Well, this is perplexing...it's unlikely a surge protector would have
anything to do with it, but it might be worth unplugging it just to be sure.
Just a thought -- do you have any other devices such as a printer, scanner
or other high-wattage device plugged into the same surge protector? I have
seen instances where these devices, particularly older ones, can cause
almost imperceptible "brown-outs" when they power up. This could,
conceivably, cause the same type of scenario as a dying UPS battery.
Assuming that's not the case, all I can say at this point is what I would
do, in this order (sorry if some of this is repetitive). BTW - I do things
in order of ease, not necessarily order of likelihood;
1) Run a complete virus / spyware scan making sure all definitions are up to
date.
2) Load a system monitoring program such as Motherboard Monitor and check
that your power supply is providing the proper voltages. Here's the link:
http://mbm.livewiredev.com/
3) Test the power supply with a multimeter (this can get a little
complicated if you aren't sure what you're doing or don't have a power
supply tester, so you might skip this test if the monitor in step 2 doesn't
show anything out of the ordinary).
4) Place a digital clock on the same electrical circuit as your system (make
sure it's one that does not have a battery backup in it.) If the clock
loses / gains time, then your electrical supply is the problem. You'll
probably have to monitor it over the course of a day or two.
5) Check your motherboard manufacturer's website for a BIOS update. (I
place this as number 5 because flashing your BIOS can, at times, be a risky
venture and tends to make some people nervous. It's not as big a deal as it
used to be, but it can, occasionally, cause serious issues.)
6) Replace the motherboard battery (these are inexpensive and fairly easy to
change, so it's not that big a deal. I know you read the post about these
lasting 10 years, and that's, mostly, true. But do you know how long it sat
on a shelf before you got it?)
7) Check each and every program / process / service running on your system
to verify them individually and ensure that they are not causing a time
change. Especially look at services / programs that are not Windows native.
8) Over the course of a week or so, pay close attention to the clock. Each
time you see that it has changed, write down what you were doing / what was
running / anything else significant about the state of your system at the
time you saw the time change. See if you can find a correlation between any
particular event or situation and the time change.
9) Make an image of your hard drive so that you don't lose anything and then
do a clean reinstall of Windows. Do not load anything but Windows and then
monitor the system. If the time remains constant, reload your drivers one
at a time, monitoring the system after each install. After that's done,
move to programs, again one at a time, and continue monitoring. (Yes, this
an extremely time-consuming step, which is why it's last.) If the time
won't stay correct with only Windows installed, you can be pretty assured
that it's a hardware issue.
After that, I'm really out of ideas. If none of that weeds out the problem,
I'd begin to wonder if perhaps your BIOS (the actual CMOS chip, not the
software) is bad. Replacing this chip is possible, but usually not worth
the effort.
I hope any of this helps. Believe me, I certainly understand the
aggravation that something like this can cause.
