hi maybe the cmos battery going bad

 

Mike is onto the top suspect, the CMOS battery probably needs to be replaced.

 

Thanks, guys, makes sense. This is an old PC but still is rocking otherwise.

 

Wellm guys, replacing the battery didn't work. Clock still steadily loses time. If I click auto time settings off and back on the time synchs. It also synchs if I clink synch now. But then after that it goes back to losing time. What are the other possibilities?

 

well maybe see if their is a bios update. it also could be that their is maleware or virus infection. might want to post here https://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/virus-trojan-spyware-help.50/and post logs in new thread.

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Damn, I hope not. I run Malware Bytes premium real time protection and don't really do anything sketchy. But who knows these days? Just ran a manual MWB scan and all clear.

 

• Did you put the battery in + side up?
• Are you sure the battery you bought was actually good?
• Check to see that your CLR_CMOS jumper isn't on and the pins aren't bent and touching.
• Check the timing crystal for signs that it has been damaged or that its soldering is cracked.
• Make sure that Windows is set to sync time (double-click time and date on taskbar > date and time settings).

 

Yes, the battery is inserted correctly. I did not put a voltmeter on it but it is a brand new DuraCell. Windows has always been set to auto time zone and auto synch. It is using the time.windows.com server. This is a recent issue. I'll have a look at the hardware when I get a chance, but I'm not sure I'll be able to discern timing crystal damage... or even that I will be able to identify the timing crystal.

BTW, when I look at the settings it shows the last successful synch as what I did manually. So it looks like it isn't even trying to synch automatically. But then it shouldn't be losing a bunch of time in a day in the first place, either.

 

For instance:

I synched manually today at 10:38 AM, now it is 11:40 AM, but the PC clock says11:23. Already lost 17 minutes.

 

I synched manually today at 10:38 AM, now it is 11:40 AM, but the PC clock says11:23. Already lost 17 minutes.

I really doubt this is the CMOS clock, you have something running that is sucking up timer interrupts I suspect. Years ago I had an issue like this, turned out to be an application I was running.

 

Double-click the date/time icon on the Taskbar. Now, click "Date and Time Settings." You should have your settings like this:

Here is a workaround you might try. This won't address the underlying issue (see the next post for that) but will keep your clock time correct in the interim and is good practice. You have to be connected to the Internet for this to work.

1. Press Winkey + R, type in "regedit" and press Enter
2. Paste this into the command line, where it says "Computer."
3. Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient
4. Right click on the SpecialPollInterval key, then click Modify.
5. Check Decimal.
6. Enter "1800" -- this will sync the clock every half hour. The default is 604800, which is a week.
7. Exit Regedit.

Check your new settings.

1. Go to Start and search "Control Panel"
2. In the Control Panel, search "Clock"
3. Click Set Time and Date
4. Go to the Internet tab.
5. You should see your next sync at 30 minutes from now. You might want to sync with the NIST Time Server instead of Windows time too. Do this in Change Settings.

 

Now, let's try to find out if Windows or a corrupt BIOS is the culprit. First, try is to resync the Windows Time Service.

Winkey + R, type "cmd" then right-click the app and select Run as Administrator.

Enter the following commands, pressing Enter after each.

net stop w32time
w32tm /unregister
w32tm /register
net start w32time
w32tm /resync

The next thing I'd do would be to flash the BIOS to the latest version or re-flash it if you have the latest version. How to do this depends on your motherboard.

If this doesn't solve the issue, start working through these troubleshooting steps:

8 Ways To Fix System Clock Runs Fast Issue

8 Ways To Fix System Clock Runs Fast Issue: If you are facing this issue where System Clock always run faster than the usual time then chances are you must have overclocked your PC or this could be simple CMOS settings. This could also happen when Windows Time service is corrupt which is pretty...

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After you get the problem fixed, if you do, then you can set your time sync back to 7 days or to whatever you want it. I have mine set to sync to the NIST time clock every day (86400 seconds) as I have a wall clock that does the same.

 

Well, I went into date and time settings again and turned off the auto time zone and auto time sync and just set it manually. It's been an hour now and the time is still accurate. So, the PC is keeping time OK. I am stumped. Oh, well. I'll just leave it like this for now.

