Help!
My PC system clock is losing more and more time, it now(12:42) says 10:50, is there anything obvious that should check?
Running XP pro on an Athlon 900 (about 4 years old) if that’s any help.
Thanks in advance.
Tuco.
change your BIOS battery, should do the trick.
do not install Precision Time and Date Manager, for they are evil.
You may have already tried this…
Try double-clicking on the time in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. Should bring up the clock window.
Click on the “Internet Time” tab, and make sure the “Automatically synchronise with an Internet Time server” box is checked. (it’ll probably come up with time.windows.com).
Should keep you bang up to date every week or so.
Of course, as ToF says, it could be your BIOS battery, which (as a self-confessed luddite) I think is the big watch-battery looking thing on the motherboard.
Slow clock topics are plentiful, so you could search for them.
Check the time at the Dos prompt too. If that is accurate then its a software issue, if not, its the battery usually.
BIO)S battery is 4 years old? It’s dead, Jim…errr…Tuco.
Almost every BIOS battery I’ve replaced was a CR2032 “coin” cell, or something that cross-referenced to the CR2032. You can find them at Walgreens. (But do check what it is before going shopping)
Just be prepared to have the computer act stupid when you turn it on after changing the battery and go through all the drive detection and whatnot.
For the truly brave, bold and occasionally stupid, yes, you can change the battery while the PC is on. I’ve done it, but can’t and won’t recommend it as there’s no telling what would happen if the battery slipped out of your fingers as you work it in or out of its clip and it fell onto the pins of a chip, or otherwise shorted out something.
Tuco, if you don’t mind, I’d like to share your thread…
My work computer loses time, too. However, when I reboot, the time is correct. I have read that this indicates that the battery is fine and this is a software deal.
Is this true?
If so, is there an easy way to figure out what’s causing the clock to lose time?
" My work computer loses time, too. However, when I reboot, the time is correct. I have read that this indicates that the battery is fine and this is a software deal."
Sometimes people drop in a HD from another computer & it doesn’t have files needed for timing. Thus, slow clock. The way I correct it is to reinstall the OS, this keeps my data files.
I’m not sure what version of Windows you have, but I can tell that there is no such box in Windows 98.
That’s Windows XP or possibly 2k. It’s a nice feature of the NT-based versions of Windows.
http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/
It works for versions earlier than XP.
Do not replace the battery with computer on. In fact, unplug the computer completely. Assume you will goof and drop something. Is it really worth ruining your MB taking such chances?
As to the OP, does it run slow when the computer is off? That is, check the time just before turning off the computer. Hours later, turn it back on. Has it lost time? If so, probably a bad battery. If not, it’s a software issue and the synch software others recommend will help.
If the battery is going out it must be replaced. Synch software won’t help you when the CMOS data gets lost after every shutdown.
I’ve done a small experiment and if I switch it off at the wall (ie. take the plug out of the wall) then it loses time, but if I leave the wall socket switched on, it’s fine.