time clock keeps changing

fualker

My clock on my windows xp pro keeps changing Every few minutes. The Date will usually change to 1990, but will occasionally change to 2070. I used norton to check for viruses and didn't find any. I can't think of anything else to check, any ideas?

jescab

sounds like the CMOS battery is going belly up or spyware. Change the CMOS battery.

skully93

jescab wrote:

sounds like the CMOS battery is going belly up or spyware. Change the CMOS battery.

I'd say CMOS myself. They die now and again.

JDMurray

I've never seen a computer where a weak CMOS battery would cause the clock to spontaneously change the time/date while the computer was running. Usually, only the time/date is lost when the computer is turned off. The clock should be powered independently of the battery when the computer is on.

What motherboard does your computer have?

If the clock battery is not soldered to the motherboard, try cleaning the battery and battery contacts first. A slight film of oxidization can cause poor electrical transfer. If you have a voltmeter, test the battery and see how far below 3.3VDC is it. Replace if it's more than a volt low (the battery low voltage threshold varies between motherboard manufacturers).

jescab

JD - what clock battery are you referring too?

I have seen where the CMOS battery started to crap out while being used and the clock displayed crazy times.

What powers the clock when the computer is on? Power Supply - then the power supply could be going bad. -- I have never seen this.

Thanks JD because this has got me thinking. The smoke is pouring out my head. LOL This is a good topic to keep us on our toes.

RussS

I suspect a failing capacator could be the cause here. As JD says - the battery only powers the board when the power is off (at the wall) and it will fall back to the BIOS date and now jump forward.

fualker

I know its not the battery because my other setting in CMOS are not being reset. Besides this is happening while the system is still on. My only other thought was a virus, but norton didn't find anything. Could this be a hardware issue?

jescab

I would scan the computer for spyware. Then replace the battery. Sure it is only suppose to power the clock when it is powered off but I have seen this as a source of the problem when the computer was turned on. The battery doesn't cost much and you can eliminate that as a source of the problem really quick. It could be a bad capacitor like Russ said. It could be the mobo going bad. So start eliminating these things one at a time.

When I repair someones computer I alway sstart with the cheapest and quickest thing first so I can eliminate that as a possible problem.

Good Luck and let us know what the problem turned out to be.

crap I forgot my old pwd

could be virus/spyware. A reason why norton didn't find it could be because it was not in norton's database. Try running some more free spyware scanners to see if a different one recognizes it or make sure norton is fully updated and give it another shot. I like to view virus/spyware scanners as a type of comb, where each one is a bristle. The more bristles you have while you scan the system, the more you can "comb" out of it.

jescab

I agree with you crap. The more programs you have to get rid of that stuff the better.

TeKniques

Just another thing to point out. If your running Norton and your date is not set correctly than LiveUpdate will not update your virus definitions properly. This is because Symantec's LiveReg program uses the dates to track subscription services.

You might want to try to run LiveUpdate manually to make sure your getting the virus definition updates.

jescab

Did you square away your clock/time issue? If so, what was the problem?

fualker

Yes, I fixed it over the weekend. I went into the registry and removed microsofts default update server. Somehow there was an issue when windows was updating the time. Once I removed it, it stopped messing up the time.

jescab

sweet - thanks for the update.......