Why does my PC keep jumping ahead 2 minutes?

[krispos42]

This has been an ongoing problem. When I have the computer re-synch, the time corrects with no problem, but then the next day or whenever it's 2 minutes ahead again!

This has been going on for years.

I'm running Windows XP SP3 from home.



My work PC is behind by 2 minutes, but that's at least because the company server runs slow for some reason!

[NYC_SKP]

1. I'm thinkin' Worm Hole!

Maybe a time warp (minor, to be sure) somewhere in your vicinity.

May wanna take the PC 312 Km to a point SSW of your current 20, reboot, see if it happens again.

I kid of course.

And good for you for using XP, it's all I use when I'm on a PC, but SP2 IIRC in my case.

[Thor_MN]

5. If it is a time warp, think stock quotes.

Two minutes may not seem like much, but you could make some money with a two minute advantage...

[krispos42]

7. Take my PC to the Jersey Shore?

Nah, I don't like tanning cream in my hard drive...

[ChromeFoundry]

2. Are they both configured to use...

the same time server to sync against? (can find this in control panel)
By default this is 'time.windows.com'

I you logon to a company network, their logon script is probably setting time off of one of their internal logon servers, via a 'NET TIME /SET' command. Or, if their DHCP (auto-assigned ip address) server is sending a flag to set time on connection.. that could be the issue too.

You are probably seeing drift from the corporate servers, or your administrators are not syncing their servers to a verified NTP server.

[krispos42]

8. The work one is synching to the server at work

That one I don't worry about too much.

But mine jumped ahead again. It seems to do it independent of the internet clock. Mine was just now about 3 minutes fast, after I re-synched it with time-nw.nist.gov yesterday. And now I just did it again.

Mine seems to be set to re-synch daily, so something is making it jump ahead.

Is this some sort of virus or something? Indicative of malware, perhaps?

[Make7]

3. You could set it to synchronize to an internet clock every day.

You should be able to change the settings as to what server to sync to in the Date and Time control panel and change the frequency with Task Scheduler by going to Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > Time Synchronization. I think you can modify what is already set up, or you could play it safe and [div class="footer" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; display:inline;"]create a new task.

As to why it drifts in the first place - I think that's obvious, your computer sucks!

[NYC_SKP]

6. My Mac is running OS 10.9 Snow Squatch and syncs to the Cosmic God Clock.

Reads about 8:16 PM right not.

Not that much more accurate than OS 10.8 Honey Badger, to be honest.

[A Little Weird]

4. time

Last edited Tue Jan 29, 2013, 12:26 AM - Edit history (1)

One thing you might try is resetting the time service:
1. Start->Run cmd.exe
2. net stop w32time
3. w32tm.exe /unregister
4. w32tm.exe /register
5. net start w32time

If you get an error, you may have to temporarily disable your firewall or antivirus - just be sure to turn it back on!

Alternatively, it could be a hardware thing. I had some weird time issues and it was just the cmos battery going bad. Replaced it and all was well. But mine was really erratic - sometimes fast, sometimes slow and by different amounts of time. So yours might be something else.

Good luck!