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My windows clock is being readjusted periodically. At random times, I will see it 5 hours ahead. I have two boxes networked, both running XP, and both are doing the same thing with the clock. One will do it at a different time period than the other. I have ran AV on both of them (AVG and Trend Micro), as well as A-Squared, EWIDO, rootkit revealer, antispyware, etc. Both have a firewall up and properly configured. Nothing malicious has been found, but this is still continuing. Any ideas, guys?
The only thing I can think of is a dying CMOS battery.
This is a symptom of a dying CMOS battery. This battery looks like a large round watch battery on your computer's motherboard. Depending on your proficiency with computers you can often replace it by yourself.
More info here:
CMOS | Replacing and Discharging (http://www.pctechbytes.com/cmos.htm)
How to Change the Battery in a Computer - eHow.com (http://www.ehow.com/how_8159_change-...-computer.html)
I have had a simliar problem before, a temporary fix for me was to disable automatic update of date and time, then one day I re-enable it and all works fine... Where you change the time click on the "Internet Time" tab, and then untick the "automatically synchronise...." box, or you could try using a different time server like time.nist.gov. Although it has just occured to me that the computers are probably set to the wrong time zone, again in the window where you change the time, click on the time zone tab, and check it is set accordingly. When CMOS batteries go (in my experience) they just go and the clock will just reset to 00:00 everytime you turn it off, so unless you turn the PC's on at 7pm everyday, I find it unlikely that this is the problem and it would also be quite coincidental that it would do it on two PC's, also if this was the case you would likely get a prompt when you first turn the PC on warning you of this and usually saying "Defaults Loaded, Press F1 to Continue", but nevertheless (i think that is a word) it is still a possibility.
Cheers
James
Question:
Is internet time based on what you have your gmt/timezone set to?
Or, does the time server report back a time from the ip address's location?
Meaning, if I'm on the east coast us but I use a proxy on the west coast (even for traffic over UDP 123), will it report back the west coast time or east coast time?
Or does it do the logical thing of reporting the GMT and shifting your clock based on what you set your time zone to?
I've never really looked much into it.
Also, make sure you're gmt/time zone is set correctly? If I manually change my clock ahead an hour, windows will change it back the next instance w32tm is run. (when i'm syncing with an internet time server or domain controller)
Phishphreek80 that is one disturbing Icon (ewww) Yeah that sounds as if there is a issue with the CMOS Battery, but to be five hours off thats almost unheard of.
Didnt I just reaaad another thread about this recently.......
Off to see if I can find it
MLF
edit
http://www.antionline.com/showthread...ighlight=clock
Hi,
I don't think that this is an issue with the battery. When they die they tend to run slow for a short time, then stop completely. The difference would not normally be whole hours, but some uneven time period.
+5 hours is terribly familiar to me................it is the difference between GMT and EST, so it sounds as if something is setting your clock to GMT?
Have you had a look at your systems logs? there might be a clue there.
:)