# Computer clock always wrong

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-clock-always-wrong/199606>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 4, 2003, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-clock-always-wrong/199606 "2003-09-04T21:28:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-clock-always-wrong/199606/21 "2003-09-06T15:35:37Z")

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From my experience in building perhaps 300 PC-type computers, I have never found a clock on any motherboard that was accurate, power on or off, to more than 30 seconds a day. It just seems to be part of the hardware design.

And it always seemed odd, since 25 years ago, I built a S-100 circuit board with a $2 off-the-shelf clock IC that kept time to within a few seconds a year under battery power.

But my PC-building experience is not recent, and realtime motherboard clocks may have improved over the last 5 years.

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