Plain and simple - the clock on my computer is speeding up. Why? And how can I fix it to stay on the correct time?
I have reset the computer clock to match the wall clock (battery operated, and fresh batteries) and the VCR clock (electric) and the cable box clock (also electric, automatically resets after a power outage). All of these keep accurate time and click over within about a second of each other.
My computer clock, however, gains time - at this point it is currently about 14 minutes ahead of the other clocks, and seems to gain about a minute per day. (I just reset the time two weeks ago, according to my little ‘notepad of computer weirdstuff’ - error messages and the like.)
The cable box and the surge protector are both in the same outlet. I have tried (for a couple of days) without the surge protector, and that sped up too.
I have no idea why this is happening. If anyone can shed light on this and a possible solution, I would be quite grateful to the Teeming Millions[sup]TM[/sup].
PC clocks are well known for being poor timekeepers and they vary wildly from machine to machine. My suggestion is to go here http://www.worldtimeserver.com/ and download the atomic clock utility.
I have no idea. If the seconds are rolling over before the other clocks in the house, then eventually it will gain time on the others. That is the only thing I think of that might cause this effect, but it would take a little while to be really noticeable.
I can’t believe that someone with 2k+ posts hasn’t found the ‘search’ feature… This comes up pretty frequently, and the last time the verdict was “these things happen under micro$oft OS’s. Learn to live with it – or switch to something else”
(In fact it’s pretty easy to run a program to correct the clock on a regular basis. Try e.g. tardis2000.)
tc - That comment was QUITE uncalled for. I (who cetainly do know how to search) evidently skipped over that thread in my search this morning. My work computer runs extremely slow as it is, taking several minutes to load a page, and checking just a few threads (especially those whose titles give no clue to the content, but the search parameters appear in there somewhere) can take me up to a half-hour. It’s not I do not search, it’s perhaps I cannot search as quickly as others can.
Other than that, your and kferr’s assistance is appreciated.
owl: my apologies. It’s just that there’s been so many threads lately with questions that clearly have been discussed only recently. And to your credit, the subject in the thread I linked to was not quite your problem.
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Other than that I’d like to point out that it would be interesting to find out which time is out of joint. (At least under Linux, where I currently spend my time) the software clock is decoupled from the hardware real-time clock. It is therefore possible[sup][1][/sup] for some software to cause the software clock slow down, even though the hardware RTC is still OK.
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[1] - I have noticed this running cdrecord (which runs on real-time priority) (For the record – the machine is experiencing some pretty heavy load)
Bad screech-owl! Bad! No fat mice for you tonight!
I’m sorry for laughing…but getting upbraided by an indignant 17 count poster for proper SDMB etiquette with over 2000 posts to your credit… well… it’s the most humorously presumptuous thing I’ve seen in a while.
Anyway re the OP.
I tried a few clock setting utilites before I chose this one. Great freeware clock re-setting utility. Widely regarded as onne of the best. Re-sets clock to any of 100+ internet based atomic clock reference links you can choose from. I use it once every few days.