My clock is always slow

Happy_Feet_2

Hi,

This may be a straight forward question for someone.

My computers clock is losing time. Does anyone know what causes this? I think it loses about 3 to 4 minuets each day.

Is this a real problem and is it easy to fix?

The computer is 3 years and 7 months old.

Is it time to buy a new one?

Any advice will be grately appriciated.

superscaper

Not sure if it's the cause but could it be your CMOS battery is going duff, if so you only need to replace that.

Happy_Feet_2

superscaper wrote:

Not sure if it's the cause but could it be your CMOS battery is going duff, if so you only need to replace that.

My computer is probably on 18 hours a day and for long periods it was being used 24/7 would that help explain the problem?

espresso

superscaper wrote:

Not sure if it's the cause but could it be your CMOS battery is going duff, if so you only need to replace that.

Agreed, usually a CR3032 cell fitted on the motherboard, which is about the size of a five pence piece. Hopefully no need for a new PC just a battery for a couple of quid! I bought one recently from a Morrisons supermarket as it was convenient.

HTH

superscaper

I think it's more the age of the computer really, I think average life of CMOS battery is meant to be 3 years anyway. It's just a watch/button type battery on the motherboard. I'm sure that will solve it. Until then you could just sync the clock over the internet (adjust clock, internet tab). That will only solve the symptom not the cause which I think is the battery unless anyone else can think of something other than that.

pksaraf

agreed, cr3032 should solve the problem. you should be able to get from maplin for around a pound and replace it yourself!

it is better to replace the battery once it starts showing signs of dying, than just syncing the clock, as once the battery is nearly at the end of its life, it will start forgetting its cmos settings as well, not a problem really, but can be quite annoying..

cdbrown

http://www.worldtimeserver.com/atomic-clock/
keep your pc up to date with the atomic clock

Andy_Millman

Happy_Feet wrote:

This may be a straight forward question for someone.

My computers clock is losing time. Does anyone know what causes this? I think it loses about 3 to 4 minuets each day.

Is this a real problem and is it easy to fix?

Any advice will be grately appriciated.

The other possibility is that your computer is travelling fast. VERY fast. Close enough to the speed of light to cause a slow down in time as per Einsteins relativity equations. Of course you'ld have to examine how and why this was happening, but its certainly a possibility.

superscaper

Andy_Millman wrote:

The other possibility is that your computer is travelling fast. VERY fast. Close enough to the speed of light to cause a slow down in time as per Einsteins relativity equations. Of course you'ld have to examine how and why this was happening, but its certainly a possibility.

That's very unlikely, what is really happening is that you are in a very large gravity well (are you near a black hole?) which will also slow down time like relativistic speeds. :beer:

Jnelhams

It could be your computer is being abducted by Aliens.