# What degrades in an old digital clock that makes it start to run fast?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degrades-in-an-old-digital-clock-that-makes-it-start-to-run-fast/740747
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 18, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degrades-in-an-old-digital-clock-that-makes-it-start-to-run-fast/740747 "2015-12-18T01:21:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degrades-in-an-old-digital-clock-that-makes-it-start-to-run-fast/740747/1 "2015-12-18T01:21:53Z")
I have a digital clock that I’ve had for about 30 years. Within the past few years, the time has started going fast by about a minute every day or so. That is, if I set the correct time today, in about a month it will be about 30 minutes fast (e.g. say 7:30 instead of 7:00).
I’m not surprised that a clock so old is starting to fail, but what I’m wondering is what specific component inside the clock is failing that makes it run fast.
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### Author:  [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2015, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degrades-in-an-old-digital-clock-that-makes-it-start-to-run-fast/740747/2 "2015-12-18T01:24:47Z")
electrolytic capacitor(s) drying out?
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### Author:  [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2015, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degrades-in-an-old-digital-clock-that-makes-it-start-to-run-fast/740747/3 "2015-12-18T01:27:52Z")
I second the cap failing idea.
(get it? second? anyone? I’ll go away now)
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### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2015, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degrades-in-an-old-digital-clock-that-makes-it-start-to-run-fast/740747/4 "2015-12-18T02:04:44Z")
A failing cap was my thought too.
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### Author:  [@herman\_and\_bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/herman_and_bill)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2015, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degrades-in-an-old-digital-clock-that-makes-it-start-to-run-fast/740747/5 "2015-12-18T02:16:26Z")
I doubt the timing circuit relies on any electrolytic caps, and thirty years ago there would be a reliable voltage regulator in the power supply. If there are any cooling vents in the clock I would suspect dust is built up and shorting the circuit a little or changing the capacitance.
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2015, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degrades-in-an-old-digital-clock-that-makes-it-start-to-run-fast/740747/6 "2015-12-18T03:06:02Z")
The timing circuit is probably based on a quartz crystal. That circuit might have some capacitors in it though, and that might be throwing the resonance of the circuit off if the caps have dried out and gone bad.
Bad power supply caps might be causing a lot of ripple in the supply voltage, and the counting circuit could be miscounting some of the ripples as clock pulses.
It’s also possible that it uses the 60 Hz AC line as its timebase. It used to be that they adjusted the AC line frequency to be almost exactly 60 Hz in the long term, so that old fashioned clocks using synchronous motors would keep time properly. In the short term, the clocks might be a little off, but they would adjust the generator speeds as necessary periodically so that the long term error was very low. In general, heavy loads would bog down the frequency during the day, and they’d speed things up at night.
Synchronous motor clocks have mostly been replaced by digital clocks that have their own built-in timebase, and a lot of folks began to think that they were wasting a lot of effort (and money) keeping the AC line frequency so accurate in the long term. But no one really knew for certain exactly how many folks really did still depend on the line frequency’s accuracy. So they decided to run an experiment. They would let the frequency drift as it usually does, but they wouldn’t try to hard to correct it in the long term. Then they would see who complained about it.
The experiment was supposed to start in 2011 and run for at least a year. I never heard about it ending, though, and I’m not sure that they actually keep the line frequency accurate any more. It may be possible that this is what is throwing your clock off.
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### Author:  [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2015, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degrades-in-an-old-digital-clock-that-makes-it-start-to-run-fast/740747/7 "2015-12-18T03:35:42Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> …Synchronous motor clocks have mostly been replaced by digital clocks that have their own built-in timebase, and a lot of folks began to think that they were wasting a lot of effort (and money) keeping the AC line frequency so accurate in the long term. But no one really knew for certain exactly how many folks really did still depend on the line frequency’s accuracy. So they decided to run an experiment. They would let the frequency drift as it usually does, but they wouldn’t try to hard to correct it in the long term. Then they would see who complained about it.
>
> The experiment was supposed to start in 2011 and run for at least a year. I never heard about it ending, though, and I’m not sure that they actually keep the line frequency accurate any more. It may be possible that this is what is throwing your clock off.
Do you have a source for this experiment? I’d like to read more about it.
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2015, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degrades-in-an-old-digital-clock-that-makes-it-start-to-run-fast/740747/8 "2015-12-18T03:39:26Z")
Here you go.
