Slow Timekeeping

[PsharkJF]

I replaced the CMOS battery about a month ago after having this motherboard/battery combo for 2 years, and yet sometimes it keeps time slowly. Is there anything else that may be wrong with the board that I should be aware of?

Edit: This machine is on almost 24/7. I believe I haven't turned it off in 2 weeks.

 

[OS]

I had this problem, but my mobo was hardware voltage modded and it became clear later that the mobo had stability issues and was generally fried.

 

[PsharkJF]

I haven't had any stability issues recently, nor am I overclocking.

This is again, a stock 2.53/533 P4 in an Asus P4B533.

My temps usually never go above 50c cpu and 35c system.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

your clock generator may be a little sluggish resulting in slower actual frequency's throughtout the board. (only way to test that that I know of is with an O-Scope)

 

[PsharkJF]

I know that most programs that detect CPU frequency will recognize my CPU as a 2.56 GHz CPU rather than the 2.53 - I checked in my bios, and I am running at the stock 19x133 multiplier, so that means that my FSB is running somewhere above 133 MHz [my calculations show 136-137 MHz]

What's odd is the motherboard seems to keep time erratically and not just slowly. As an example:
At midnight last night, the time was exactly 9 minutes slow.
At 2AM, XP resynched the time with the time server.
At midday today, the time was exactly 7 minutes slow.
As of right now, my PC shows 1:32 and my alarm clock shows 1:39 and my cell phone shows 1:42.

Everything I have experienced suggests that it's not running slowly per se - if a clock runs slowly, as time goes on the delta between the PC's time and "correct" time would increase. This doesn't seem to do that - it hovers around 9 minutes every time I see it ending up being slow.

If the clock generator seems kaputz, should I try to get a new motherboard now or wait until something bigger goes bad? I was planning on upgrading 6 months from now anyway.

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: PsharkJF
I know that most programs that detect CPU frequency will recognize my CPU as a 2.56 GHz CPU rather than the 2.53 - I checked in my bios, and I am running at the stock 19x133 multiplier, so that means that my FSB is running somewhere above 133 MHz [my calculations show 136-137 MHz]

What's odd is the motherboard seems to keep time erratically and not just slowly. As an example:
At midnight last night, the time was exactly 9 minutes slow.
At 2AM, XP resynched the time with the time server.
At midday today, the time was exactly 7 minutes slow.
As of right now, my PC shows 1:32 and my alarm clock shows 1:39 and my cell phone shows 1:42.

Everything I have experienced suggests that it's not running slowly per se - if a clock runs slowly, as time goes on the delta between the PC's time and "correct" time would increase. This doesn't seem to do that - it hovers around 9 minutes every time I see it ending up being slow.

If the clock generator seems kaputz, should I try to get a new motherboard now or wait until something bigger goes bad? I was planning on upgrading 6 months from now anyway.

You can just tell windows to auto update the time via internet. Crappy bandaid fix that will work until you get new stuff.

 

[PsharkJF]

It does do that. However, the clock generating part of the motherboard seems slightly important to just "band aid" it