PC clock always falling out of Sync

[lllN30lll]

i'm not normally one to ask for help but this is doing my bonce in


after a week or so my PC's clock seems to never be right, it always around 10 seconds in front.

I do a lot of eBay sniping so this is really important to me, on my sniping program it can sync itself to ebays time. when i do this it only changed the time on the program, not the PC.

when i click on my system clock in the tray, go to internet time, and sync it with Windows it corrects itself by around 10 secs or so.


why does my pc clock never seem to run right?

every time i want to snipe something i have to Sync my pc clock to my sniping tool.

cheers

waiting
____________________
Turbo R1
CRF450R

[jackw72]

a bit simple do you have it in the right timezone?
you set it to automatically synhronise or not?

you shouldnt be sniping XD
____________________
08/11/2007 A2 Passed.
Suzuki GSXR 1000 K3
Rapid Training passed

[TheShaggyDA]

I seem to remember having a problem with a PC that did that, I think it turned out to be something like a device (possibly my modem) getting it's knickers in a twist, and while it was dialling the PC clock just froze. However, that was running slow, not fast.
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Current: CB500 Previous: CB100N, CB250RS, XJ900F, GT550, GPZ750R/1000RX, AJS M16, R100RT, Enfield Bullet

[i:6e3bfc7581]But still I fear and still I dare not laugh at the madman...[/i:6e3bfc7581]

[lllN30lll]

[Matt06]

Could be you're computers CMOS battery. Basically on the motherboard there is a bettery that keeps things like the time running while it is off. If the computer always looses the time its a possibility it could be this.
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[Essex_Mike]

I 2nd what matt just said.

How old is the computer Tbh, it only usually happens with motherboards that are a few years old
____________________
CBT - Passed - 14/07/2006 Theory - Passed - 19/08/2006 A2 test - Passed -19/07/2007
Previous Bike - Suzuki EN125
Current Bike - Suzuki GS500F

[lllN30lll]

computers about 4 years old now

it's never been switched off for the whole 4 years it's always downloading stuff
____________________
Turbo R1
CRF450R

[Matt06]

Okay, well hmm that doesnt help.

4 years is probably long enough for the CMOS battery to die. However, if you computer really is on all the time it cant be the CMOS battery.

Is it possibly that you're time sync is somehow setting the wrong time? Not sure really. Its very strange for a computer to loose the time when its always on.
____________________
Current: MT-10, Bandit, Grom, GPZ500
Previous: YBR125, GSXR400, ZXR400, MT-03, NTV650, R6, z750, ZX6R, MT-09

[Essex_Mike]

Even if its on all the time the battery can stil degrade like anything. Though I would have thought it'd still be ok after 4 years.
____________________
CBT - Passed - 14/07/2006 Theory - Passed - 19/08/2006 A2 test - Passed -19/07/2007
Previous Bike - Suzuki EN125
Current Bike - Suzuki GS500F

[Matt06]

I have had a CMOS battery die after 2 years. It just didnt hold a charge for more than a few days. Probably just a dodgy battery though.

I know the battery can still degrade when the computer is on but its not used until its turned off, so it wouldnt matter. The battery is there to keep the time and other BIOS functions when the pooter is off and charges while its on.
____________________
Current: MT-10, Bandit, Grom, GPZ500
Previous: YBR125, GSXR400, ZXR400, MT-03, NTV650, R6, z750, ZX6R, MT-09

[TheShaggyDA]

I don't think it would be the battery if he is gaining time.
____________________
Current: CB500 Previous: CB100N, CB250RS, XJ900F, GT550, GPZ750R/1000RX, AJS M16, R100RT, Enfield Bullet

[i:6e3bfc7581]But still I fear and still I dare not laugh at the madman...[/i:6e3bfc7581]

[Matt06]

True, I didnt fully read the post and thought it was just generally keeping out of time.

I would say its just the program that sync's the time is off a little. 10 seconds isnt much considering its sync's over the net.
____________________
Current: MT-10, Bandit, Grom, GPZ500
Previous: YBR125, GSXR400, ZXR400, MT-03, NTV650, R6, z750, ZX6R, MT-09

[lllN30lll]

since making this post my clocks now about 1.5 seconds ahead of the eBay clock
____________________
Turbo R1
CRF450R

[jackw72]

youd be a shit sniper

your bullet lands 1.5 seconds after it should have
____________________
08/11/2007 A2 Passed.
Suzuki GSXR 1000 K3
Rapid Training passed

[techierob]

is it a dual cpu system? I know there are issues with some dual opteron systems where the os registers spurious clock ticks. When the system's heavily loaded, the clock can very quickly go off by hours or even days. I've only noticed this issue with dual opteron systems running rh enterprise 3 though. Consumer systems are generally less gimmicky and have fewer things to go wrong.

What OS are you running? If you're on a unix system, then that sort of clock drift can easily be kept in check if you run an ntp client.
Failing that, upgrading the bios should either fix the problem or at least eliminate it as a possibility.

Just out of curiousity, what motherboard, bios revision and cpu(s) do you have?

[Phil_C]

It would be worth checking if you are getting time synchronisation from your modem. Get a command prompt up and type "net time". post results here.

[ken]

lllN30lll wrote:

[lllN30lll]

first ISP was virgin 1mb, downloaded about 300gb a month from them

now moved to Plusnet 2mb, BUT they've capped usenet downloading now till after midnight so struggling to get over 200gb a month.

will soon be moving ISP's again

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name UNIMATRIX007
System Manufacturer ECS
System Model K7VMM+
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 0 AuthenticAMD ~1666 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 07.00T, 02/04/2001
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale Canada
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
User Name UNIMATRIX007\Administrator
Time Zone GMT Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 1,024.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 210.95 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 2.40 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
____________________
Turbo R1
CRF450R

[lllN30lll]

[techierob]

there are reported clock drift problems with smbios systems. The symptoms are a small disparity of a couple of hundred milliseconds on boot that gradually increases the longer the machine stays up.
You should be able to grab a bios update from the motherboard manufacturer's website

[Phil_C]

Aye techierob is probably right, and not having a net time server syncronising doesn't help. Maybe point to a time server and poke a hole in your firewall for NTP? I'd post details of how to do so, but I'm heading home now

And yeh, Plusnet are a bunch of capping bastards