System clock is always wrong

[Aolish]

For some reason i can't seem to get a correct system clock. :frown: Everytime i set it, the system clock is wrong the next time i reboot, shutdown my pc for a period of time. 75% of the time its wrong. Is my cmos battery dying? If so anyone know where to purchase one? If my cmos completely dies will my system still be able to boot? any answers is appreciated, thx in advance!

 

[TheOtherMudit]

most probably cmos battery is dying. take the battery out and goto your local walgreen/riteaid/cvs etc.
they have batteries for pda, hearing aid etc. the cmos battery is similar. All my mobos use cr2032 battery
which is quite standard in other devices. i bought 10 cr2032 from fleabay for $4

 

[Aolish]

thx for the reply. its pretty funny... i had remember long ago when i first bought my dreamcast when it first came out i decided to get myself a battery for it. Turns out even after all this time i still have it!!! i checked the specs of the battery and what a surprise, its CR2032 3v. im hopeing my mobo will accept this battery, im gonna check very soon. I just have an additional question tho. Remember i had this battery at the time DC came out so as you can imagine its extremely old! I dont know much about these kinds of batteries but do you think the battery might be still good enough to use, or has it just gone old because of the extreme length of time that passed? its still inside the package, never opened of course. thx for the reply TheOtherMudit!

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Are cmos batteries rechargable? .

 

[Aolish]

*bump*

anyone have an answer?

 

[Promethply]

I encountered similar problem when I OCd my old system, which disappeared when the CPU's running @ default frequency.

 

[Peter]

CMOS batteries have been Lithium cells for ages, not rechargeable.

If the clock goes wrong while the computer is off, then yes, it's the battery.

 

[colincsl]

Does anyone know why my time is always off, but only by 3 minutes. I can set it to the windows time, but it always goes back 3 minutes withing like an hour.

 

[Promethply]

Originally posted by: colincsl
Does anyone know why my time is always off, but only by 3 minutes. I can set it to the windows time, but it always goes back 3 minutes withing like an hour.

Hi, welcome to AT

The main reason (other than CMOS battery) that your comp clock isn't accurate is the motherboard's clock generator:

The mobo's clock generator, often times goes a little bit astray, when the mobo's OCd.

And with bad mobos, even when not OCd.

 

[Peter]

Nothing to do with overclocking. The real time clock's frequency is on its own oscillator, not even in the same chip as all the other clocks.

As I already said, the battery and RTC clock frequency are relevant only while the computer is off. While it's running, the time and date you see are actually maintained purely by software, from the system timer interrupt. The RTC is read only at system boot, and then no more.

 

[cbehnken]

These boards are known for this issue.
My brother has one and it does the same thing.

 

[Sforsyth]

check your Time Zone Setting, I used Ghost once to restore my C: dribe and OS and I forgot to change the time zone and no matter what I did it would keep coming up with the wrong time, I had to redo the HD and OS to get the Time Zone back to normal.