pc clock sets itself 6 hours ahead on startup

[millhouselives]

hi,

I have a strange problem with 4 different computers, I have done a lot of work trying to figure out this problem so far. The problem is this: The pc clock on all of these computers is always wrong. The date is fine. If I use either the bios settings to set the correct time or I use the control panel, regional settings, etc. to set the time on any one of these four computers the time will only stay correct when they are on. If I do a restart the computer will restart and the times will be correct, but if I do a shutdown and then turn computer back on..the time will be either 5,6, or 7 hours ahead of the correct time.

So far I have checked for viruses, run SpyBot, changed the bios battery and I still have the problem, so far I have done these changes on just one of the computers, figuring that once I fix one, I will have the answer and then I will fix the other three.

Now for some history, this all seems to have started, sometime after we installed McAfee Virus protection on these computers. I have looked at their site but find nothing regarding the virus software screwing up the pc clocks.

The setup for these is computers is this: They are using Wingate as a proxy server on the one computer that is connected to a cable modem (com21) the other three computer then share the Internet conncection and two travel agency software applications for booking vacations, etc.

Now originally the computer running Wingate had a small application called "Precision Time" running on it and it was not correcting the time as designed. What I mean is that if you went in and used "Precision Time" to set the time it would correct it, but the once you did a shutdown and restart the time would again be hours ahead of the correct time. So I uninstalled this software and tried "Atomic Time" and this still did not fix the problem.

I thought that maybe since this computer was the wingate server that if its time was wrong, perhaps the other 3 computers were somehow getting their time from it. So what I did on one of the other computers is that I unplugged its network cable and I still had the time problem on the computer with it unconnected to the network.

On the one computer that I am using to try and fix this problem I have also unchecked all of the McAfee startup items in msconfig and tried shutdown and restart, but time is still ahead by 5, 6, or 7 hours. This is driving me crazy now! I have never seen anything like this in 15 years of working on computers. (except in a novell network, which turn out to be fixable sync issue. Whoever can help me fix this one..will be named Tech of the Year as far as I am concerned! Thanks for any help. They are all running Win98Se, and the computers are all Dell Optiplex GX100's.

 

[mainegeek]

Did you check the time zone?

 

[davidelnormal]

I'm with him (mainegeek). Did you go to Date/Time in control panel and set the correct Time Zone? I know it sounds obvious but did you?..........Dave

 

[millhouselives]

yes, on all the machines, more than once. It is set to
(GMT-5:00)Eastern Time (US & Canada) I am located in the northeast part of the country. Thanks.

 

[mainegeek]

Do you have Digital Dashboard installed on these?

 

[mainegeek]

Also, you might want to try booting in "Safe Mode" and see if the correct time is held. If so, then I would disable
any "third party" system utilities and/or screen savers. Also try disabling the APM in the bios.

 

[millhouselives]

mainegeek,

no, do not have Digital dashboard installed, and have tried the safe mode route and still have the problem. Just to be clear both the original "Precision Time" software and the "Atomic Time" software were installed and tested on one machine only. Both of these programs were uninstalled completely! The time stills shows a gain of either 5,6, or 7 hours on all of the four comuters that I am working on. They are all running Windows98 SE. The amount of time the computers gain is not consistent, sometimes it is 6 hours, other times it may be 7 or 8 hours. I have been working on one of the four computers with its network cable disconnected from it and still have the problem. there are no third party systems utils running and no screen savers, and apm is not on. thanks for the replies

 

[millhouselives]

Just a quick update for all, I have not been able to return to these computers to do some more checking, but will have chance to work on them the week of 3/10 March. Still have problem, but when I find fix or resolution I will post it so everyone can benefit from answer.
thanks,

 

[millhouselives]

Here is the update, I promised. All third party apps., have been disabled. Have tried booting from a clean dos diskette, tried safe mode on all of the computers and the time still comes up anywhere from 3 hours to 7 hours ahead.
What I done in the meantime for a work around is this:
On the computer that acts as the wingate proxy server, I have downloaded "AtomicTime" and put the exe. in the startup folder so that computer checks it's time against some Internet clocks and then sets the computer system time to the correct time. I have it configured to set time and then the "atomictime" programs closes itself. It takes about 10 seconds to do that. On the other three computers, I was not able to do this, because it looks like they can not check Internet clocks because there is no DNS configured on them. I believe wingate hands out IP address to them but they all come back with NO DNS found when I tried to use the "atomicclock" program with them. So reaching back into my DOS day's I went into msconfig and added the "time" command line to the autoexec.bat file so that when those three computer boot up, it asks for the current time and I have instructed the users how to enter the correct time. This way it acts as a reminder for them to set there clock whenever they cold boot. They (owner of the small business has been asked to call their computer support (they lease these machines) and have motherboards replaced on the chance that maybe there is a bios virus lurking on the motherboard bios chip. That's it for now, after motherboard get replaced I will let you all know the results. thanks again for all your help!

 

[millhouselives]

UpDate: Well heres a big clue I think, after I put the "time" command into the autoexec.bat file and then do a cold boot on the computers the dos command shows the current time and the option to enter new time. Well...? the current time is now correct all of the time, so there is no need for the users to enter a corrected time!