Adjusting clock on pc

purplepatch

The clock on my pc is 10 minutes wrong. I have lived with it for so long now I'm used to deducting 10 minutes from the displayed time! I've altered it in control panel, but on restarting it's back to the wrong time.

Can anyone please give me idiot proof instructions on how to fix this permanently. I don't think it was wrong when I first got the pc, so no idea how it's changed.

Help??

-TangleFoot-

There should be an option in the Control Panel to have the time set remotely by an internet time server. But considering that changing the time manually doesn't seem to be effective, in all probability the backup battery on the motherboard is running down. It just needs replacing.

Just pop open the case and you'll spot the battery pretty easily. It's a button-shaped one. Just take it out and go buy another one.

When you put it back in, just boot 'er up, and you should be requested to enter the correct time and date. If all goes well, that is all you'll need to do.

purplepatch

Thanks for that Tanglefoot. Will give that a go.

theloft

Brilliant ! Had the same problem, now I know that I can sort it when I need to !!

casca

The time on PCs (like with many clocks) tends to drift over time. It's a good idea to synchronise it with an atomic clock on the internet. I use Automachron, (http://www.oneguycoding.com/automachron/) which is free.

LincsLad_3

-TangleFoot- wrote:

Just pop open the case and you'll spot the battery pretty easily. It's a button-shaped one. Just take it out and go buy another one.

When you put it back in, just boot 'er up, and you should be requested to enter the correct time and date. If all goes well, that is all you'll need to do.

I would strongly suggest having the replacement battery to hand BEFORE you remove the old one. Leaving the PC without a battery for more than about 10 minutes will cause it to lose all the BIOS settings and may give you a headache in re-configuring all of those !!!!

Anyway, a wouldn't a knackered CMOS battery mean that the PC would CONTINUE to lose time, rather than constantly be 10 minutes slow ??

purplepatch

As an experiment I found my way into the bios yesterday and changed the clock on there. I've since turned off (to standby) a few times but it's still kept time but haven't done a full reboot yet.

Is altering the clock on the bios any different from altering through control panel?

-TangleFoot-

Could be... I'm not entirely sure on that one. Y'might not need a new battery after all!