Time in XP off every now and then

Hi:
I was wondering if anyone knew whether the time in XP is actually controlled by the OS. I ask this because my system time seems to fall behind every few weeks. Re-adjusting the time alone doesn't help (it just quickly falls behind again) unless I reboot as well.

Thanks,

 

Hi George c
Actually..it's quite normal. A good thread about just this.

Daizy

*edit*
Just noticed your tag line.
I belong to those forums as well. Though I've not had the chance to post since the change over of the new board! )

 

I use Rocket.Time. It is a free small program that will reset your Windows clock and keep it accurate to the second. It works great with all Windows including XP.

 

Why not use WinXP's Internet Time sync? Comes free with XP.

You can find it at Control Panel>Date and Time>Internet Time tab. Check off "Automatically synchronize with an internet time server ".

 

Actually time is stored in the BIOS not in the OS. You could take off your OS and time would still be store on there. When your computer starts it usually says hit DEL to enter setup. That goes into the BIOS. You can set time and which drives boot first. The internet time sync's only get the time from an atomic clock and reset the time in the BIOS.

Fiveball

 

Thanks guys (hay Daizy ). I'm glad it's actually not a hardware problem. I just realized I didn't even need to reset the time when it's off- merely rebooting fixes the problem.

Funny thing is, I never experienced such a problem with the time with Win 98. Must be a WinXP exclusive problem.

 

A computer actually maintains Three Separate Clocks

The Real Time Clock (RTC) is physically located on the system board (motherboard) and powered by the CMOS battery so it is consistently updated even if the system is not receiving AC power.

The CMOS Clock is a logical clock stored in the BIOS chip on the system board. Its settings are maintained (but not updated) in non-volatile RAM while the system is powered off.

The Operating System (OS) Clock is a logical clock/ "time set" in system memory when the system is powered on. When a computer is turned on, the CMOS clock synchronizes with the RTC during the POST (Power On Self Test) operation. When the operating system boots, it reads the current time from the CMOS clock and maintains its own independent time keeping piece. The OS clock does not synchronize again with the CMOS clock unless the OS clock is manually changed (at which time both the CMOS clock and RTC are set to the time stored in the OS clock), or the system is rebooted.

Having a quick look on CNet there are at least 23 programs that synchronise your PC clock with atomic clocks.

HumBug

 

dobhar

You said... "Why not use WinXP's Internet Time sync? Comes free with XP. "

Why? Because... it doesn't work on my Dell computer. The clock is one off the most common problems posted on DellTalk. Dell has have many fixes, even a "patch" but NONE helped my FAST running clock. I have tried them all.

Like I said install Rocket.Clock and forget about that problem once and for all.