Vista Clock Problem

Merrick

Here's a fairly odd thing that's been happening to my laptop over the past two weeks or so - the clock won't actually keep time properly, it seems to reset itself every time I switch it on. For example now it thinks it is 5am yesterday morning.
If I manually change it, it works fine until it's turned off again. So far the only solution I found is to change the settings that sync to a web server. I have tried changing the server, and turning the sync off altogether, but it doesn't make any difference.
I know it could be something to do with the bios, but I just wanted to see if anyone else here was having this problem and found some kind of answer. Thanks in advance if anyone replies!

auggie2k

CMOS battery damaged? Missing?

Saruman

Thats what it sounds like.. to be sure though... next time you turn it on after having it off for a while.. put it in to BIOS BEFORE windows loads. If the bios does not keep time then its a battery problem... if the Bios is fine then windows is resetting it for some reason.

Laptop cmos batteries can a lot of the time not be replaced. Sometimes they can.. what laptop is it? make/model.

Merrick

OK, I hadn't thought of the battery... I'll check it out. I've heard that a good few people have been having the same problem, so I wasn't sure if it was Vista or the laptop itself.
It's a HP DV6000 by the way, it's just under a year old.

tman

If the BIOS battery was screwed it'd be going back to the default date set when it was manufactured, not to yesterday morning...

Could be that you've got a different time zone selected, and Windows is updating the time automatically based on that?

Merrick

^^ It's definately set to GMT. I just restarted - the bios now thinks it's 6am yesterday. It has never set itself to the manufacturing date though...
So... to replace or not to replace!?

Saruman

First thing first... CAN you replace it? Is it under warranty?

Merrick

Indeed it is, I got a years warranty. Looks like I'll have to get on to HP.
Thanks a million guys.

Saruman

Whats the bets when you get on to HP india you will be asked to reinstall windows?

Merrick

I think I'll just have myself a nervous breakdown if that happens!

Capt'n Midnight

To check the on board battery
Go into the BIOS and check the time is ok
turn off the PC disconnect the mains and remove the big laptop battery, then press the on/off button to remove any residual power
leave overnight
check the time in the BIOS again - if it's reset then hardware

the key thing here is not to go into windows during this so HP can't blame the software

if it's remembering the time overnight with no power then it's most likely software