Laptop's slow clock

Bard

The clock on my laptop is a bit wobbly... loses time regularly - seems like it might be a dead battery (this was a display model in the shop) but it even loses time while the machine is plugged into the mains.

Watching the seconds tick away in "Date/Time Properties", one in every four or five seconds seems to take 1 and a half or 2 seconds to tick by.

Anyone any ideas? Everything else on the machine is perfectly perfect in evey way.

Saruman

Check it in the system bios as opposed to windows.. also maybe email the manufacturer and see if its a known issue, maybe bios update or software patch needed.

po0k

But the RTC isn't in the BIOS. Possibly a bug in the board all the same though.

RTC->BIOS->OS

That's teh order afaik.

Saruman

I have lost count of the ammount of times someone has said windows is loosing time or something like that but in the Bios it is NOT AFFECTED!

amen

are you connected to a network and if so does it only happend when you are on the network ?

Clinical Waste

The little back-up battery on the motherboard?
Pull it out test with a meter to check voltage.
Should be about 3v if new.
They are only supposed to have a life-cycle of 3 years, but often run longer.

I just changed one on an IBM 770e Laptop just 2 days ago. (Voltage was .02v) Worked a treat.

Bard

it happens all the time, - for example in the two hours and twenty minutes since my first post on this thread, the clock has only ticked forward 20 mins.

I happen to be connected to a network right now (crossover cable connecting to another PC) and connected to the Internet. This problem is not reliant on this as it happens when I'm not connected to either.

EvilGeorge

Unless its really annoying you or you have time critical apps I wouldn't bother with it.
A machine requires a clock to run but not for it to be the right time.

My laptop is 5 hours behind , I fix it it goes again but I dont care, the machine runs.

Saruman

accepting a fault like that is the result of someone who cant fix the problem.. EvilGeorge your a Tech.. get your Sh!t together...

EvilGeorge

I dont care , If I want time I look at a watch.

po0k

If the fault isn't a problem, then why waste valuable drinking/gaming/sleeping time fixing it?

Saruman

Newbies.. nuff said

Bard

Originally posted by SyxPak
If the fault isn't a problem, then why waste valuable drinking/gaming/sleeping time fixing it?

It's causing emails to be shown in the wrong order in Outlook. I do a few date/time oriented things - such as searching for most recently updated files in certain folders... so yeah- I'd rather sort it out.

If it's ticking away grand in the BIOS but not in Windows, what then?

Saruman

If its fine in the bios that means the battery/RTC are fine.. its either something in windows causing it or your network.. on a home network its unlikely.. try it in safe mode.. if its ok there then your looking at a background application as the cause or maybe a driver.

EvilGeorge

Fair enough then.
Windows is suppose to take its time from the BIOS , your obviously aint doing this.

As saruman suggested test it in safe mode, if its not working their either, try updating windows (windows update yoke).

Check if theres anything specific to windows doing this on http://support.microsoft.com

Rafter

Good Old Mickeysoft
They could'nt find a pot in a hardware shop.

Bard

Time and date were set wrong in the BIOS (and differently to that in Windows, for that matter) but the clock seemed to be ticking along grand...

I fixed the time and date in the BIOS and Windows seems to now have taken its time from that. I'll give it some time and see if it runs slow again. If it does, I'll check the BIOS again, and let y'all know.

Thanks for the suggestions..

JustHalf

It's not the laptop that's too slow, Bard. You're just too fast. But don't stop!

Live the dream!

Bard

Originally posted by JustHalf
It's not the laptop that's too slow, Bard. You're just too fast. But don't stop!

Live the dream!

LOL... brilliant stuff, JustHalf...

And I won't stop! I'll live the dream!... yeahhhhhhh...

--

back to the matter at hand ... a day on and the clock isn't losing time any more ... perfectly synchronised to the speaking clock (1191) so it is

Saruman

great to hear it.. actually i think i saw something like that where the 2 were not set the same... one screwed up.. interesting, have it heard of it in a very long time (win95 days!)