I run Spybot & NoAdware regularly on my winxp pro system. Lateley I get a random boot up problem that resets my system clock. Sometimes the boot up sequence will force me to run setup to reset the time, but other times the system will boot but with the wrong time.

This doesn't happen every boot sequence, and it happens different ways at different times, i.e. whether or not I have to run setup or if the system detects an IDE configuration problem.

I read another post on this forum that seemed similar, but not quite. Does anyone have experience with this problem? I'd be very appreciate of some help.

Thanks,

sf in Corvallis, OR

Hey sf..I will change yur nick as we discussed...tell me more about time lost or gained etc..and what ever other details you can think of..in general...

A PC generates a 'timer interrupt' about 20 times a second, and the
clock is maintained by counting these. Clock rates that run steadily at
a big loss or gain are probably because the motherboard/BIOS and Windows
have different ideas on how often the interrupt happen. Small
variations in this are handled when you use the Internet Time sync -
this notes the error and adjusts the assumed interval accordingly, so
that after a few occasions the clock rate is very near right anyway.

Sometimes (especially with Dell machines) the discrepancy is outside
the range that the time sync will adjust - and you get a large steady
error, like 10 minutes in an hour. If that happens Try these steps:

1. Start->Run cmd.exe
2. net stop w32time
3. w32tm.exe /unregister
4. w32tm.exe /register
5. net start w32time

(note spellings w32tm and w32time in different commands)

If you get short term bad clock rates, there *may* be some rogue program
that is preventing the interrupts being handled. This was common enough
in Win98, but ought not to be possible in XP. If it happens note what
you have running at the time, and see if you can identify a program
doing it. System Utility things like Norton would be main suspects.