Windows weirdness: system clock stopped working.

Just noticed last night that the clock increments very slowly.  I re-set it around 5:3-pm yesterday, and it’s now nine hours behind. Any idea what could have caused it and how to fix it? (Windows 8)

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6 Responses to Windows weirdness: system clock stopped working.

  1. T says:

    Depends on the mobo.

    Some take a rough time increment from 60-cycle ac. I’ve seen some surge protectors fuzz the signal enough the clock chip gets confused. Might also be a low or loose backup battery.

    Have you looked at the clock settings in BIOS? If it is counting off seconds there, but the clock drags once Win loads, bring up Task Manager and look for something grabbing a _lot_ of clock cycles. Virus, rogue program, zombieware are all a possibility.

    For serious diagnostics, I keep a ‘system on a stick’ – Linux on a bootable USB drive – so I can work around the system OS to check files. My favorite is OpenSUSE – YMMV.

  2. Vladimir says:

    How old is your computer? Problems like this usually leads to weak CMOS battery (it is a small “button” battery on mainboard, commonly CR2032). Battery should stay for standard PC lifetime….but if you are bad luck 🙁

  3. Kristophr says:

    Windows 8 is doing this because of a very stupid bug.

    Set time synchronization to a time server in your time zone, or do not use a time server at all.

    • Paul Koning says:

      Could you clarify that? Time servers don’t know or care about time zones; NTP disseminates UTC, not local time.

  4. Lyle says:

    There’s always the Zaphod Beeblebrox approach; offer to go after the computer’s circuits with a very large axe and give a “reprogramming” it will never forget.

  5. Braden Lynch says:

    I’m not an expert, but I had the personal experience of a small motherboard battery failing and it was somehow associated with the system clock and caused issues with it. Totally weird. So, if not software, could there be a hardware issue?

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