[IMC-Tech] System time problem

[Zach M]

Any time syncing program that only syncs every 7 days is pretty
worthless. It sounds like you have a bad clock in that computer and to
compensate for it you ought to resync to a network time server several
times per day. A good NTP client keeps constantly in sync with a
network of NTP servers and also tracks local clock drift to adjust for
a bad clock even between updates from the servers. Windows XP's client
doesn't seem to be doing this by default.

You might investigate whether the CMOS battery in your computer needs
to be replaced. Sometimes a low CMOS battery can cause clock drift
problems. If the motherboard is more than 5 years old the battery
might be dying.

I've always found Automachron to be a good useful NTP client (though
it's getting pretty stale since the last version update):
http://www.oneguycoding.com/automachron/

I can't find an obvious answer from google as to how to change the
update interval for windows XP's built in NTP client. I'd suggest
first searching around for a way to tweak that and then if you can't
figure that out searching for a good open source NTP client.

On 8/15/06, Gary Cziko <g-cziko at uiuc.edu> wrote:
> IMC Techies:
>
> The WRFU automation computer (SW corner of production room) keeps moving
> ahead two minutes which is causing problems for our automated operation.
>
> It is an XP machine and I have selected the Date and Time control panel
> option to automatically synchronize using the Internet time server
> time.windows.gov which is apparently does every seven days. I am also able
> to do a manual synchronization, and the time is reset correctly when I do
> this.  But then in a day or so the system time is two minutes fast again.
>
> Any ideas what is going on? Is it perhaps that we have a network time server
> that is off by two minutes which takes priority over the Internet time
> synch? I read in a help file:
> >
> >
> > If your computer is a member of a domain, your computer clock is probably
> synchronized automatically by a network time server. If your computer is not
> a member of a domain, you can synchronize your computer clock with an
> Internet time server.
> I would sure like to solve this problem and get our automation in synch with
> station IDs at the top of each hour rather than two minutes early.
>
> --Gary
>
>
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