One is lacking synchronicity . . .

[Loose rivets]

. . . though things still go wrong if I tell the clock not to lock on to windows or the other time sources. Seems to run okay for a few hours, then go bizarrely wrong.

I reset it and it's okay for a while.


It's as though it is being affected by another time pulse. Any ideas?


Win 7 Home Premium on aging HP PC.

[mixture]

Make sure you have a good backup of your registry, and then try changing the SpecialPollInterval setting.

See here for more detail.

[Bushfiva]

aging

Clokke batterye going doolally between reboots?

[Milo Minderbinder]

concur
flat CMOS battery
Usually a CR2032

[Loose rivets]

I thought it was odd how long the interval was. But that would only buy a fix for the problem if the battery is finished. It has every right to be.

I'll check it later today, while doing the wife's watch battery. Pity they're not the same size, Ama-zon insist upon one buying 5 at a time. Handy service, but the free delivery we get means profligate use of fuel for small items.

[Mike-Bracknell]

Here's my old NTP synchronising registry snippet.

Cut and paste this into notepad and save it with a .reg extension (not .reg.txt). If you do it right you'll see the icon change to what looks like a blue rubik's cube. Double-click it and choose to merge it into the registry, and next time you reboot (or restart the windows time service) you'll get time synched to GMT.

Code:

 Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config]
"MaxNegPhaseCorrection"=dword:00001c20
"MaxPosPhaseCorrection"=dword:00001c20
"AnnounceFlags"=dword:00000005

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters]
"NtpServer"="0.uk.pool.ntp.org,0x1 1.uk.pool.ntp.org,0x1 2.uk.pool.ntp.org,0x1"
"Type"="NTP"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient]
"SpecialPollInterval"=dword:00000384

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpServer]
"Enabled"=dword:00000001

[Mike-Bracknell]

Originally Posted by Loose rivets

I thought it was odd how long the interval was. But that would only buy a fix for the problem if the battery is finished. It has every right to be.

I'll check it later today, while doing the wife's watch battery. Pity they're not the same size, Ama-zon insist upon one buying 5 at a time. Handy service, but the free delivery we get means profligate use of fuel for small items.

Most CMOS batteries are CR2032 batteries - they look like a 10p piece.

Strange you haven't lost the drive config information as well as the time.

[Saab Dastard]

Strange you haven't lost the drive config information as well as the time.

Not really - most, if not all, modern PCs no longer store BIOS information in memory that requires battery backing. In the vast majority of cases (pun intended), the battery is there solely to power the RTC, while the BIOS and associated configuration data is held in flash RAM.

"NtpServer"="0.uk.pool.ntp.org,0x1 1.uk.pool.ntp.org,0x1 2.uk.pool.ntp.org,0x1" "Type"="NTP"

You just need uk.pool.ntp.org - it automatically contacts the first available server in the pool (that's the whole point of the pool).

Also, I'd be rather wary of changing the SpecialPollInterval to 384 seconds - the default for standalone PCs is a week! Domain members is one hour - time accuracy is more important in a Kerberos environment. I wouldn't bother re-syncing a standalone PC more than once a day (14400 seconds).

SD

[Milo Minderbinder]

I wouldn't buy the batteries from Amazun
I get mine from the local pound shop - around a quid from a strip of ten
PCWorld used to sell them at £7 each.....

[mixture]

I get mine from the local pound shop - around a quid from a strip of ten

You can get them for a quid for a strip of ten with free delivery at amazon too, with the added benefit of not needing to visit a ghastly pound shop.

[Loose rivets]

Quite so. I'll pop back to to Jim's, on Walton on the Naze high street. If they let me do my old trick of going over Lake Erie, it's only 5,100 miles.

EDIT: missed a beat there. Yep, here, Amazon is tops, because there are no really neat shops. None. It's just like Mexico, but with more cars for sale.

