# How did my computer's clock GAIN a week?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-computers-clock-gain-a-week/200097>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 7, 2003, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-computers-clock-gain-a-week/200097 "2003-09-07T15:01:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-computers-clock-gain-a-week/200097/1 "2003-09-07T15:01:18Z")

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I gnerally don’t attention the date on my computer, but recently I have discovered it has been set to one week in the future. I first noticed it when I went to get my e-mail (on 9/3) and the date on that page was a week ahead. The following day it was a week ahead and has been since. So, I decided to check my computer’s clock, and, voila! it was a week ahead. I checked some files I had created in the past week and there are none for the dates of 9/3 - 9/6!

I am absolutely positive I didn’t change it myself.

Any ideas as to what happened?

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**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-computers-clock-gain-a-week/200097/2 "2003-09-07T17:25:20Z")

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Sometimes a PC will stop keeping good time. This can be caused by a bad CMOS battery, but not always. It would be unusual for the date to change by a week without the time of day being wrong as well, but I suppose it’s possible.

The best solution is usually to synchronize the computer’s clock with an external [time server](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;262680). Windows 2000 and XP have NTP (Network Time Protocol) support built in. With Win9x you need to use third-party software. There are a few good programs available from [download.com](http://download.com), such as [Atomic Clock Sync](http://download.com.com/3000-2350-9498073.html?tag=lst-0-1). Just do _not_ use GAIM (Gator) PrecisionTime. It’s spyware.

I haven’t heard of any programs that deliberately set the wrong date, but it couldn’t hurt to run a [virus scan](http://housecall.trendmicro.com) and then [Spybot](http://www.safer-networking.org) and/or [Ad-aware](http://lavasoft.element5.com/software/adaware/).

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**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-computers-clock-gain-a-week/200097/3 "2003-09-07T17:32:48Z")

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I’ve run the virus scanner in the past day or two. I run Spybot and Window Washer everyday. Nothing unusual was found.

I’ll take a look at the battery.

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-computers-clock-gain-a-week/200097/4 "2003-09-07T21:39:24Z")

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There was another post here that the computer was taking the time from another one on the server that was a week ahead. That was a network situation.