System clock loses time like crazy.

[Stereodude]

The system clock on my server loses time like crazy. It's always behind. It's a lot worse in XP x64 than it was in XP x86 (32-bit). Any ideas on what could be causing this? It seems like heavy disk I/O causes it to get worse.

Just to give you an example the system is set to sync to time.windows.com every 12 hours and it was off by 16 minutes this morning. Short of setting it to sync the clock every 5 minutes, how do I fix it?

 

[LunarMist]

Have you replaced the CMOS battery yet?

 

[Stereodude]

Have you replaced the CMOS battery yet?

No, why would that matter? The system is powered on all the time. I thought the battery was only used when the computer doesn't have power.

 

[Mercutio]

If the machine runs all the time, the battery doesn't get used and loses its ability to hold a charge, I think.

Some of my machines do that, too.

 

[Stereodude]

I'll have to check the motherboard, but I think it has a non rechargeable battery.

This wouldn't be much of a concern, but this machine also records broadcast HDTV that I watch, so the clock needs to be right. My current plan is to have the clock sync every 30 minutes on 27 and 57 since my recording start either on 28 or 58.

 

[ddrueding]

If it's slow you should sync a couple minutes earlier, or you may "skip" your start time altogether.

 

[Stereodude]

Yeah, I thought about that too. I should probably sync at 25 and 55 and let my recording overhang by at least 2 minutes either way.

 

[Stereodude]

My biggest problem as I see it now is that often the sync to time.windows.com or time.nist.gov fails.

I've switched it to pool.ntp.org. Hopefully that works better.

 

[sechs]

No, why would that matter? The system is powered on all the time. I thought the battery was only used when the computer doesn't have power.

If the computer is on all of the time, then the battery isn't the problem. Windows keeps time using interrupts. It syncs to the system clock, however.

Do you have appropriate processor and chipset drivers installed? Does the computer lose time when off?

 

[Stereodude]

Do you have appropriate processor and chipset drivers installed?

Yeah.

Does the computer lose time when off?

I'm not sure.

 

[sechs]

If you lose time when off, then it's probably the clock itself at fault and probably not worth fixing.