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ndebord
October 4th, 2006, 10:06 PM
Really weird. My clock is exactly 12 hours off. It should say 11:04pm, but it says 11:04am.

Could it be my cmos battery? (I just ran atomic clock and it caught up a few seconds slow, but didn't change the AM thing.) When I use the DATE/TIME adjust thing from the tray, it would NOT let me change the AM to PM.

Any ideas much appreciated.

<sigh>

davidh
October 4th, 2006, 10:09 PM
Did you try setting the clock thru the boot up BIOS thingy ?

ndebord
October 5th, 2006, 12:16 AM
Did you try setting the clock thru the boot up BIOS thingy ?

David,

Yes, I booted using F10, then looked at the bios settings. Could not find anything related to the clock, but I have so seldom ever looked at the bios, it is possible that I could have missed something there.

Of course, right now, I can't complain, as it is now 1:15am and the clock is 100% correct.

<double sigh>

earler
October 5th, 2006, 09:35 AM
Download webtime, a free program that will set your clock. It is tiny and only runs when you need it. Just google webtime to find it.

-er

Gary Maltzen
October 5th, 2006, 12:23 PM
The clock setting is usually on the first page of the BIOS settings for Award and Phoenix BIOS. Some systems require using a manufacturer-supplied utility to effect changes.

Are you running XP?

ndebord
October 5th, 2006, 11:15 PM
The clock setting is usually on the first page of the BIOS settings for Award and Phoenix BIOS. Some systems require using a manufacturer-supplied utility to effect changes.

Are you running XP?

Gary,

I'm running W2000 (for which this Compaq Armada M300 PIII-600 laptop was designed). I'll look to see if there is a BIOS upgrade. Don't know about hte manufacture-supplied utility though.

Gary Maltzen
October 6th, 2006, 12:55 PM
Try googling for a copy of TARDIS2000 - it installs a service that will keep your clock synchronized with the net time (NTP) servers.

ndebord
October 6th, 2006, 02:06 PM
Try googling for a copy of TARDIS2000 - it installs a service that will keep your clock synchronized with the net time (NTP) servers.

Gary,

There is something else going on. It is not a matter of synchronizing with any of the atomic clocks. Something is fundamentally wrong, either hardware or system. The clock will NOT do PM at all.

Gary Maltzen
October 6th, 2006, 04:48 PM
The clock will NOT do PM at all.Are you certain you haven't configured it as a 24-hour clock? Will it accept 23:59 as a time?

ndebord
October 6th, 2006, 11:48 PM
Are you certain you haven't configured it as a 24-hour clock? Will it accept 23:59 as a time?

Gary,

Nope. It is definitely not a 24 hour clock.

Gary Maltzen
October 7th, 2006, 01:48 PM
It occurs to me that you need system administrator privilege (membership in 'Administrators' group) in order to change the time setting.

ndebord
October 7th, 2006, 10:08 PM
It occurs to me that you need system administrator privilege (membership in 'Administrators' group) in order to change the time setting.

Gary,

Could you be more specific? I'm now in Administrative Tools and I see the following:

Component Services
Computer Management
Data Source.....
Event Viewer
Local Security Policy
Performance
Services
TelnetServer Ad....

earler
October 8th, 2006, 03:35 AM
The hour hand of the clock rushes around the face each time it reaches 12.

-er

Gary Maltzen
October 8th, 2006, 12:43 PM
Nick - use Control Panel to open 'Users and Passwords' then double-click on your logon and select the "Member of" tab.

Y/N: Do you know the "Administrator" password for your system?

ndebord
October 13th, 2006, 06:12 PM
Nick - use Control Panel to open 'Users and Passwords' then double-click on your logon and select the "Member of" tab.

Y/N: Do you know the "Administrator" password for your system?

Gary,

I'm at a loss here (once again). Not quite sure how to proceed with what you are saying. BTW, I checked with 5Star, but they threw in the towel, after saying it was a "virus" and that they had not seen anything like it and doubted it was the cmos.

As for Administrator, I ahve a password and I do know what it is.

