Time always wrong

[TheZek42]

Most of the time when I restart my PC my system time is always put off by a few minutes, usually it's about seven minutes behind, and I have to manually change it, but this time it was correct, so it's intermittent.

Anyone know what could be causing it, and how to fix it?

 

[Math Geek]

check the bios when booting up and see if it is right or not. if not, fix it there and then check again next time you reboot. how ever often that is. if it is wrong again, then it is likely the mobo battery. usually happens with older pc's as the battery dies, but can happen on a newer one for various reasons. simply replace that battery, reset the time in bios and it should be good. (this is the watch battery on the motherboard i am speaking of replacing CR 2032 i believe it is)

that's the easiest and first place i'd look. if this is not the case, then check the time/date settings to be sure it is set to set time automatically. this should get the time from the MS server and not locally to keep it right.

 

[WildCard999]

Try replacing the CMOS battery.
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000239.htm

 

[jsmithepa]

If the battery doesn't do it, THIS worked for me.

 

[metalxchef]

The only problem with the "change the bios battery" answer is that it's presumptuous. I dual boot Windoze/Linux; and my Linux O/s never displays the wrong the time. Ever. Also, my mobo's bios battery is brand new; and the bios time is (also) correct.

Sadly, I've not found a solution - whether I sync with time.nist.gov, time-a.nist.gov, time-b.nist.gov or even time.windows.com, my Windows machine will either boot into the desktop environment with the time set 3 hours ahead; or change while in the active desktop. My Windows machine is also set to the correct time zone (Atlantic).

Setting a cronjob for windows to sync the time is hardly a solution for most end-users (since most people don't even know how to use Windows, let alone set a cronjob).