[SOLVED] Windows Time is Very Broken (Tried Everything)

[Al3xDG]

Ok, so this is a bit of a doozy, see this has been plaguing my pc for a year now and I have tried pretty much every conventional solution I could find on the interwebs. My time keeps being moved forwards by 2 hours, sometimes by 4, immediately, no this is not time zones messing up before it used to be worse when it also moved me a few months forward. So, let's list the main suggestion, CMOS Battery I have replaced that already, twice, I have tried changing the windows time servers and none helped, in services Windows Time is set to launch Automatically. I have also completely reinstalled windows, apps and files too, and that made it worse (which was about 3 months ago) because it went from being changed to going forward once or twice a week to moving two hours "and a few months" a couple of times per day, in the last couple of weeks the time is still going forwards a couple of times per day but it is only by 2 hours, not months. The main culprit seems to be task scheduler because SynchronizeTime service works fine and I can add triggers to it, but ForceSyncronizeTime is broken because if I try to change something then it comes up with the error "Task Scheduler Service is not available. Task Scheduler will attempt to reconnect to it." I have looked up how to fix this, but all I could find is that you have to uncheck Start only if the following network connection is available but I cannot uncheck it because the error comes up before I can make any changes to it.
This has been screwing up many of my apps like Streamlabs because it causes the software to freeze and it doesn't want to shut down unless I use task manager. The only fix I have is to manually turn "Set time automatically" in settings off and back on every time the time is incorrect. I really need some professional help on this one because this is a very unique big out there and I cannot find any fixes, and I don't know if this is due to software or if my motherboard is broken. Please give any and all suggestions I will try to answer asap

 

[drea.drechsler]

So let's see this may be basic but let's try.... Have you tried the Windows Date and Time settings applet? Can you set it to 'update date and time manually'? can you click 'sync now'? When it sync's (you'll get a spinner and then a check mark when done) is it correct?

Are you using the Microsoft time server (time.windows.com)?

Are you using a network time server? : in a command prompt type 'NET TIME' and what does it say? My system borks on that because I'm not in a domain that provides time services.

I think many if not most motherboards are broken, or at least horrifically inacurate local clocks. The expectation seems to be you'll keep synced with a time server if you want even moderate accuracy.

 

[Al3xDG]

Synchronizing clock, I tried that a while back and it didn't stop the breaking
And I have tried these servers

https://imgur.com/a/xfAdTjD

View: https://imgur.com/a/xfAdTjD

 

[Al3xDG]

I'd say that the most "borked" thing right now is ForceSyncronizeTime being broken in Task Scheduler, because it is the only task which has this issue, I have tried adding triggers and changing conditions for other tasks and they were fine.

 

[drea.drechsler]

I'd say that the most "borked" thing right now is ForceSyncronizeTime being broken in Task Scheduler, because it is the only task which has this issue, I have tried adding triggers and changing conditions for other tasks and they were fine.

So the system date and time in the SysTray is - and stays - correct?

 

[Al3xDG]

No? im not sure what you are asking, the time gets changed and I can see that it happens in the bottom right, it also causes some apps to malfunction

 

[Al3xDG]

if you want, we can message faster using discord and I'm more active there

 

[drea.drechsler]

No...i don't discord or text. I'm neo-luddite

Besides I don't have any ideas beyond, right now, questioning your Windows installation. If it's got serious problems who knows what it could be doing. It's not that hard to mess it up, it's such a house of cards anyway. If it IS in Windows, all I'd suggest is doing a clean re-install. You probably don't want that.

The reason I suspect Windows is that even if your motherboard has a seriously bad clock when Windows runs it's periodic syncs it should get it back to right. It apparently isn't, so there you are!

 

[Al3xDG]

Well you Might be right there because after Doing a Factory reset, the time skipping got worse, but it was a clean install, nothing went bad, so idk

 

[Al3xDG]

So you're saying that the only solution would be another factory reset, or do I just have to keep digging for answers?

 

[drea.drechsler]

So you're saying that the only solution would be another factory reset, or do I just have to keep digging for answers?

I'd take it to a forum a little bit closer to what you are doing. You're working with the Task Scheduler, for instance, so going to a Windows forum active with people doing that may be good. Or just a Windows forum.... www.windows10forums.com is really quite good for these sorts of things. It has quite a few topics and I do believe one on Task Scheduler and as well threads on Time issues in windows.

But the clean install I'd suggest isn't a factory reset. It entails getting the Windows 10 Creation tool and creating an install USB. Then I'd suggest doing a CMOS reset and enable UEFI mode (turn off CSM) in BIOS before booting to the install USB. Let the installer delete and repartion the disk so it creates brand new. That may not be what you want to do, but it's the best way to start fresh.

In turn, restore only files and folders not partition images and definitely not disk images.

 

[Al3xDG]

thanks mate, will check them out

 

[Nemesia]

There was this guy not long ago who had this issue. He found that when he was using his Internet Private Access on Netflix using the Windows netflix client it was changing his windows time. He removed the client from the startup and his issue was gone.

I recommend you close down all the programs you are using and see if the issue persist.

A clean OS install wouldn't hurt. Not a factory reset. A clean install.

 

[Al3xDG]

I don't have anything in my startup file except Task manager, and how would i be able to shut down all of my programmes without everything breaking?

 

[Nemesia]

I don't have anything in my startup file except Task manager, and how would i be able to shut down all of my programmes without everything breaking?

I'm talking about programs you installed that doesn't need to be running right now. List me all the programs you have running. Not all your processes. Only software that was installed by you that are running at the moment.

 

[Al3xDG]

Well thats gonna be a long list, unless you're talking about apps that aren't in the background, thats Discord, Google, Task Manager and Windows Explorer, if you want the 80 background processes i can send screenshots

 

[punkncat]

Where did you get your OS license? Grey market?

I experienced an issue like this on a friend's computer when he got a key from one of "those places". His kept swapping to a UK time zone due to the license originating there. There were other small concerns that kept popping up. Bought a clean license, and the issues resolved.

 

[Al3xDG]

Dont know what grey Market is but I bought it from eBay because the seller had a lot of great reviews, but the problem isn't with time zones (or at least shouldn't be) because the time skips 2-4h and a couple of months ago there was a period when it skipped 4h and 4 months forward

 

[punkncat]

Dont know what grey Market is but I bought it from eBay because the seller had a lot of great reviews, but the problem isn't with time zones (or at least shouldn't be) because the time skips 2-4h and a couple of months ago there was a period when it skipped 4h and 4 months forward

When you bought this grey market key off eBay, did you follow a link they offered for download, or did you get the official download directly from Microsoft and then apply the key you bought?

Most anti virus and such don't work properly if your date and time aren't correct.

My suggestion is to go onto a known good and licensed computer. Use Microsoft USB tool to create yourself a new and official OS install. Go buy a key directly from Microsoft or a well known and licensed retail seller. Fully wipe and reinstall your OS.
I would personally move anything you have on it, personal, into the cloud like Google Drive or One Drive. Their online scanners will check that data to be sure it's clean. I would be wary of moving anything off "this" machine to anywhere to re-load without scanning with a good AV program.

 

[Al3xDG]

I had this issue before I bought a pro version, so the key wouldn't be a problem plus like I said it isn't a time zone issue