Gary Maltzen
October 13th, 2006, 11:37 PM
IIRC you need to be a member of "Administrators" or "Power Users" group to set the system clock.

From the Start button select "Settings" then "Control Panel".
Once in Control Panel open (double-click on) the "Users and Passwords" applet.
Once the Users and Passwords applet opens select the "Advanced" page.
On the Advanced page click the "Advanced" button.
In the "Local Users and Groups" window click in the left pane on "Users"
In the right pane double-click on your user account.
In the User Account Properties window select the "Member Of" tab.

(If you got this far you probably ARE a member of one of the aforementioned groups)

P.S: A shorter way to get there is to right-click on "My Computer" and select "Manage" then select "Local Users and Groups"...

davidh
October 14th, 2006, 05:19 AM
Nick, FWIW,

I have an old built-in 1994 PC with DOS, Win 3.1, Win 95, Win NT 4 loaded. For some years now, intermittently the HW clock apparently fails to go thru midnight correctly (esp. [or only?] when PC is off). Ususally the problem goes away for an indefinite period if I reset the clock using Win 95, etc. BTW, I don't know if I've ever located the battery on the motherboard. So whether the problem has to do with aging HW/clock chips or with flakey battery I don't know. But I'm sure it's not a Windows 95 problem. Very unlikely that it's a BIOS problem either. So it's almost surely something to do with hardware. But for me it's not even worth trying to diagnose, since the problem goes away easily even tho' it's intermittent in some sense.

DH

ndebord
October 16th, 2006, 09:33 AM
IIRC you need to be a member of "Administrators" or "Power Users" group to set the system clock.

From the Start button select "Settings" then "Control Panel".
Once in Control Panel open (double-click on) the "Users and Passwords" applet.
Once the Users and Passwords applet opens select the "Advanced" page.
On the Advanced page click the "Advanced" button.
In the "Local Users and Groups" window click in the left pane on "Users"
In the right pane double-click on your user account.
In the User Account Properties window select the "Member Of" tab.

(If you got this far you probably ARE a member of one of the aforementioned groups)

P.S: A shorter way to get there is to right-click on "My Computer" and select "Manage" then select "Local Users and Groups"...

Gary,

I got this far and so I guess I AM a member. What's next?

Gary Maltzen
October 16th, 2006, 05:02 PM
I AM a member. What's next?Then you should be able to change the clock; leaving me puzzled as to what the problem could be.

ndebord
October 16th, 2006, 05:34 PM
Then you should be able to change the clock; leaving me puzzled as to what the problem could be.

Gary,

Just to make sure I understand: I'm in Local Users and Groups and I see 3 Users: Administrator, Everyman (the name I gave the computer when asked when is loaded W2000) and Guest. Everyman says it is a "member of Adminstrator" If I understand you properly, this is as it should be. Now where in all of this do I have the ability to change the Date/Time thing?

ndebord
October 16th, 2006, 05:43 PM
Nick, FWIW,

I have an old built-in 1994 PC with DOS, Win 3.1, Win 95, Win NT 4 loaded. For some years now, intermittently the HW clock apparently fails to go thru midnight correctly (esp. [or only?] when PC is off). Ususally the problem goes away for an indefinite period if I reset the clock using Win 95, etc. BTW, I don't know if I've ever located the battery on the motherboard. So whether the problem has to do with aging HW/clock chips or with flakey battery I don't know. But I'm sure it's not a Windows 95 problem. Very unlikely that it's a BIOS problem either. So it's almost surely something to do with hardware. But for me it's not even worth trying to diagnose, since the problem goes away easily even tho' it's intermittent in some sense.

DH

David,

I don't know what to make of this problem, except that I don't have any idea about hardware issues such as the clock. It keeps pretty good time, but just AM time.

