🚀 go-pugleaf

I read somewhere in this newsgroup, in the past,  that the clock can be
affected by installed programs. Someone suggested a long process that would
uncover a potential program interference. You have to close one program at a
time from the running services and see if it fixes it. You try one a day and
see if the clock is still incorrect after the full day. If not try the next
program and do the same. This continues until the "problem" is resolved.
Lenghty = YES..... but it will find what program is causing it. The battery
is only used to store the user adjusted settings for the bios (this includes
the clock) when the power is off. Once powered on the power supply provides
the current to the chip. So, a weak or even dead battery should have no
effect once the OS is active. Hopefully that person (can't remember who..
sorry) will see this and explain in more detail. Good luck!!

ben wrote:

> My pc clock seems to be slowing down by about 6 hours a day!  Has it got
> anything to do with the pc battery. I thought a weak pc battery ( usually
> the coin type) will only show the CMOS message that tells one to reset the
> CMOS.  I have replaced a pc battery before.........in this case. Is there
> another separate clock battery?.......if so how do I replace it?
> 
> Anyone can point me in the right direction?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> 
Two things I know of can do this kind of thing:

(1) low CMOS battery.  When the main power is off there's enough juice 
to keep the RAM, but not to run the clck oscillator - hence it stops 
whenever power is off.
(2) something in the system that masks interrupts for very long times.

6 hours seems a bit short for (1) and much too long for (2) so it must 
be something else!  However, try replacing the CMOS battery.

Andy.



-- 
My real mail is Andy at Champ dash family dot freeserve dot net

The clock could be bad, or the battery could be bad.  The battery runs 
the clock when the power is off.  The same battery is used for the clock 
and CMOS setup data.  Try replacing it.  Sometimes the clock circuits go 
bad, and the only fix is a new motherboard or send it back the mfgr. for 
repair (which normally means that they exchange it).  Kind of like 
replacing a car because a tire has a bad valve stem, but if the clock 
circuit is really bad, there is not much else that you can do.


ben wrote:

>My pc clock seems to be slowing down by about 6 hours a day!  Has it got
>anything to do with the pc battery. I thought a weak pc battery ( usually
>the coin type) will only show the CMOS message that tells one to reset the
>CMOS.  I have replaced a pc battery before.........in this case. Is there
>another separate clock battery?.......if so how do I replace it?
>
>Anyone can point me in the right direction?
>
>Thanks
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  
>

When I ran Windows NT I had this problem.  It is most likely some program
interfering with the clock, easiest way to fix it is use XP that has built
in internet time setting, although your clock will probably be too slow
because that only goes every few days.  Or download one of the free or cheap
programs that do it and have it refresh your clock every 30 minutes.
Because even if you track down the problem, your probably not going to want
to give up the program that is causing it anyway.
"ben" <bennytay@pd.jaring.my> wrote in message
news:ae5bbn$87l$1@news5.jaring.my...
> My pc clock seems to be slowing down by about 6 hours a day!  Has it got
> anything to do with the pc battery. I thought a weak pc battery ( usually
> the coin type) will only show the CMOS message that tells one to reset the
> CMOS.  I have replaced a pc battery before.........in this case. Is there
> another separate clock battery?.......if so how do I replace it?
>
> Anyone can point me in the right direction?
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Masking interrupts -- even forever -- won't slow the clock down in 
exactly the way that you suggest.  The clock chip keeps time completely 
independently of the computer (imagine that it was an RS-232 serial 
external clock -- the only thing that the computer does is read it, and 
occasionally set it, but the clock runs completely independently of the 
computer).  Although it's not an external serial clock, that's 
effectively how it works.

The way that the computer keeps time is that there are two clocks -- the 
actual "clock" ("hardware clock", if you prefer) and a "software clock" 
maintained by the computer (BIOS and/or operating system) only while 
it's running.  The software clock is what you see, what is used for 
date/time stamping, what appears in the system tray.  It's updated by a 
hardware generated interrupt that "ticks" 20 times per second 
(approximately).  If you disable interrupts, you WILL lose time on the 
software clock and it will not "catch up" on it's own when interrupts 
are re-enabled.  HOWEVER, the software clock is reset every time that 
you reboot the computer, so while it would temporarily lose time, it 
would be reset the next time that you started the computer.