> **[It hertz when you do that – power grid to stop regulating 60 Hz frequency](https://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/25/it-hertz-when-you-do-that-power-grid-to-stop-regulating-60-hz-frequency/)**
>
> “Experiment” on the US power grid will change the way some clocks and other equipment function. Story submitted by Joe Ryan The AP has released an “exclusive” story concerni…
> **[Planned U.S. Power System Experiment Means Some Clocks Will Speed Up](https://spectrum.ieee.org/power-system-experiment-in-us-means-clocks-will-speed-up)**
>
> Will anybody really know what time it is? Will anybody really care?
> **[Power grid change may disrupt clocks](https://phys.org/news/2011-06-power-grid-disrupt-clocks.html)**
>
> A yearlong experiment with the nation's electric grid could mess up traffic lights, security systems and some computers - and make plug-in clocks and appliances like programmable coffeemakers run up to 20 minutes fast.
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### Author:  [@oara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oara)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degrades-in-an-old-digital-clock-that-makes-it-start-to-run-fast/740747/9 "2015-12-18T03:44:44Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> But no one really knew for certain exactly how many folks really did still depend on the line frequency’s accuracy. So they decided to run an experiment. They would let the frequency drift as it usually does, but they wouldn’t try to hard to correct it in the long term. Then they would see who complained about it.
That’s hard because you’d have to be a little bit of a specialist to have any idea what the problem was.
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### Author:  [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2015, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degrades-in-an-old-digital-clock-that-makes-it-start-to-run-fast/740747/10 "2015-12-18T03:45:13Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> Here you go.
>
> [It hertz when you do that – power grid to stop regulating 60 Hz frequency – Watts Up With That?](http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/25/it-hertz-when-you-do-that-power-grid-to-stop-regulating-60-hz-frequency/)
> [Planned U.S. Power System Experiment Means Some Clocks Will Speed Up - IEEE Spectrum](http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/energy/the-smarter-grid/power-system-experiment-in-us-means-clocks-will-speed-up)
> [Power grid change may disrupt clocks](http://phys.org/news/2011-06-power-grid-disrupt-clocks.html)
Very cool. Thankee, sir!
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2015, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degrades-in-an-old-digital-clock-that-makes-it-start-to-run-fast/740747/11 "2015-12-18T05:38:29Z")
What would Einstein say?
[Time is Speeding Up, Really!](http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/?p=1514)
> [@](#):
>
> **Time is Speeding Up, Really!**
> By P. Leon
>
> When I say, “Time is speeding up,” people just look at me and say, “It’s just because you are getting older.” I don’t think so. There is evidence that time may in fact be speeding up.
> Firstly, one must understand that time is relative. Traditionally, we think of time as being a constant in the universe, but it’s not. Einstein proved that. His calculations showed that the closer an object comes to the speed of light, the slower time passes. Scientists have done experiments that prove Einstein’s theory to be correct.
> So, if Einstein’s theory is correct, then the opposite must be true; if our speed decreases, time will speed up! Researcher Greg Braden says that that is exactly what is happening. The rotation of the Earth is slowing down, and time is speeding up. Evidence for his assertions comes from the Schumann Resonance. The Schumann Resonance is, in layman’s terms, the heartbeat of the Earth. In scientific terms, it is the Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) of the Earth’s magnetic field. In the 1950’s when the Schumann Resonance was discovered, it was recorded to be an average of 7.8 Hertz. Now, according to Swedish and Russian researchers, says Braden, it is an average of 12 Hertz. That means that the normal 24-hour day feels like a 16-hour day. In essence, we’ve lost one third of our normal daytime. . . .
ETA: If you have trouble opening that link, I found [the same article here too](http://beforeitsnews.com/blogging-citizen-journalism/2013/04/is-time-speeding-up-2446594.html).
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### Author:  [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degrades-in-an-old-digital-clock-that-makes-it-start-to-run-fast/740747/12 "2015-12-18T22:59:00Z")
> [@herman\_and\_bill](#):
>
> I doubt the timing circuit relies on any electrolytic caps, and thirty years ago there would be a reliable voltage regulator in the power supply. If there are any cooling vents in the clock I would suspect dust is built up and shorting the circuit a little or changing the capacitance.
The regulator also needs the filter at the end to smooth off ripple, and stop impulse noise.
Just like your TV picture might break up when the refrigerator or laundry machine operates its relays, the clock might be getting disturbed by noise on the mains power… Impulse noise has a way of jumping the transformer and transistor…
So … we didn’t do the test to see if the clock has degraded (bad caps and inductors in the regulator section failing to act as noise filters… ), Or its the white goods that have got worse…