XP Clock very very very fast

[Guest]

Hello,

Problem with a friends laptop as follows,

1) Windows system time seems to be using minutes and seconds, for example
the minutes are changing every second, and the hours every minute.

2) Windows Task Manager and any other programme that updates at a set time
interval, are now updating extremely fast.

I have tried restoring the laptop to the last Ghost Image, which was taken
in Aug 2004, mainly because my friend said the laptop has been running great
since Aug to Now, this has not solved the problem.

Please accept my apologies for the lack of detail, however the laptop spec
is AMD Athlon 2600+, and about 6 months old. Win XP SP1, and the problem also
occurs with SP2.

Thanks for taking the time to read this far,

Regards,

Orcades

 

[Robert Moir]

Hello,

Problem with a friends laptop as follows,

1) Windows system time seems to be using minutes and seconds, for
example the minutes are changing every second, and the hours every
minute.

2) Windows Task Manager and any other programme that updates at a set
time interval, are now updating extremely fast.

I have tried restoring the laptop to the last Ghost Image, which was
taken in Aug 2004, mainly because my friend said the laptop has been
running great since Aug to Now, this has not solved the problem.

Please accept my apologies for the lack of detail, however the laptop
spec is AMD Athlon 2600+, and about 6 months old. Win XP SP1, and the
problem also occurs with SP2.

Thanks for taking the time to read this far,

I have to say that if you've restored the machine to an image taken before
the problem started then this sounds like a hardware problem.

 

[Guest]

Ah well I was dreading somebody saying that, however I have just tried the
laptop in safe mode, and lo and behold the time works ok, does Windows XP and
XP safe mode get the time from the same place? Maybe a daft question, but you
never know.

Is it possible for a virus or something similar to cause this?

Regards,

 

[Robert Moir]

Ah well I was dreading somebody saying that, however I have just
tried the laptop in safe mode, and lo and behold the time works ok,
does Windows XP and XP safe mode get the time from the same place?
Maybe a daft question, but you never know.

Is it possible for a virus or something similar to cause this?

If it works ok in safe mode then that suggests its not a hardware fault
because they both use the same hardware to track time - which makes me
wonder if the restored ghost image truly did not have the problem, or if
changes were made to it straight away which introduced the problem.

 

[Enkidu]

Hello,

Problem with a friends laptop as follows,

1) Windows system time seems to be using minutes and seconds, for example
the minutes are changing every second, and the hours every minute.

2) Windows Task Manager and any other programme that updates at a set time
interval, are now updating extremely fast.

I have tried restoring the laptop to the last Ghost Image, which was taken
in Aug 2004, mainly because my friend said the laptop has been running great
since Aug to Now, this has not solved the problem.

Please accept my apologies for the lack of detail, however the laptop spec
is AMD Athlon 2600+, and about 6 months old. Win XP SP1, and the problem also
occurs with SP2.

Thanks for taking the time to read this far,

If you'd excuse a little weak joke, Orcades, if it were a relativistic
effect then the laptop would have to travelling at around 99.97% of
the speed of light relative to you!

My money would still be on a hardware problem. It sounds really wierd!
The only possibility that I can think of is that something is
overwriting the register on the timer chip - assuming that's possible.
As a next step, you could talk to your machine manufacturer.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[frodo]

FWIW, I have seen bad sound drivers cause clock issues (as well as
frequency/tone issues), as they often screw w/ the timer. Also, I've seen
this if the proper chipset drivers are not installed. Interesting that
safe mode does not show the problem, I'd guess that's because it did not
load the offending driver (safe loads only the essential drivers). Happy
hunting...

 

[Guest]

FWIW, I have seen bad sound drivers cause clock issues (as well as
frequency/tone issues), as they often screw w/ the timer. Also, I've seen
this if the proper chipset drivers are not installed. Interesting that
safe mode does not show the problem, I'd guess that's because it did not
load the offending driver (safe loads only the essential drivers). Happy
hunting...

Thanks for the input,

Just to clarify things, I am saying that once the Laptop has booted into
windows, and approximately 80% of the time, the Laptop will have this
problem, for example when I right click time at the bottom righthand corner
of the desktop, and try to adjust the time, the minute hand is going around
at very nearly once per second.

However if I then reboot the Laptop, the time in the BIOS is within a minute
or so of the correct time, the same goes for Safe Mode. I know this sounds
corny, but this is the way it is going.

I am fairly certain it is not a software problem, because I have reloaded a
good Ghost Image from August this year, and after that didn't work I used the
system restore CDs, and I still the same problem.

But why this problem should only occur, whilst the Laptop is using Windows
XP, and so far at least anyway, not whilst in Safe Mode, or the BIOS. I have
no idea.

Anyway I have given the Laptop back the owner, as I just don't have the
time, or perhaps the necessary skills to sort this problem out.

Cheers,