Wierd Computer Clock - Step Right Up and Test Your Computer Troubleshooting Skills!!

[EchoWars]

Have a system I put together for a friend with the Tyan Trinity 400 MB and a PIII 550 FC-PGA along with a vanilla G400. Runs great, but with ACPI disabled and no power savings on, computer loses about 10min a day.

Now, I know computers are not the best timekeepers, but I think 10min/day is a little much.

I'm thinking of re-flashing the BIOS, clearing CMOS, and restarting CMOS setup from scratch.

Anyone else have an idea??

[xortam]

Aside from fixing your hardware problem, you could use an NTP ap to set your system time on occasion. Their are some web sites that will use NTP as well and java aps.

[paulcs]

Could it be the battery?

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Frankfurt]

Im with Paulcs on this, i have heard that after a period of time (like 3 years) batteries sorta run out o power and time is continually lost...i see it happening on an early 90s laptop i have

Frankfurt

[EchoWars]

I could believe the battery thing if the computer was ever shut down, but my buddy has it on a cable modem and never shuts it off so he doesn't lose his IP address (needs a consistant address for some prog. he is running). I told him to replace the battery anyway, but my gut feeling is that it won't do squat...

[EchoWars]

Xortam---used to have a freeware prog to sync the comp clock with some atomic clock somewhere...then reformatted and lost it. All the programs I find now that do this are shareware, and the NERVE of these guys to ask for MONEY! Do ya know where I can find the freebie kind?

Still, just masks the problem. Would like to find a real solution...

[xortam]

When I was working I used an NTP ap that came with the Hummingbird Exceed package for NT. I don't have this at home. I just manually set the time from http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/what.html. They point to some aps at http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~ntp/software.html. There are some NTP servers listed at http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/clock2.htm. There are many different time sites available (use a search engine). Even if you do fix your local clock problem, PC clocks all get out of synch over time. I ran a NTP ap every morning at work upon bootup so my clock was accurate for our source control system.

[Sisyfos]

EchoWars

There's a free program located at this site.

http://www.arachnoid.com/abouttime/index.html

/Kim

[This message has been edited by Sisyfos (edited 02 July 2000).]

[Rags]

The battery is probably your problem. It doesn't matter one bit whether you shut your computer off or not.

Rags



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Partnership for an idiot free America

[xortam]

Righto Sisyfos ... I had that one bookmarked too but haven't tried the ap.

Speaking of time ... why do the last two posts show 12:41 and 12:42 vs. 00:41 and 00:42?

P.S. Strange ... after I posted this, they now have the correct times ... wierdness.

P.P.S. Now back again to 12:xx ... I'm so confused.

[This message has been edited by xortam (edited 02 July 2000).]

[EchoWars]

Hey Rags...

I thought the CMOS was powered by the system when booted...No matter. Was going to junk the battery anyway, its just that I have had CMOS batteries go before, but I sure don't remember the clock going all funny on me. Will replace the battery and let ya'all know what happened..

[EchoWars]

Oh...and thanks for the links guys...

[muppet]

Hi guys,

Well perhaps if its not the battery it could be the crystal oscillator that divides the frequencies to gain the time. If the crystal is a touch on the wrong size its frequency of oscillation will vary either plus or minus of what it should be, then irrespective of battery voltage the thing won't keep good time. My Supermicro P6SBA was brand new, and it used to lose 2 mins+ per day. I just lived with it.........

[Greebe]

I have to agree with Muppet here... the battery won't effect the clocks operation (except if very low or dead)... but the crystal will and these aren't very accurate.

[Greebe]

Oops forgot that I use Netlab v1.4 to sync my machines time... if you want, I'll zap it over to ya (quite small proggy and it's freeware