19 replies to this topic

[Wakers]

Can someone help me out here? When I turned my PC on at 0907 this morning, Windows said the time was 0038 (which is probably the time that I turned the PC off). Whenever I boot into Windows 8, the time is wrong. If the computer sleeps for a while, the time will again be wrong. If I update it via the sync option in Windows, the time is corrected and stays correct until I shut down the PC.

The time is correct in the BIOS (and is always correct) and it's a new motherboard (less than 2 months old).

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.2.9200]
© 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Ian>C:\Windows\system32\w32tm /tz
Time zone: Current:TIME_ZONE_ID_STANDARD Bias: -60min (UTC=LocalTime+Bias)
[Standard Name:"Central Europe Standard Time" Bias:0min Date:(M:10 D:5 DoW:0)]

[Daylight Name:"Central Europe Summer Time" Bias:-60min Date:(M:3 D:5 DoW:0)]

C:\Users\Ian>

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[+BudMan]

So again - when you say you turned on your pc this morning. Was it from a cold OFF state - or was it in standby/hibernate/hybrid?

You do mention "If the computer sleeps for a while"

I am going to guess you were is some standby sort of thing - have seen such issues in that case, but never from a full off state.

Is your bios in UTC time or local? Have you set
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation\RealTimeIsUniversal

[Wakers]

I think I've caused a bit of confusion.

It happens from a fully OFF state. Yesterday it happened after the computer had gone into sleep for 3 hours while we were out. It hasn't happened today though, despite the computer being in sleep for a similar duration.

The time in BIOS is set to local. I'll check the registry entry.

UPDATE:

Regarding registry entry, I don't have that key. I can get all the way down to TimeZoneInformation, but there's no sub folder called RealTimeIsUniversal, nor is there a key with that name within TimeZoneInformation.

[+BudMan]

You have to create the key if your bios is in UTC - but since your local you don't need that key.

Never seen it from OFF state - OS should grab its time from bios on boot. So if your bios is correct, and your OS is booting from cold off it makes no sense that the clock would not be current upon boot. It being the time that it was put into standby/hibernate makes some sense - but OFF no.

you sure it didn't go into some standby mode vs OFF?

Turn it off - note time, leave it off for say 15 or so minutes - turn it on. Is the time correct or 15 minutes off?

[Wakers]

I'm going out again now so I'll do just that.

It's definitely off (Alt + F4, select Shut Down, click OK) and the BIOS clock is definitely correct and in local time. I'll post back later.

I have also tried setting the time server manually to one here in Switzerland to see if that fixes the problem.

[Wakers]

So when I turned the PC on again, it had the same time as when I shut it down.

I might just replace the CMOS battery to rule it out. Have to find one first, though.

[King Mustard]

Wakers, on 29 October 2012 - 20:36, said:

So when I turned the PC on again, it had the same time as when I shut it down.

I might just replace the CMOS battery to rule it out. Have to find one first, though.

Yeah, I would try changing the CMOS battery if you can. You never need to mess with the registry to adjust the time.

[+BudMan]

If it was cmos battery when you went into the bios your time and date would be like 1980 or something. And then even then it should only happen if you lost power to the box, and relied on cmos battery to keep your rtc current.

It is NOT your cmos batter that is for sure. As to what the problem is - not sure. So when you turned it on, you watched it go through bios post and everything - your 100% sure it wasn't coming out of standby or hibernate or some hybrid state?

if your time is not updated when you turn off and then back on - I have to assume your bios clock is not being read by the OS for some reason... Why I have no idea.. Does your MB actually support Windows 8? What computer is this on, what specific MB and bios version?

If when you boot your computer your time is the same as when it was turned off - that tells me its not reading the RTC that is used to keep time while the OS is not booted. So that when it boots it can get the time - you state that your bios is time is correct?

Maybe this is NOT the case?? Turn your computer off, wait say 15 minutes. Pull the plug on the power even. Now before booting in to any OS go directly into the bios - is the time and date correct? If so then your RTC and cmos battery are fine. And something in the OS is not reading this when it boots up.

[Wakers]

100% sure it did not come out of any hibernate or hybrid state.

The mobo is an ASRocks Extreme 4M. I don't know the BIOS version, I'll check it shortly.

