System clock keeps gaining

[spasmous]

The clock on my computer keeps going fast. I have XP on a Dell 3GHz
P4.

I manually update the clock but it gains about 10 minutes a day & the
auto-update only occurs once a month so within a few days it's badly
wrong. Is there anything I can do to update the time more frequently
or fix the clock?

Thanks.

 

[Richard Urban]

Dell has problems with keeping correct time. Check their website for a fix.

Meanwhile you can do this:



"Windows XP, as loaded, automatically updates the system time every 7 days
from one of two (default) time servers. This update interval can be changed
as follows:

Using regedit, search for "specialpollinterval" without the quotes.

You will see that the decimal value is 604800, the number of seconds in 7
days.

Edit this decimal value to any value you desire, remembering that there are
86400 seconds in one day, 3600 seconds in one hour.

Do this for each instance of the decimal value "specialpollinterval".

Close regedit.

Reboot system.

Cheers!!!"


--

Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[Tony Lisanti]

I see the same things in work machines. I dont think you can do
anything about it. Its like a fast clock, for some reason It speeds
up, no clue why. All I can think of is updating the bios may do
something?? Maybe not.

 

[Alex Nichol]

The clock on my computer keeps going fast. I have XP on a Dell 3GHz
P4.

I manually update the clock but it gains about 10 minutes a day & the
auto-update only occurs once a month so within a few days it's badly
wrong. Is there anything I can do to update the time more frequently
or fix the clock?

This problem seems to happen quite often with Dell machines. Usually a
steady rate of loss or gain like 10 minutes in an hour. It appears to
result from a conflict with the BIOS over the interval between 'timer
interrupts'. Windows maintains the clock by counting these, so if the
interval is not the expected one, the rate is grossly out in this
manner.

Try these steps:

1. Start->Run cmd.exe
2. net stop w32time
3. w32tm.exe /unregister
4. w32tm.exe /register
5. net start w32time

(note spellings w32tm and w32time in different commands)

 

[spasmous]

I see the same things in work machines. I dont think you can do
anything about it. Its like a fast clock, for some reason It speeds
up, no clue why. All I can think of is updating the bios may do
something?? Maybe not.

Not to worry, I found a fix on the internet:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_inet_time.htm

It lets you specify the time between clock updates. I just set mine to
12 hours, no problems since then.