Esteban
Here's the whole article but it doesn't offer much of solution. I was posting it mostly for understanding the problem. What I didn't do was post the right link to the second article. I posted the same article twice. It always help to proof read one's posts. he new link is at the end.
"Time Flies
Stop System Clock From Losing Time
Today’s hectic world needs accurate clocks. Precise timekeeping is vital for air, sea, and space navigation, as well as monetary transfers, television feeds, and yes, computing.
PCs keep time in two ways: using a hardware and a software clock. The hardware clock, referred to as the RTC (real-time clock), uses your system’s battery to keep time when your PC is off. When your PC is on, the software clock takes over. It sets itself to the hardware clock, and from then on, it keeps time based on the rate of interrupt requests from your system’s BIOS (Basic Input/Output System).
But neither the hardware clock nor the software clock is more accurate than a cheap digital wristwatch. The RTC doesn’t actually stay close to real-time and can gain or lose up to 10 seconds per day. And a software clock is usually less accurate because the frequency of interrupt requests varies, depending on how hard your computer works, how long it stays on, and the ambient room temperature. A software clock can gain or lose up to a minute a day.
Abnormalities in your home or office electrical system might affect the frequency of interrupt requests and cause inaccuracies in your software clock. A strong power spike (such as from a lightning strike) or dip in power (called a brownout) might reset your BIOS and RTC and could ruin your PC. To guard against power surges (periodic voltage increases), plug your PC into an effective surge protector. For protection against power spikes and brownouts, use a UPS (uninterruptible power supply).
If your computer keeps time relatively well when it’s on but loses time while it’s turned off, then your BIOS battery is probably out of juice. This battery, which maintains BIOS and time data while your PC is off, usually lasts for two to five years. When it burns out, your PC not only forgets the clock settings, it also forgets all the other settings in BIOS. A BIOS with a dead battery reverts to failsafe values, and, as a result, the computer still boots, but it runs at less than optimum performance. For example, a PC with a dead battery might run a 1.4GHz Athlon processor at only 500MHz with failsafe BIOS values.
Experienced technicians write down their BIOS settings before they run into trouble. To follow suit, check your BIOS settings. Restart your PC, press DELETE, ESC, or F1 (or another key as directed by your computer manual) as your PC boots up, and go through each section of the BIOS menu to write down the settings. Be careful not to change anything. Or, SiSoftware’s Sandra Pro ($29; sisoftware.demon.co.uk can print out your computer’s BIOS configuration for you.
There are some computer manufacturers that solder the battery directly to the motherboard, so if your PC manual tells you this is the case with your battery, you’ll need to send the computer into a repair shop for a battery replacement. Fortunately, with most computers, batteries snap in easily and cost less than $20. But if you’re uncomfortable opening your computer case, have a professional insert the new battery.
To replace a worn-out battery yourself, unplug your PC and disconnect any attached peripherals, open the PC case, ground yourself by touching something metal outside the case (to discharge static electricity before you touch any delicate electronics), find the battery, write down which end (+ or -) faces up, and then remove it according to your PC manufacturer’s instructions. You can take the battery to any electronics store and buy a replacement.
After you insert the new battery and close the PC case, restore the correct time (see the official U.S. time at time.gov) and the BIOS settings you wrote down or as detailed in the users manual that came with your computer.
If your PC loses more than five minutes a day while it’s on, you may have faulty hardware. Check your PC manufacturer’s Web site or call its technicians to determine if your PC is prone to clock errors. You can solve some slow clock problems with a BIOS update, but in more serious cases, your manufacturer needs to replace the bad hardware. Dell computers built in late 2001 are prone to losing time quickly. See Dell’s designated Knowledge Base Web page (http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?DN=HO1016518) to see if you need a new BIOS or if your hardware needs to be fixed. The Sandra Pro application we mentioned earlier will let you know if it’s time to update your BIOS.
Synchronicity. Adjusting your date and time settings manually is easy. Right-click the clock on your Taskbar and choose Adjust Date/Time from the pop-up menu to open the Date And Time Properties dialog box. Select the month, year, time, and time zone, and click OK to set the hardware and software clocks.
If you use Windows XP and have a full-time Internet connection, you can automatically synchronize your PC’s clock with a time server. In the Date And Time Properties dialog box, choose the Internet Time tab, and select the Automatically Synchronize With An Internet Time Server checkbox. Microsoft’s server (listed as “time .windows.com”) isn’t connected to an atomic clock, so select the “time.nist.gov” option from the drop-down menu or type one of the suggestions listed below in the Server field, and click Update Now (you must be online to do this).
•time-a.nist.gov
•time-b.nist.gov
•tick.usno.navy.mil
•tock.usno.navy.mil
If you’re able to connect to the time server and your firewall doesn’t block you, your system clock will be accurate to within half a second of an atomic clock, which is about as close to accuracy as a PC clock can get. WinXP automatically sets your clock on a weekly basis. Please note, however, that some computers with unusual hardware configurations lose time if you enable automatic synchronization. If your PC loses more than five minutes a day, Microsoft recommends disabling this feature.
Or, keep your clock in sync using NISTIME (free download, see Software And Instructions area on the right side; bldrdoc.gov. You can configure NISTIME to run in the background and query a server several times a day to keep your system clock continuously accurate.
by Andrew Kuster "
support.microsoft.com |