Something I noticed that I should have noticed before - the BIOS clock has the correct time when I boot the computer (I left it off for five minutes before turning back on) BUT - as soon as I get into BIOS, the BIOS time is stuck. Which to me says that it's a battery issue, however it's a very weird representation of it. If I reboot and get back into the BIOS, the clock has advanced by several seconds but once again does not update.

What do you make of that?

[+BudMan]

What it does not update in real time while your looking at it? That seems odd, but different Bioses do it different. Some don't always update like clock on the wall, etc.

How it is being stuck - while plugged into the WALL power a battery issue? cmos Battery is only used if there is NO WALL Power.. It does not run off the battery when there is wall power.

I can count on 1 hand the number of times I have had to replace a cmos battery - And those were OLD AS THE HILLs machines.. And clearly simple enough to see the problem. Laptop - pull the main battery, and then replace and boot and date was 1980.

**** I had an old P3 800mhz box that was 10 years old or something, and it was still working fine with cmos battery.

If the box does not loose wall power, you could run on a dead cmos would not matter. Shoot most of them these days are soldered in place and would be a PITA to replace.

I had a OLD OLD Machine one time, either a 286 or even an 8086 that had to replace the cmos battery with a couple of AA batteries - bought a case and soldered on the leads because they didn't make the batteries, etc. That was ages ago.

If you cmos batter was dead - pull the plug from the wall and then turn the computer back on and you would know -- because your date would be reset. If it doesn't do that then your cmos battery is not the problem.

Now could you have an issue with your MB or RTC on it - sure anything is possible. Strange - but possible. Put windows 7 back on it - do you have the same issue?

[Wakers]

Yea, it's a desktop so obviously it's always plugged into a wall socket? Was that what you were asking?

The BIOS clock does not update in real time.

I would have thought that if it were a battery issue, the BIOS time would not update at all, and also the date would be wrong?

There is a beta BIOS out for the mobo that specifically mentions support for Windows 8, so I'm thinking of trying that. BUT, an important question is, if the CMOS battery is flakey, will that cause a high chance of the BIOS flash failing and bricking the motherboard?

[+BudMan]

How old is this machine - is it 5+ years? 10 even?

Again your computer is connected to constant power through the wall socket - is it not?? Then again the cmos battery does not come into play.

If there is a bios update that mentions windows 8, I highly doubt your board is anywhere close to having an issue with cmos battery in the first place - they last years and years and years!! They do pretty much nothing these days other than keep the clock running when there is no wall power. They don't store bios info anymore, and have not for years. This is stored in a different type of flash now, not the old school "CMOS RAM" of yesteryear.

Again you could run without it even - the only pain with that would be that if you removed power from your computer then the date and time would reset to like jan 1, 1980. If you not resetting back to some date in the past when you remove power from your computer then there is nothing wrong with your cmos battery.

Run your bios update - do you have a link to this? Does it give details of what it fixes or allows for?

[Tyler R.]

Replace your CMOS battery. I know some say it won't help, but there's no risk in trying it. Was it fine before you you updated to the beta bios?

[Wakers]

So to update.

@ Budman - the machine is newly built, it's not two months old.

Last night things took a turn for the worse - I needed to restart the computer for updates and then it just would no longer boot. I was getting "required device not found" and then sometimes a Windows boot manager error. I had to go into the BIOS and tell it to boot from the SSD (which it should have been doing anyway) in order for it to boot. Each time I restarted, I had to forceably tell it to boot from the SSD, despite it being the 1st in the boot sequence list.

So today I went out and got a new CMOS battery anyway. It's a cheap thing to replace if it saves me sending the motherboard back and being without a PC for a couple of weeks. I installed it - lo and behold! The BIOS clock now actually counts the seconds. The time in Windows is correct and stays correct, the boot errors disappear and my wireless adapter no longer randomly disables itself (I didn't know that was related but apparently it was!)

So, all fixed. It was the CMOS battery. I've had a look at the old one, it doesn't appear to have leaked, it just seems to have lost its charge.

[Shane Nokes]

I can't count the number of times I've seen this happen and had to argue it was the battery, but no one would listen.

Glad you were able to fix it.