Time changing in Win98

[computerguy]

Hi everyone,
I am having a problem with my computer keeping time. The time is continuosly changing, i set the time and after just a few minutes, it has gained an hour or more. When i open the time settings to set the correct time, the time displayed in the settings window is different from the time on the task bar (and still not the correct time). I thought it might be a bios problem so i flashed my bois to the latest version and ran a Y2k test, everything tested OK, but the time still changes. I never shut my computer off so it shouldn't be the cmos battery? I have seen my computer gain as much as 5 1/2 hours within a 24 hour period. I have set the time in the bios and then set windows to the same but it still changes.
The time seems to change whenever a program running in the system tray is activated (zonealarm, modem manager, antivirus etc.) Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks
Computerguy

 

[rfeenie]

is the machine on a network ? sometimes a server time difference can cause this issue. another unlikely is the regional settings in control panel, are these correct?
to confirm as a hardware or software issue i would run the computer in full dos mode ( press f8 at startup if 95/98). run it last thing at night and type the time command from DOS. go back in the morning and run the time command again, is there a difference ? if yes then you have a realtime/CMOS problem i think.


Fireball If in doubt get the Ball Pein Hammer out

 

[computerguy]

The computer is not on a network, I will try the DOS test and see what happens. However, I changed the time zone on my computer (the wrong time zone for me...) its been 24 hrs and so far the time has not lost or gained. Weird. I wonder could it be my win98 has become corrupt? Thanks rfeenie for the advice, I will try the test tonite.

Thanx
Computerguy

 

[ray436]

I have read a Microsoft Knowledgebase article regarding this, and apparently it is a known issue. Certain combinations of hardware and software create it. I have looked hopelessly thru the Knowledgebase for the relevant article but couldn't find it. Man I hate the structure they use!! If you don't know the "magic" word you never find what you want. I guess they would rather charge you for support. I do know its there tho ..Honest!! I'll keep looking and post when I find it.

 

[Karl Blessing]

Try to see if your CMOS battery needs to be replace, when you turn your computer off, and your CMOS battery isnt strong enough to keep the time you will notice a loss of time when you turn your computer back on.
Karl
kb244@kb244.com

http://www.kb244.com

Experienced in : C++(both VC++ and Borland),VB1(dos) thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, HTML, Visual InterDev 6(ASP(WebProgramming/Vbscript)

http://www.brainbench.com/transcript.jsp?pid=629151

 

[computerguy]

The computer doesn't lose time, it gains time. If i turn off my computer it retains the time and the date, however it jumps ahead while i'm using the computer. Some times a few hours, then a little later it jumps back an hour or so. I checked my regional setting and United states (english) was listed there about 20 times along with only a couple other choices, so I chose a different United States (english) from the list and when i went to select the time tab, i got an error message "A file associated ...blah blah blah... is missing or corrupt. so i said ok to that and then it asked me to reboot so i did. when it came back up it was some foreign language and military time in my regional settings? When i check the list of possible settings, United states (english) only appeared once and all of the other choices were now listed, so i chose my english again and rebooted and it was fine, but still gaining time.
I checked with technet and there seems to be a lot of problems with many different time zones.
I tried the dos test listed above and it kept the time with no problems, the only thing i can figure is it must be a windows thing.

 

With all the diagnotics that I have just read I would agree with you on it being a windows problem. Let me ask you this have you re-installed windows yet (last resort). If not from reading the above information I would start to check out different software and hardware that you have installed in your computer.

Malik
king_malik@hotmail.com

http://www.underworldsounds.com