Win 2000 system clock reverts to Feb. 2002 after setting to correct time

[Cary]

Thanks for your time!

I manage 50 PC's, all on same network. Today we noticed 3
win 2000 machines would not hold the current time/date.
Time reverts to random time in Feb. 2002. Further
checking revealed 3 more win 2000 PC's acting the same way.

I change the time using the applet in control panel,
minutes later the time is incorrect and the date is Feb.
2002.

Must be a virus but I haven't found a reference to such
yet. I would bet 6 cmos batteries didn't go out over the
last couple of days!

Norton Enterprise AV is up to date and on duty!

ANY IDEAS?

Cary

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thanks for your time!

I manage 50 PC's, all on same network. Today we noticed 3
win 2000 machines would not hold the current time/date.
Time reverts to random time in Feb. 2002. Further
checking revealed 3 more win 2000 PC's acting the same way.

I change the time using the applet in control panel,
minutes later the time is incorrect and the date is Feb.
2002.

Must be a virus but I haven't found a reference to such
yet. I would bet 6 cmos batteries didn't go out over the
last couple of days!

Norton Enterprise AV is up to date and on duty!

ANY IDEAS?

Cary

You should perform another test: Disconnect the problem PCs
from the network (and any modem connection!), set the time
once more, then see what happens.

If the time remains correct then the machines try to synchronise
themselves to some other machine. If the time reverts to an
incorrect setting then the machines run a program that affects
the time keeping.

 

[Cary]

Pegasus:

Great Idea, thanks!

C

-----Original Message-----



You should perform another test: Disconnect the problem PCs
from the network (and any modem connection!), set the time
once more, then see what happens.

If the time remains correct then the machines try to synchronise
themselves to some other machine. If the time reverts to an
incorrect setting then the machines run a program that affects
the time keeping.


.

 

[Guest]

Well,

It turns out that last week the power went off, the UPS
shut down the Server, when we brought it backup nobody
noticed the time was not correct. You guessed it, the
rest of the world synced to that time. A few days later
some one noticed it and caused a panic. I reset the
system time, the world synced and all is well. I feel
stupid but that was my first network wide time issue. I
learned a lot.

Thanks

Cary

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thanks for the feedback.

The art of trouble-shooting often consistes of eliminating
potential causes until almost nothing is left. In the case of
a misbehaving keyboard, one would boot into the BIOS
and check if the problem still occurs. In your case,
isolating the machine from the outside world appears to
have given you the necessary information to track down
the culprit.