Time fluctuation on a Dell PC

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February 13th, 2003, 09:12 AM
Rudders

Time fluctuation on a Dell PC

Dear tech folk,

We have here a couple of servers (Dell Poweredge2400 with Duual Xeon 550 P3's), which the rest of out office is linked up to with workstations (Dell Precision 610's).

My question is this...How come one of the Workstations can boot up with the correct system time, but within 20 minutes, it has EITHER gained or lost up to 17 minutes.

The other Workstations are fine, and each machine has a Timserver application running to check the machine time against the server time every 2 hours.

We are a very time-critical organisation, a bit like NASA, but not quite as high a profile!

Could it be a faulty Motherboard? ..it has only started happening in the last couple of months.

Rudders
February 13th, 2003, 10:00 AM
NooNoo

I keep seeing this in various situations.... it is in many cases an os issue... but what is causing it is still anyones guess. I assume you have changed the battery on the motherboard?
February 13th, 2003, 10:40 AM
Rudders

Thanx NooNoo,

Not checked battery yet...PC is on 24/7 !

I thought that the CMOS battery only kept time whilst the power was off? When it is off, all is ok, time is kept without a problem.

The OS is Win NT4 with service pack 6

Rudders

PS Just heard that this happens in most of our offices country wide! But usually on just 1 or 2 machines on a network.
February 13th, 2003, 10:54 AM
meatwad

Check your TSR's. Intuit update checkers for Quicken and Quickbooks will also cause this error. I'm sure there are others, but that seems to be the one I see the most.
February 13th, 2003, 11:03 AM
NooNoo

Quote:

Originally posted by Rudders
Thanx NooNoo,

Not checked battery yet...PC is on 24/7 !

I thought that the CMOS battery only kept time whilst the power was off? When it is off, all is ok, time is kept without a problem.

Ummm

Quote:

Originally posted by Rudders

My question is this...How come one of the Workstations can boot up with the correct system time

:confused: :confused:
February 14th, 2003, 11:35 AM
scutterboy

This is a possible solution but not a cure.

Look for an NTP client that will resynch your server times with an internet based clock.
February 25th, 2003, 10:19 AM
Dankman420

CMOS Battery

It's most likely a dying cmos battery. Especially if the machine is always on, batteries tend to loose juice quicker when not used at all.
March 1st, 2003, 04:07 PM
blob

have you checked your bios is fully up to date??

i had the same problem with a HP Vectra, HP released a bios update which cured the problem!!!