System clock suddenly losing time

[beefkake]

The clock on my PC is suddenly starting to lose time. In the course of less than two weeks it was 450 seconds behind. I've noticed this happening now for the past 2 months or so. It used to be fairly accurate (within a few seconds each month). Anyone know why this might start happening? One thing that is different lately is I leave my PC on a lot more than I used to since I got my cable modem. Could this cause it? My motherboard is an Asus P5-A (Socket 7). Thanks.

 

[Dhawk]

Replace your cmos battery.

 

[Hanpan]

90% of the time this is caused by your battery on your mobo (the one that keeps the clock updatd when your computer is off) is getting old. Simply put a new battery in and you should be find. They are silver and the size tends to vary but most are about the size of a quater maybe a little smaller.

Otherwise it could be a whole slew of things but for the time being it's easiest to assume a dying battery.

 

[Capn]

I heard different things from a bios battery being weak to a bug in windows, mine does the same thing and looses time. Get one of those little apps that updates your clock to an atomic clock somewhere.

 

[ajskydiver]

I had a similar problem...checked the battery and it had a good charge...problem was caused by a faulty contact to the motherboard.

After a month or so, when I shut down I'd have to pull the plug and break the ground to turn it back on...a new MB fixed it.

Good luck.

 

[beefkake]

Is it difficult to replace the CMOS battery? Where would I go about finding such a battery? I've never seen them before in online hardware shops. Also, I haven't noticed a problem losing my CMOS settings, which is generally considered a symptom of a dying battery. Maybe if I let this go that will start happening, or maybe it's not the battery... Thanks.

 

[Barefoot]

If you have at least two fingers, replacing the CMOS battery should be a piece of cake. As far as finding a place to purchase one, you should be able to pick one up at any large store, or any electronics store, such as Radio Shack. My recommendation is to buy name-brand, because even though the Eveready batteries, or whatever cheap brand they have, does not cost as much, the reliability is worth it.

 

[CTweak]

One option is to locate one of the several freeware programs floating around that connect and sycnronize your clock. I'm currently using one called "TClock" which replaces and extends the windows taskbar clock. Sorry I don't have a link, the author's website is gone, but you might still find it one one of the many shareware download sites ...

 

[Yuckysgf]

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