Time flies In Windows XP
Snotty
an Internet time server" the clock runs about 10% faster than it should. You
can see the second hand on the clock display jumping quickly every two or
three seconds. After a reboot it settles down again and runs at the correct
speed albeit with the incorrect time from the last Windows sprinting
session. The bios clock display always runs at the correct speed. It makes
no difference which NTP server I use - local or US.
Time Zone is GMT +10:00, daylight saving on or off makes no difference, OS
is XP Pro with all current updates except the latest Windows Messenger. We
put our clocks back one hour at the end of daylight saving this morning at
12AM and this Sunday morning the problem persists.
I conclude this is a bug in Windows XP Pro from a recent update. Anyone know
how to fix it?
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Snotty
Carey
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Carey Frisch (USA)
Jason Tsang
There is a glitch that happens on new Dell computers. A KB article is in
the works and a fix will come in a service pack. Until then, you can get
around the problem with these steps:
1. Start->Run cmd.exe
2. w32tm.exe /unregister
3. w32tm.exe /register
DELL imaged the OS from one machine and installs in on a batch of machines.
Information about the imaged machine's processor clock is stored in the
registry. The defect is that windows should detect that the processor is
different and should refresh the registry entry. The steps above force that
to happen.
You may also want to try this file from Dell
http://support.dell.com/us/en/filelib/download/index.asp?fileid=r40111
--
Jason Tsang - Windows XP MVP - DTS & Associate Expert
Find out about the MS MVP Program -
http://support.microsoft.com/support/mvp/
Find out about the Windows XP Expert Zone -
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
"Snotty" <sno...@nasalsolutions.com> wrote in message news:#EjnayE2BHA.1988@tkmsftngp03...
Snotty
>an Internet time server" the clock runs about 10% faster than it should.
You
>can see the second hand on the clock display jumping quickly every two or
>three seconds. After a reboot it settles down again and runs at the correct
>speed albeit with the incorrect time from the last Windows sprinting
>session. The bios clock display always runs at the correct speed. It makes
>no difference which NTP server I use - local or US.
This problem seems to happen quite often with Dell machines. Usually
a steady rate of loss like 10 minutes in an hour. It appears to
result from a conflict with the BIOS over the interval between 'timer
interrupts'. Windows maintains the clock by counting these, so if the
interval is not the expected one, the rate is grossly out in this
manner.
We are told that a KB article is in the works and a fix will come in a
service pack. Until then, you can get around the problem with these
steps:
1. Start->Run cmd.exe
2. w32tm.exe /unregister
3. w32tm.exe /register
And it may apply to a few non-Dell amchines too
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My machine is not a Dell but a homebrew Athlon XP 1800+ on a K7N420 Pro
running Windows XP Pro. Rather than losing it was gaining. Looks as if Dell
made their image on a fast machine and sold it with slower machines. Now I
wonder if the clock problem began when I changed my bios to load high
performance defaults recently, the opposite of the Dell issue. Maybe it
upset timings somewhere. Maybe w32time needs to reconfigure itself more
often - perhaps at activation and whenever it synchronizes with a time
server. Everything else runs OK (and fast too!).
Anyway with w32tm.exe /unregister I got an access denied error even though I
was logged as admin. Maybe this is because the program w32tm.exe will not
run if the service w32time is already running.
So I did:
Start->Run cmd.exe
net stop w32time
w32tm.exe /unregister
w32tm.exe /register
net start w32time
and got no errors and a clock that runs fine now.
Explanation for other amateurs: You should be logged on as administrator to
do all this. Note the difference between "tm" and "time". The first line
starts the Command prompt. The second line stops the service w32time. The
third and fourth lines remove all registry configuration information which
is the vital step thanks to the MVPs. The fifth line restarts the service.
You can get help about w32tm by typing w32tm /? at the command prompt.
Hope this helps someone else.
Again many thanks for the most valuable replies.
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Snotty