Vista - so this windows clock... is it ever correct?

its always off by a few minutes... it gets annoying

Depends on your hardware, which is where the clock chip is, and if the
button battery is getting old. Depends on your software, whether you've set
it up to sync with an atomic clock, and if so, which one and how often.

If that's all good, I'd wonder how accurate your reference time is...

Dana Cline - MCE MVP

"Steve" <Steve@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C3AFE1B2-BAE1-4C54-9848-821E194EC291@microsoft.com...
> its always off by a few minutes... it gets annoying

Dear Dana

We have a number of machines here running XP and Vista, ironically all the
XP machines are 2 minutes ahead of the Vista machines. One of our Vista
machines had XP which we then clean installed Vista and even that is 2
minutes slower than XP.

Something we have to live with, Vista otherwise IMO is far better than XP.

Regards
Stuart

"Dana Cline - MVP" <dcline@scriptpro.com> wrote in message
news:%23E9ygginHHA.3872@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Depends on your hardware, which is where the clock chip is, and if the
> button battery is getting old. Depends on your software, whether you've
> set it up to sync with an atomic clock, and if so, which one and how
> often.
>
> If that's all good, I'd wonder how accurate your reference time is...
>
> Dana Cline - MCE MVP
>
> "Steve" <Steve@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:C3AFE1B2-BAE1-4C54-9848-821E194EC291@microsoft.com...
>> its always off by a few minutes... it gets annoying
>
>

On Thu, 24 May 2007 09:29:01 -0700, Steve wrote:

> its always off by a few minutes... it gets annoying

How about 'ntp'?

On Thu, 24 May 2007 18:44:21 +0100, "Stuart Forshaw"
<stuart@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Dear Dana
>
>We have a number of machines here running XP and Vista, ironically all the
>XP machines are 2 minutes ahead of the Vista machines. One of our Vista
>machines had XP which we then clean installed Vista and even that is 2
>minutes slower than XP.
>
>Something we have to live with, Vista otherwise IMO is far better than XP.
>
>Regards
>Stuart

I noticed a slow system clock too. I just reset mine a couple says ago
and already it is two minutes slow again... and yes I have a fresh
battery installed, so go figure.

"Adam Albright" <AA@ABC.net> wrote in message
newsvob53dkoopmctf47bjudmheleout6fmv3@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 24 May 2007 18:44:21 +0100, "Stuart Forshaw"
> <stuart@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
>>Dear Dana
>>
>>We have a number of machines here running XP and Vista, ironically all the
>>XP machines are 2 minutes ahead of the Vista machines. One of our Vista
>>machines had XP which we then clean installed Vista and even that is 2
>>minutes slower than XP.
>>
>>Something we have to live with, Vista otherwise IMO is far better than XP.
>>
>>Regards
>>Stuart
>
> I noticed a slow system clock too. I just reset mine a couple says ago
> and already it is two minutes slow again... and yes I have a fresh
> battery installed, so go figure.
>
>


You may find that the standard ntp servers are not working. I looked at UK
servers that are close to me, and found that uk.pool.ntp.org works very fast
and reliably for me.

ss.

follow up.. my computer was brand new, called toshiba and they told me to
exchange it in store.... so i did.

same problem.

i notice if i sinc then click on the time so it brings up the picture of the
clock it stays exact... but while its down in the bottom right corner it is a
couple seconds slow per minute... which over the course of a day ends up
being 10-20 minutes...

Yes, 10-20 minutes a day is way too much drift even for the cheap clocks
in PC's. Take it back and get one that can keep time better.

BTW, Vista provides for syncing with atomic clocks via NTP (I use the
NIST clock) but I haven't been able to find a way to make it sync more
often than about once per week. That's not enough to prevent a drift of
several seconds which is aggravating in my applications that depend on
accurate time.

I've put in third party software that allows syncing at any interval one
wants (About Time, freeware). But it seems like Vista should allow you
to set how often it updates the clock...and once per week is plainly not
often enough.

Anyone know how to make Vista do this or is it hard-coded in the design?


On Thu, 24 May 2007 16:13:03 -0700, Steve
<Steve@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>follow up.. my computer was brand new, called toshiba and they told me to
>exchange it in store.... so i did.
>
>same problem.
>
>i notice if i sinc then click on the time so it brings up the picture of the
>clock it stays exact... but while its down in the bottom right corner it is a
>couple seconds slow per minute... which over the course of a day ends up
>being 10-20 minutes...

"John Wesley Asquith" <john_asquith6@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:j2sc53tj1b4lkv88qi432ml42afc4ccog0@4ax.com...
> Yes, 10-20 minutes a day is way too much drift even for the cheap clocks
> in PC's. Take it back and get one that can keep time better.
>
> BTW, Vista provides for syncing with atomic clocks via NTP (I use the
> NIST clock) but I haven't been able to find a way to make it sync more
> often than about once per week. That's not enough to prevent a drift of
> several seconds which is aggravating in my applications that depend on
> accurate time.
>
> I've put in third party software that allows syncing at any interval one
> wants (About Time, freeware). But it seems like Vista should allow you
> to set how often it updates the clock...and once per week is plainly not
> often enough.
>
> Anyone know how to make Vista do this or is it hard-coded in the design?
>

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...s3wts.mspx#EOE

Read the bit in the middle about editing the "UpdateInterval" key in the
registry.

It's valid for Vista as well as Win2003 Server.


ss.

You can change the interval as per the bottom of this page
http://www.worldtimeserver.com/atomic-clock/




"John Wesley Asquith" <john_asquith6@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:j2sc53tj1b4lkv88qi432ml42afc4ccog0@4ax.com...
> Yes, 10-20 minutes a day is way too much drift even for the cheap clocks
> in PC's. Take it back and get one that can keep time better.
>
> BTW, Vista provides for syncing with atomic clocks via NTP (I use the
> NIST clock) but I haven't been able to find a way to make it sync more
> often than about once per week. That's not enough to prevent a drift of
> several seconds which is aggravating in my applications that depend on
> accurate time.
>
> I've put in third party software that allows syncing at any interval one
> wants (About Time, freeware). But it seems like Vista should allow you
> to set how often it updates the clock...and once per week is plainly not
> often enough.
>
> Anyone know how to make Vista do this or is it hard-coded in the design?
>
>
> On Thu, 24 May 2007 16:13:03 -0700, Steve
> <Steve@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
>>follow up.. my computer was brand new, called toshiba and they told me to
>>exchange it in store.... so i did.
>>
>>same problem.
>>
>>i notice if i sinc then click on the time so it brings up the picture of
>>the
>>clock it stays exact... but while its down in the bottom right corner it
>>is a
>>couple seconds slow per minute... which over the course of a day ends up
>>being 10-20 minutes...
>