I am running window 98se. I can set my computer clock to the correct time going through the Control Panel. The next day it will be 15 min. fast. It is always about 15 min. fast. Any suggestions?
Yes i am setting it to the correct time (it is set to East Coast US / Canada)! Am i in some Bill Gates “don’t be late for work” time zone?
I am sending the question from work. I will try any suggestions when i get home.
Thanks for the help in advance.
Are you shutting your computer down at night? Computer clocks tend to keep quite accurate time when the clock is regulated by the frequency of the alternating current coming out of the wall outlet. If you shut the computer down at night, the clock runs off a battery on the motherboard, whose output voltage decays over time. If the battery is relatively new, it could be providing more power than necessary, speeding up the clock during the night.
i have not left work YET…you can see how much work i am doing. Usually i leave my system on all night.
I don’t know exactly what is going on here, but I’ve had the same thing happen to me, a lingering feeling that I was always losing fifteen minutes on my clock. A “friend” had me check the BIOS (upon boot up) and set the clock there. I had zero problem after that.
I also got this weird response from a guy that said there is a setting in the registry that will go to an internet source to retrieve time and update the clock. Never hear of that before, except for servers.
i have not left work YET…you can see how much work i am doing. Usually i leave my system on all night.
If the battery is speeding up the clock at night i would guess it would do it every night thus getting farther out of whack each day.
Sorry, I misread your OP. I thought you were saying that you reset the clock to the correct time each day, and the next day it would be 15 minutes fast. In any case, I think frixxxx is on the right track. If the computer shuts down without writing the current system time to the hardware clock, then the hardware clock will not know that you updated the time in the control panel. When you boot up the next day, the OS will read the time from the hardware clock, which is still 15 minutes fast, since your changes were not recorded when you shut down.
squid, thanks for starting this thread. I just checked my bootscripts and realized that the default Linux From Scratch bootscripts did not write the system time to the hardware clock on shutdown/reboot. I found this fix after a quick google search.
WinXP has an option to use NTP to set your clock. I don’t know how often it does this, but Microsoft’s NTP server appears to keep good time.
In Win98 I used to use a program called AtomTime that checked some time servers on the 'net. My Linux server is a 3rd tier time server though, so I can make a batch file withnet time \ServerName /set /yes to set it on boot now.
P.S. - amore ac studio: Lots of computers used to suck at keeping time, especially when off, true… but no computer ever used the frequency of AC to keep track of time.
You’re right, of course (cite); I was recalling a previous thread where this question was asked in relation to bedside clock radios with backup batteries. Even there, I now recall that the poster who said that the time was regulated by the frequency of the AC was subsequently corrected. Here’s the relevant correction (from the cite above) in the case of a computer system clock:
Thanks Frixxxxx, if that’s your real name.
I just did this. I will repost tomorrow if it comes up wrong then.
There are lots of freeware/shareware programs which will ping an atomic clock and update your computer clock. I suppose you could run them every hour, say, using the Windoze scheduler. As an example, I like WebTime.
WinXP, at least the version I’ve got (Home, all service packs/security updates/patches applied), syncs once a week, and give you a choice between using time.windows.com and time.nist.gov. To get to it, double-click on the clock in the systray (bottom right), then choose the Internet Time tab.
“To get to it, double-click on the clock in the systray (bottom right), then choose the Internet Time tab.”
I was wondering why my XP computer keeps such nice time…
My wife was having this trouble at work a while back. Except I think her’s was chronically slow, not fast. I told her to have the tech guys check the battery, the BIOS, etc. Long story short, after much investigation, it turned out that her computer was synching up with the server, and the server’s clock was fifteen minutes off! (So basically, everyone’s clock was wrong, not just her’s – she’s was just the only one who noticed!)
There are some free programs on the web to reset your clock to official time. Some can be configured to do so automatically on start up.
squid, All the synchronization ideas are nice, but I think you’d like a suggestion as to the cause of the problem, not just a band-aid?
In my history of building systems, I have only run into two that have had significant time problems. In both cases, it was a failed BIOS, but the solution to each was different. The first computer required a BIOS software flash, the second required the BIOS chip to be physically replaced.
This time issue may be significant; it may be the warning sign of a BIOS problem that could eventually cause your computer to hang unexpectedly, prevent hardware from being recognized or worst-case, simply stop your PC from loading W98 or stop booting altogether.
A few things:
- Check the version of your motherboard’s BIOS and see if the manufacturer provides a newer one. If you choose to update your firmware, proceed with caution, make a backup of your old BIOS set and learn the failsafe procedure in case your PC won’t boot after upgrading.
- Check the BIOS chip and see if it’s the latest one provided. Usually, manufacturers will provide a new chip for free.
- Check with the MB manufacturer and see if they have a similar problem in their tech database.
- Replace your system battery – long shot, but can’t be ruled out.
Good luck!
Mr. B is right about this one. A PC clock that drifts by a few seconds a day is nothing to worry about, but one that quickly gets seriously out-of-sync with the outside world could, indeed, be a sign of deeper trouble, the kind that could leave you with a dumb hunk of iron instead of your PC!
Note that those are just the two that Microsoft suggests. If you’re behind a firewall at work, you likely can’t get to them. But XP will let you type in any old address, so if your employer is running an ntp server behind the firewall, you can connect to that.
-lv
LordVor,
I am running this system at home. I have tryied changing the clock from BIOS or maybe it was CMOS. Yikes i can’t remember. Everybody has given me plenty of options although most are over my head (notice i am still using 98). Day 2 after the change and it is still “on time”.
If I had a quarter for every time someone posts about their computer clock, I’d be a rich guy.
It’s important to check the time from the DOS prompt too. Just type at the C:> prompt: time See if that is right. That’s what you can do for W98. Compare that time to the time Windows clock gives.