I never turn my CPU off, or put it in “sleep mode” or anything like that. So I can’t understand why 10 times a day the clock is an hour behind. I reset it, an hour later it’s behind an hour again. WTF!
If it’s really exactly an hour and the PC has net access during these times it may have a clock or PDA synchronization program running in the background that is set to adjust to a different time zone. Turn off your cable modem or disconnect your dial up phone cord and see if this still happens. Do the three finger salute of alt-ctrl-del and see what’s running in the background.
To elaborate on what astro said- if you’re running Windows XP, then the synchronization happens automatically and it is on by default.
To see what your settings are and whether you entered the correct time zone when you first set up the computer, make your way to Date and Time in control panels and tick the Time Zone and Internet Time tabs.
pkbites, you might let us know first what kind of computer this is & what operating system.
Mine does the same thing, running Win98 on a Gateway. My settings are GMT-8:00 Pacific.
I’ve tried setting my clock an hour ahead. Sure enough, eventually (I don’t know the interval, but it was days or weeks) it lost an hour. Then after another long interval it lost another hour.
Astro is right on target. Get the time zone right and your clock will be accurate.
Poloin99: What about my case, where the time zone is correct but it loses an hour anyway?
I’m running Windows 98, and the time zone is set correctly. It still loses an hour every day!
I’ve had the same experience in the past on a win98 machine.
For computer questions go to a Canadian site which is really excellent and is free of course.
I use it all the time and get answers almost as fast as I get them on here…
Slow computer clocks do have a lot of topics here, nothing new to add really. Just use one
of those free programs that resets your clock to the right time when you are online.
download.com search for ‘clock’
So how much stock do you hold in that site, Dandmb50?
This time sync program is freeware, simple to use and very good . It will automatically load, sync to an atomic clock site and unload as you direct.
If your cmos battery is going dead you will lose clock time too.
Yes, but it seems to be an hour.
You could check the time at the DOS prompt & see if its right, just type TIME at the prompt.
W98 also has a special nifty feature that checks your system files to see if they are correct,
in the RUN box just type: SFC
Its the system file checker, cool.