Clock

[Guest]

Starting yesterday I noticed that my clock has been not right. I can
synchronize it with the internet but 30 minutes later it will be almost 5
minutes slow again. I've checked for spyware and everything and there's
nothing there os I don't know what it is.

 

[JerryM \(ID\)]

You may need a new battery on your motherboard.

 

[JerryM \(ID\)]

This battery is about the size of a nickle.

If you change it yourself, be sure to ground yourself to the frame before
touching anything inside.

You should be able to see what number it is once you get the outer case off.
Or your owners manual should tell you.

You will have about 15 seconds to make the change without losing any CMOS
information.
Don't remove the old one until you have a new one in your hand.

 

[Guest]

maybe that's it, I don't know. And I wouldn't do it myself, I don't know much
about laptops. If it makes any difference it won't even synchronize with the
internet, it keeps saying an error occured.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Jennifer,

Before considering replacing the battery, restart the system. If the
time is corrected after rebooting then it's not the battery. If the
battery were bad the system would loose time when the system was off.

If this is a Dell system take a look here.
WinXP may continue to lose time, even after you have updated the time
manually.
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kb/en/document?dn=RA1060115

 

[Galen]

In Jennifer <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

maybe that's it, I don't know. And I wouldn't do it myself, I don't
know much about laptops. If it makes any difference it won't even
synchronize with the internet, it keeps saying an error occured.

That's a good idea with a laptop. Not to sound patronizing but you're 110%
correct in that the average home user is incapable of opening the laptop
case let alone trying to change the battery. I congratulate you on your
choice but there's a few issues at stake here. First even if the battery is
dead you shouldn't, I don't think, lose time unless you've shut the power
off and then you'll find that you lose it entirely and the whole thing needs
to be reset. If the laptop is a Gateway then another person has supplied the
link you might want to view. In any case you're right in not changing the
battery again, a reputable dealer/repair person (local always if available
and while you're in-shop to insure that the only thing they do is what you
ask them to do) truly is the way to go with laptop repair. It's not like
opening the side panel and tossing in a new battery one tower.

A weak battery shouldn't matter so long as there's current to the system.
Basically I am saying that the idea that the battery is the fault of this is
not what I'd have guessed at first. I'm still not sure WHAT I'd have guessed
but I don't think I'd have checked the battery first as there's power to the
unit while it's on and it should keep time. When the battery fails the CMOS
information is cleared and the time is reset, it doesn't usually lose time
as the battery loses power from my experiences.

As I think about this there's some chance that, well to be honest a PC isn't
really a precision time keeping utility which is why there's automatic time
sync tools, there's some chance that there's a faulty (even if this is
applicable on your MOBO) RTC (Real Time Clock) chip on your motherboard.
Possible solutions are that you can PROBABLY get away with ignoring it and
use a third party utility to syncronize the clock at scheduled intervals or
you can allow Windows to do so automatically.

Galen