Weird computer thingy

My computer’s clock keeps getting set back an hour. I can’t tell what’s doing it, and it seems to be random when it happens. It’ll be fine, and then all of a sudden I’ll realise it’s an hour behind. A few days pass and it’s an hour behind again.

Anyone have any thoughts on what’s going on? Know any programs that do it?

Are you sure it’s going off by one hour incriments? If it’s slowly losing time, and you only notice after a day or so that it’s about an hour off, then the main clock crystal is a little out of tolerance, easy enough to fix if you are handy with a soldering iron, but requires a motherboard swap out if you’re not.

Might also be that the real time clock chip is buggered up. Again, unless you are very handy with a soldering iron, this is not a user replacable part. On older computers it’s a socketed chip and can be easily replaced, but on most recent motherboards I’ve looked at it’s a surface mount chip that is soldered in place.

There are programs out there that can synch your clock to the standard atomic clocks. You might be able to install one of these and have it correct your clock, kind of a band aid without fixing the actual problem.

I’m not aware of any program that will go in and modify the clock setting.

Did it just start doing that today? Today is the last day of Daylight Savings.

I don’t suppose you’re connected to a network of any kind, are you? - if so, your network client software could be synchronising with a server somewhere (although it would be odd for it to keep changing).

Im with August…seems a little coincidental.

But ECGeek do you think before you send dude out to buy a soldering iorn or a new motherboard that he might consider that a drift could be being caused by the cmos clock as opposed to the RTC , replacing a battery is one hell of a lot easier than getting down and dirty with chip circuitry.

…and I am defering to you in that I am not convinced that the RTC is actually anything more than a firmware device handle and does not have a corresponding hardware component…my understanding that the RTC takes CMOS time and is simply a theoretical timeline against which variance is measured…like I said I’m not sure on this and I am deferring to one who declares himself ‘geek’ but I am notheless left wondering about his qualification to do so …and again correct me if im wrong…but the fact remains that to suggest a MB replacment because the clock is drifting without trying anything else first to me seems a little over the top…oh and there are dozens of programs that will modify the windows clock settings;surely that cant be what you meant. Good call on the nettime to an atomic clock though , I do that myself as a matter of routine with a startup batch.

There’s nothing personal meant by the above. I look forward to recieving the education you will probably need to give me.

Thanks for the replies!

I thought of the clock battery first off, but it’s always 1 hour (the minutes never change, synchronising with my wrist watch).

I’m in Brisbane where there is no daylight savings, so I doubt that’s it, 'sides which, the problem’s been around for a while.

I am on a network, it’s a home one I set up, the server (which isn’t my comp) is running a program called sygate, has anyone known of that prog to cause problems like this? I hadn’t even thought of that…

Check the time with your client and the server.

Yes. That is exactly why this could be the problem. If your computer is set to account for DLST, but your clocks are not changed, then the computer would be off by an hour.

Of course, hopefully the computer is smart enough to know that you are not in an area that has DLST, but it may not be. IIRC, time zones are not necessarily all DLST/nonDLST observant

If you want, there are programs that adjust your bios clock for ya when you are on the net so its alway the right time.

For a Windows-based machine, try:
http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/index.html
It’s free.

Time servers and clients are plentiful for UNIX-based machines, but the options are few for other platforms, especially if you’re looking to do things for next to nothing ($-wise).

For Windows-based networks, you can install an RFC868 Time Protocol Server on your Gateway/Router/Proxy Server machine (along with Dimension4).
Configure Dimension4 to update the system clock from one of the various time servers available on the Internet (i.e., norad.arc.nasa.gov, clock.isc.org, time.nist.gov) at one hour intervals.
Configure your firewall to allow Dimension4 to grab the time when it needs to.
Install and configure the time server to respond to time/tcp requests from your local subnet.

Install Dimension4 on the balance of your network clients, and configure the time client to update from your internal time server, using time/tcp protocol. Once every hour or so should do it.

Never worry about setting clocks on your Windows machines again…but keep some spare batteries on hand to keep CMOS happy.

The RFC868 Time Protocol Server is available (for free, of course) from BTT Software:
http://www.bttsoftware.co.uk/timeserv.html
it’s something like a 20KB .zip file.
(Dimension4 is around 200KB in an .exe file.)

I have a computer at work that will lose 2 hours in the first day after you set the clock and then will keep time from then on. At work I do not worry about that clock so have never tried to figure it out. The one here at home I do use, but it keeps good time.

Come on! RFC868 is OLD. (1983) and more or less obsolete. (Not to say that it doesn’t work, but it’s older than EGA!) Most modern servers/clients use **NTP **(RFC1035), which has much higher resolution, and is simply better.

Ntp is included in most modern linux distros.
For a free Windows server/client look at tardis (I haven’t used it for years, but it was the best in the late 90’s)

Originally posted by handy

Not only that, but if you’re settings are already accessing one, and the preferences have your time zone wrong, it would…set your computer back an hour every time it runs, wouldn’t it!?

Enigma One:

And for you Mac users, go to the Date and Time Control Panel and explore the Network Time Server options.

In the date/time settings, there are five cities you can choose for your time zone. Have you tried the other cities in your time zone (GMT +10 includes Sydney, Canberra, Vladivostok (that one might change some language settings, though)) to see if they have the same problem? My question is, sure, YOU know you don’t use DST, but does Windows know that?

Also, on the time zone setting screen, do you have the box checked for telling Windows to automatically adjust for DST?

whats really important is if the time changes are at the dos prompt OR your windows clock. You see, you need to check it at both of those points. Sometimes this happens if you put a HD with windows on it into a computer; becus it then does not have the timing files it needs.

Interesting…RFC1035
relates to DOMAIN NAMES - IMPLEMENTATION AND SPECIFICATION.

I think you were referring to RFC1305.

While 1305, as a version 3 NTP is the preferred enterprise method, 868 is sufficient for most home Win P2P networks. Configuration is simple, it works well enough, and network security is not the same issue as it is in the enterprise environment.
Of course, if you’re running “mission critical” apps on your Windows-based home network, you have bigger problems than time synchronization between servers and client peers.
:wink: