Computer Clock Problem

lemontree

No matter how many times I reset my clock and click Apply and OK, the time changes to an incorrect time hours later.
Please can anyone help?

Viper_7

Changes whilst your still using it? Or when you next come to use it?

How old is your computer?

suspecting it's the CMOS Battery on it's way out.

jbanks

Problem is probably the on board battery. About the size and shape of a 10p piece. If you've got the know how & anti static kit you could do it yourself. Otherwise, take it into a pc repair shop (ask them if they think it could be the battery!) and get them to do it and give your PC an MOT and clean-up. Should cost more than £40 for the shop to do it. Battery costs around £2.00, but beware - motherboard £60 upwards if you blow it yourself.

Good luck

john_s_2

I have a similar problem - I don't know if it's the same as the OP's.

I can only sync my clock when I'm logged in as Admin - I use a limited account normally. I sync it with an atomic clock from somewhere or other.

Similar to the OP within a few hours it's about five or so minutes fast (the OP didn't say whether it's fast or slow). And there it stays until I next sync it (maybe weeks later). The PC tends to be on 24/7 (I run Prime95) so I can't see it being the battery.

It doesn't really bother me - I just deduct five minutes or use the clock on the wall. But it does surprise me that with watches given away as free gifts that are more accurate than the most expensive mechanical Swiss watches, that a computer costing up to £1000, and capable of goodness knows how many calculations a second, can't keep an accurate clock :-\

lemontree

My Computer is 4 months old and built for me with all new components and is Dual Core(whatever that means)
The clock changes by several hours.

superscaper

lemontree wrote: »

My Computer is 4 months old and built for me with all new components and is Dual Core(whatever that means)
The clock changes by several hours.

Who said they were new? How long has the stock been on the shelves? Still sounds like the CMOS battery. Last ones I bought cost me 20p each (pack of five from pound shop, they're usually CR2032s if I remember correctly) so you've hardly got much to lose by replacing it.

superscaper

loaner wrote: »

is the timezone correct? if it is moving by x number of hours, and date stays correct, it is probably syncing with a time server, and correcting itself. Cmos batteries last 5+years, and would lose the date as well.

Not really, it's like an analogue clocking winding down. The time shift is gradual. Last time my CMOS battery started going it was only losing a couple of hours a day, no change in the date. It'll then get worse and worse until you eventually get a checksum error and can't boot at all.

Nomee

Yes, its the CMOS battery and nothing else.
To check if its CMOS (for those with gradual decrease in time)
1. Adjust the time
2. Shut down your PC (Completely -- if you wish to Plug out and hold them to make sure no body plug it in while you do step 3)
3. Wait for some time (2 minutes to whatever you can bear)
4. Start the PC again and enter BIOS (Most PCs have F12 to enter BIOS)
5. Look at the clock in BIOS but dont change anything
6. Exit from Bios without saving any changes

Now if you think clock has changed more than the time you wait and is running behind maybe gone to January 1970...dont know its significance though...

Then replace CMOS battery

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You see its better to spend 20p to buy and replace then to go through all this hassle and do the same thing at the end.

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Those who manufacture motherboards do not manufacture CMOS batteries so both have different life span and birth date.

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Thanks

350nutter

Lemon tree - you say the time changes by several hours, do the minutes stay the same? If so I suspect the PC is sync'ing with an incorrect time server.
If the minutes are wrong as well, poss the cmos battery as mentioned above. When the battery starts to go flat, the clock just starts running slow.

PZH

superscaper wrote: »

.. Last ones I bought cost me 20p each (pack of five from pound shop, they're usually CR2032s if I remember correctly) so you've hardly got much to lose by replacing it.

Crikey - I paid far too much last time then :eek:

Good to know because my daughter Tamagotchi's use CR2032's :T

lemontree

If I had any knowledge of computer parts I would obviously put it right but as I do not know one part of a computer from another this is impossible.
If only it was a question of 20p!!!!
The minutes are always spot on. Only the hours change.