If you are losing time over a period of days, assuming that you do 
reboot the computer from time to time, then it's the hardware clock -- 
the real, hardware, battery powered, crystal controlled clock -- that's 
losing time, and this has nothing to do with interrupts being on or off. 
 Turning off interrupts will cause a loss of time, but only until the 
next reset of the computer.  Interrupts will not cause a permanent loss 
of time.


Andy Champ wrote:

> ben wrote:
>
>> My pc clock seems to be slowing down by about 6 hours a day!  Has it got
>> anything to do with the pc battery. I thought a weak pc battery ( 
>> usually
>> the coin type) will only show the CMOS message that tells one to 
>> reset the
>> CMOS.  I have replaced a pc battery before.........in this case. Is 
>> there
>> another separate clock battery?.......if so how do I replace it?
>>
>> Anyone can point me in the right direction?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>
> Two things I know of can do this kind of thing:
>
> (1) low CMOS battery.  When the main power is off there's enough juice 
> to keep the RAM, but not to run the clck oscillator - hence it stops 
> whenever power is off.
> (2) something in the system that masks interrupts for very long times.
>
> 6 hours seems a bit short for (1) and much too long for (2) so it must 
> be something else!  However, try replacing the CMOS battery.
>
> Andy.
>
>
>

Andy Champ wrote:
> 
> ben wrote:
> 
> > My pc clock seems to be slowing down by about 6 hours a day!  Has it got
> > anything to do with the pc battery. I thought a weak pc battery ( usually
> > the coin type) will only show the CMOS message that tells one to reset the
> > CMOS.  I have replaced a pc battery before.........in this case. Is there
> > another separate clock battery?.......if so how do I replace it?
> >
> > Anyone can point me in the right direction?
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> >
> Two things I know of can do this kind of thing:
> 
> (1) low CMOS battery.  When the main power is off there's enough juice
> to keep the RAM, but not to run the clck oscillator - hence it stops
> whenever power is off.
> (2) something in the system that masks interrupts for very long times.
> 
> 6 hours seems a bit short for (1) and much too long for (2) so it must
> be something else!  However, try replacing the CMOS battery.

I think that was eliminated.  However 6 hrs per day is about 25%
of the time, so look for something that disables interrupts for
25% of the time.  The disable length needs to spread over about
two clock ticks per shot, which will only be a few millisecs.

-- 
Chuck F (cbfalconer@yahoo.com) (cbfalconer@worldnet.att.net)
   Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
   <http://cbfalconer.home.att.net>  USE worldnet address!

Barry Watzman wrote:

> Masking interrupts -- even forever -- won't slow the clock down in 
> exactly the way that you suggest.  The clock chip keeps time completely 
> independently of the computer (imagine that it was an RS-232 serial 
> external clock -- the only thing that the computer does is read it, and 
> occasionally set it, but the clock runs completely independently of the 
> computer).  Although it's not an external serial clock, that's 
> effectively how it works.
> 
> The way that the computer keeps time is that there are two clocks -- the 
> actual "clock" ("hardware clock", if you prefer) and a "software clock" 
> maintained by the computer (BIOS and/or operating system) only while 
> it's running.  The software clock is what you see, what is used for 
> date/time stamping, what appears in the system tray.  It's updated by a 
> hardware generated interrupt that "ticks" 20 times per second 
> (approximately).  If you disable interrupts, you WILL lose time on the 
> software clock and it will not "catch up" on it's own when interrupts 
> are re-enabled.  HOWEVER, the software clock is reset every time that 
> you reboot the computer, so while it would temporarily lose time, it 
> would be reset the next time that you started the computer.
> 
> If you are losing time over a period of days, assuming that you do 
> reboot the computer from time to time, then it's the hardware clock -- 
> the real, hardware, battery powered, crystal controlled clock -- that's 
> losing time, and this has nothing to do with interrupts being on or off. 
> Turning off interrupts will cause a loss of time, but only until the 
> next reset of the computer.  Interrupts will not cause a permanent loss 
> of time.
> 
> 
Barry,

(1) it's only 18.2 Hz.  I have no idea why that frequency.
(2) some operating systems have a nasty habit of spotting that the two 
are out of step, and "correcting" the CMOS clock.  I don't recall which 
ones.


Andy.


-- 
My real mail is Andy at Champ dash family dot freeserve dot net