PC Clock not keeping time.

[lciavarella]

I always thought the CMOS battery kept the time, but I have a Dell Optiplex 760 desktop computer that will not keep time and I have replaced CMOS battery. Also, the computer seems to hang every once in a while and I get the spinning wheel. Any suggestions on what to troubleshoot next?

 

[Kitten Kong]

Have you checked the replaced cmos battery to see if it has a full charge of 3.2v?

The cmos does keep the time.

Re the spinning wheel, that could be anything. Have you checked event viewer to see what if anything is causing the hang?

 

[lciavarella]

The replacement battery has the proper voltage. Checking event viewer now.

 

[lciavarella]

Nothing in event viewer so I went to Dell Support and got the lastest BIOS and Chipset drivers. Flashed the BIOS and installed latest Chipset drivers and everything seems to be running much better. I do believe i found the fix.

Thanks
Larry

 

[Kitten Kong]

Good to hear Larry.

Nice to know, it isn't always the cmos battery then. I was under the impression it was that 100% of the time.

 

[Markverhyden]

The CMOS battery keeps the clock running when the machine is turned off. Has nothing to do with the time when the machine is powered up and running.

 

[Moltuae]

I've had a number of PCs with this problem lately. I spent quite a bit of time trying to diagnose it on a couple of them. All seemed to have intermittent Windows Time service issues or the service wouldn't start, refused to sync, etc. I'm beginning to think it may be a compatibility issue with a Windows update and certain hardware, though I'm yet to look into common factors.

As a workaround I've been using this to keep them in sync (works great):
http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/screenshots.htm

 

[DanF]

I've had a particular user who would not be able to log in Windows if the time is set correctly. You would have to set the system's time back to 2002 or so in order for the user to be able to log in.