The thing is, are those mass-produced batteries trustworthy? Not in the electrickery that comes out of them, but the ooze and general essence one gets from such devices. I have a feeling the Chinese mix ooze in with a lot of things they make. Smoke as well, come to that. Mind you, I suspect a lot of brand names come from the same place.

I fear my karma is not repaired. One feels compelled to write about Karma, but I'll do it on JB. However, computing will have to wait for a while - thanks for the help, and I'll get back to this shortly.

[Milo Minderbinder]

how can you tell what you're buying?
theres so much cheap fakery going on..... the ones I get are labelled as Maxcell or GP but are they really?
Whatever, they work OK

[vulcanised]

I think the critical thing is, how old are they?

IIRC they have a claimed shelf life of 10 years. If you get stuck with some elderly ones you might have to replace them every few months.

[mixture]

how can you tell what you're buying?
theres so much cheap fakery going on..... the ones I get are labelled as Maxcell or GP but are they really?

Says the man who buys his batteries from a pound shop where profit margins are inherently limited and so the company's buyers look for the cheapest stuff they can get their hands on.

[Mike-Bracknell]

Originally Posted by Saab Dastard

You just need uk.pool.ntp.org - it automatically contacts the first available server in the pool (that's the whole point of the pool).

Also, I'd be rather wary of changing the SpecialPollInterval to 384 seconds - the default for standalone PCs is a week! Domain members is one hour - time accuracy is more important in a Kerberos environment. I wouldn't bother re-syncing a standalone PC more than once a day (14400 seconds).

SD

I admit (as I said it was old anyway) that it's just a cut&paste from a registry snippet I apply to the PDC emulator usually. The 3 NTP servers specifically noted is due to Windows sometimes failing over on a failed network packet and hence the 3 entries. The 0, 1, and 2 are periodically rotated by the ntp.org project as well.

[Saab Dastard]

a registry snippet I apply to the PDC emulator usually

Bear in mond that the PDC emulator is - by default - the primary time source in a Windows 200x domain, and must therefore be treated quite differently to other servers and PCs.

Probably not appropriate to present it here as a registry change for standalone PCs - which it is reasonable to assume is the target here.

SD

[Mike-Bracknell]

Originally Posted by Saab Dastard

Bear in mond that the PDC emulator is - by default - the primary time source in a Windows 200x domain, and must therefore be treated quite differently to other servers and PCs.

Probably not appropriate to present it here as a registry change for standalone PCs - which it is reasonable to assume is the target here.

SD

Standalone PCs will be fine with the registry change with the one exception being if they are subsequently added to a domain. Aside from this eventuality, the change is benign for standalones, and even if the machine were added to a domain the only issue would be time going out of sync with the PDC by more than 5 mins for kerberos. However, with that said, it is not recommended to synchronise more than the PDC emulator within a domain.

[Carbon Bootprint]

I will second the earlier cautions about buying batteries in quantity from Amazon. It certainly looks like a good deal, but in my experience the button batteries I've received have varied from fresh to quite aged, with a number of failures right out of the package (sometimes while the package itself literally fell apart). Others, while not tested immediately, didn't work when called to duty a few months later (though others did).

If you're only taking care of your own machine and not a bunch of them, it's best to get a battery fresh from an electronics shop (or even a watch shop, even though that's not a popular size for watches) and just consider it a one-off.

[Loose rivets]

Well, there is a Radio Shack within 15 miles. With luck, someone in there will speak English. Without doubt, I will be assured the product is insured against storm and tempest, and if anything goes wrong, I'll be, at least, a millionaire.

Well, that was the deal for the squid-like thing I plug my telly mains and aerial into.

I want batteries for my Phillips shaver. England. Rapid Electronics. On the doorstep at 08, sparrows. Here? Mmmm.

But, I do have my AVO 8 here, so I can test them when they arrive. It was old when he was a nipper. Now his son is bigger than me and the AVO goes on. But, multi-meters can be purchased here in Texas for $1.45 with battery. And that's not a mistake. Yes, they come from China. And yes, they're spot-on accurate.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ctronics-1.jpg