SIGH

Gary Maltzen
October 16th, 2006, 09:43 PM
Everyman says it is a "member of Adminstrator" If I understand you properly, this is as it should be. Now where in all of this do I have the ability to change the Date/Time thing?Start -> Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policy
Local Policies -> User Rights Assignment
Change the System Time = Power Users, Administrators

ndebord
October 17th, 2006, 01:55 AM
Start -> Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policy
Local Policies -> User Rights Assignment
Change the System Time = Power Users, Administrators

Gary,

O.K., I'm looking at Administrative Tools/ Local Security Settings/ Local Security Policy Setting, then Assigned To

Local Policy Setting
Efffective Policy Setting

With check marks against both Administrators and Power Users

What does this mean? I see no option to actually change Date/Time settings here?

Gary Maltzen
October 17th, 2006, 11:39 AM
What you are looking at (Local Security Policy) is the **policy** settings that determine **who** is allowed to change the time -- not a tool for doing so. The tool for doing so is the control panel Date&Time applet - which is what you get right-clicking on the system tray clock.

ndebord
October 17th, 2006, 05:20 PM
What you are looking at (Local Security Policy) is the **policy** settings that determine **who** is allowed to change the time -- not a tool for doing so. The tool for doing so is the control panel Date&Time applet - which is what you get right-clicking on the system tray clock.

Gary,

O.K. So as near as I can tell, I have permission to change the settings, but it won't change. I'm leaning toward a hardware issue.

Gary Maltzen
October 17th, 2006, 10:56 PM
I'm leaning toward a hardware issue.It certainly could be a peculiarity of your hardware, but I wouldn't discount your A-V product as a candidate.

fhaber
October 17th, 2006, 11:03 PM
I haven't the foggiest, but have you considered booting to your BIOS screen some weekend when you're going to be away from the machine for 24 hrs, and seeing whether the am/pm flag flips and flops, without benefit of operating system?

Further wild suggestion: DOS floppy, util that polls the system time and returns raw result, inspect for formatting and all-fields-present.

ndebord
October 17th, 2006, 11:18 PM
I haven't the foggiest, but have you considered booting to your BIOS screen some weekend when you're going to be away from the machine for 24 hrs, and seeing whether the am/pm flag flips and flops, without benefit of operating system?

Further wild suggestion: DOS floppy, util that polls the system time and returns raw result, inspect for formatting and all-fields-present.

Frank,

Both excellent diagnostic tools. I've got the DOS (and FreeDOS) floppies, any idea on a DOS util that polls the system time and logs it? I'll try and find the time to check out the BIOS in your fashion too.

<g>

fhaber
October 18th, 2006, 09:47 AM
No utils fall to hand. Search simtel or similar dusty archive for "at clock" and variants thereof?

davidh
October 18th, 2006, 09:25 PM
Frank,

Both excellent diagnostic tools. I've got the DOS (and FreeDOS) floppies, any idea on a DOS util that polls the system time and logs it? I'll try and find the time to check out the BIOS in your fashion too.

<g>
If you like to write BAT files, it might not be hard to write BAT program that would output the time to a TXT log file once each hour, using such DOS command line functions as TIME and FIND and redirection and appending and ERASE, etc.

e.g. ask FIND to look for the string ":59:" in the redirected output from TIME.

But don't ask me to do it.

DH

Gary Maltzen
October 18th, 2006, 10:37 PM
The Linux version of a script that records the hardware clock every 120 seconds.
while sleep 120; do hwclock >> clock.txt ; doneOf course it occurs to me to wonder about the 'relativistic' effect of using the clock to measure the clock...

ndebord
October 31st, 2006, 10:30 AM
The Linux version of a script that records the hardware clock every 120 seconds.
while sleep 120; do hwclock >> clock.txt ; doneOf course it occurs to me to wonder about the 'relativistic' effect of using the clock to measure the clock...

Gary and everyone,

Well, it "probably" was a rootkit, but I'll never know now. NT Kernal was corrupted while trying to get things to work: just prior to that my printer stopped working and something else which escapes me at the moment.

So, being around 2AM, I decided it was time to FDISK/FORMAT and reinstall W98se. Lo and behold, my clock works just fine now. Have most everything back up and running, after manual reinstalls across the board and have no inclination to try W2000 again.

Running W98se again
Kerio 2.1.5
AVG 7.5 (free)
AdAware

<VERY BIG SIGH>