 

Well, I went into date and time settings again and turned off the auto time zone and auto time sync and just set it manually.

Did you go through the troubleshooting steps I suggested? Even if a step doesn't fix the problem itself it will close a possible problem path so that you can concentrate on others.

When you ran the Malwarebytes scan was it a full scan or a quick scan? Is Malwarebytes your default anti-malware app? Go to ESET and run a one-time full anti-malware scan.

One of the troubleshooting steps was the suggestion for a Clean Boot. This will load Windows with only a minimal set of drivers, after which you can re-introduce services one by one until you find the one that's causing the issue. If you want to take Windows completely out of the picture, boot into your BIOS and leave it there for a few hours to see if the clock is losing time. If the clock stays OK in the BIOS you know that it's likely an issue with Windows or something that's loading up within Windows. If the clock loses time in the BIOS then, like I said, do a BIOS re-flash. If the computer still loses time then it's probably a hardware issue.

Does the computer only lose time after it's been turned off? If so, then get another battery on the off chance the one you bought was DOA. Also, make sure that the contact under the battery isn't squished flat where it doesn't contact it.

Another thing is that we don't know a thing about your system or how old it is. If it's an OEM computer that's over five years old then it may have a failing power supply. If it's an older laptop it may have a failing battery. A desktop built between 1999 and 2007 may well have failed capacitors as there was an industry-wide issue with failing electrolytic capacitors back then.

Overheating is always a problem with computers too. How long has it been since you cleaned out the inside of your computer? If you have a desktop that's acting up it never hurts to remove and re-seat the RAM , video card and, drive's power and data connectors and blow out the slots/ports to ensure that they don't have any dust in them and to clean corrosion off the contacts.

Run HWMonitor to see if the system is running hot and if the voltages are as expected.

 

Your processor was released in 2008 and is incompatible with Windows 11. Your motherboard is probably incompatible with it too. Could you upgrade directly through Microsoft upgrade or did you have to upgrade via a workaround? If the crashes and time problem started after you installed Windows 11 then this is likely the cause of your problem. Reinstall Windows 10.

 

No, I don't have Win 11, I was just lamenting that I might need to build a new PC in a couple of years because this one won't work with 11. Same with my trusty Asus Zenbook and other desktop HTPC. Seems like MS is trying hard to make all my gear obsolete. It might be enough to chase me over to Apple.

 

No, I don't have Win 11, I was just lamenting that I might need to build a new PC in a couple of years because this one won't work with 11.

I'd recommend removing the overclock on your CPU. Your system may have been stable with it overclocked in the past but as components age they can become less stable.

I'm in the same boat as you with upgrades. I built this system in 2010 and have pretty much upgraded it as far as I can go. When Windows 10 reaches its end of life I'll probably build a new Windows 12 system.

 

Apple is even more unforgiving of old hardware then Microsoft. This is how long Macs and MacBooks last

 

Yeah, I guess I'll find out. Last fall I picked up a MacBook Air with M2 chip and I like it a lot, except for the learning curve. Battery life is superb among other things. But for most general purpose stuff it is no better than my 6 year old 13" UX301LA i7 Zenbook on Win 10 Pro. That has SSD, instant on BIOS, pretty good battery life, etc. I have replaced the battery once and the keyboard twice but it still rocks.

Apple is even more unforgiving of old hardware then Microsoft. This is how long Macs and MacBooks last

 

Yeah, mine is maxed out with GeForce 2060 IIRC and 12 GB RAM, not 16 as I believe I said earlier. But it still is very adequate even for some VR gaming.... at least running the OC. Haven't tried it at native speed. Although it is old my recent crash may have been due to that awfully dirty CPU cooler. I almost took a pic to post up here but it would have been embarrassing.

Good news is that when I started it up this AM time was accurate so nothing lost while shutdown. This still in manual time. I'll switch it back to auto and see what happens. Maybe it just took some time for the new battery to register? IDK.

 

Just to update this issue... I switched back to auto time zone and auto time setting yesterday and my PC time has remained accurate for 24 hours, whereas before it was losing minutes per hour. Alls I did was change the battery (and clean my CPU cooler!) which didn't seem to fix the issue at first so I am not sure if that was it or what. In any case we can close this one out.