interesting time problem... ideas?

zskillz · October 25th, 2002, 08:34 PM

not sure why, but it seems that my computer cannot keep time accurately. It's not losing minutes at all, but every once in a while, I'll all of the sudden be an hour off. Unfortunately, it seems to happen so randomly that i can't tell when it's happening. So I may not notice for a little bit...

I was thinking that it's possible my battery on my mobo is about to go, but I was wondering if you all had any other ideas.

-Z

Lemon · October 25th, 2002, 08:46 PM

Could be the battery but scan for virus's just in case.

BFlurie · October 26th, 2002, 07:42 AM

Box ever go into suspend? That can sometimes screw up time.

Peter M · October 26th, 2002, 07:48 AM

If it's exactly an hour, then the automatic daylight savings time adjustment in your operating system is playing tricks on you. Do you have multiple operating systems installed?

ragtop · October 28th, 2002, 12:47 AM

If you ever figure out the problem let me know. I've had a few computers that have done the same thing. What are your machine specs?? The machines I had the problem on had only a few things in common - 1) WIN 98 SE 2) VIA chipsets, and 3) Norton AV.

Someone once told me that this was a problem with Norton AV, but I was never been able to confirm that.

Creatures · October 28th, 2002, 01:18 AM

here in switzerland (europe) we had to set the time one hour back!!
it's Winter-Time!
i think that's it!

Creatures

Target · October 28th, 2002, 10:09 PM

I recently saw a notice for a hotfix on McAfee's web site that said one of their new scan engines had the possibility of messing with the system clock. Supposedly the hotfix resolves the issue.

Might not be a hardware related deal for you after all if there is software out there causing issues with the sys clock when it shouldn't be.

My guess, based on what you have said, is that its something other than hardware causing the problem for you.

zskillz · November 1st, 2002, 05:45 PM

haha...a couple of things... It just occured to me that at some point in time, XP seems to occaisionally check what time-zone you have entered. I was losing time when it reset me to that time zone.

although as far as I can tell, I'm also seeing something wierd with my minutes

-Z

Dokeman · November 1st, 2002, 06:45 PM

there is a wrte up about this on the inet somewhere...but it has to do with your sound card drivers (VXD only) and constant use of them. Like screensavers for example. Try turning them off and see what happens.

Xeroid · November 1st, 2002, 06:55 PM

You didn't recently install Linux on a spare partition did you? Or install a newer version than what you had? I recently upgraded to Mandrake 9.0. When I was setting everything up I accidentaly answered yes when it prompted me: Is your Hardware Clock set to GMT? (Greenwich Mean Time). This will realy screw with your time settings. You'll correct your clock in Windows and the next time you reboot it may or may not be off. The minutes will be correct but the hours will be off by a random number.

Mike