wait four or five hours, then turn on the PC. If the system
time is still accurate, then the CMOS clock is working okay.

 

[John John (MVP)]

According to How Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Handles Internal Time
<http://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/ew-doc/PROGRAMMER/NTandTime.html>,
NT 4.0 synchronizes the system time with the CMOS clock every hour,
though this behavior can be disabled. Whether Windows XP behaves the
same way, I have no idea.
What you can try is to set the system time accurately, tne turn off
the PC. Wait four or five hours, then turn on the PC. If the system
time is still accurate, then the CMOS clock is working okay.

The Time Service was completely revamped and changed considerably with
the introduction of Windows 2000 and it underwent yet more changes with
the introduction of Windows XP, practically none of the NT4 information
on this subject applies to subsequent NT releases.

How to configure an authoritative time server in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314054

John

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I would think that while on power, the clock should have sufficient
power to run properly. If I recall, the cmos battery is only to save
the time and bios settings when power is off.

That's correct. Before anyone whose clock is running slow rushes out
to buy a new battery, he should first take note of whether he is
losing time while the computer is running or while it's powered off.
If it's while powered off, the problem *is* very likely the battery.
But if it's while running, it can *not* be the battery, because the
battery isn't used while the computer is running.