Windows clock continually loses time while my PC's switched on

GfB

GfB

GfB

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4 Dec 2015
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I have a baffling problem with my Windows 10 PC. It continually "loses time" - the Windows clock is slow! It loses several minutes per hour.

Every time I sync it with the time servers, the clock jumps forward a bit. The problem only started in the last few days.
I've done some googling for the most likely causes but I'm still stuck...

1. CMOS battery - I could understand my PC losing time *while powered down* due to a dead battery, but would I really lose time *while it's running*? Doesn't the clock run on mains power during use? Further, wouldn't one expect other problems if my CMOS battery was playing up (like losing my BIOS settings)?

2. Malware - this seems exceptionally unlikely, as it's a relatively new fresh installation of Windows 10 with just my essential applications and utilities installed, plus I have run a full scan using Malwarebytes Anti-Malware which found nothing bad.

One final thought - this might be a stupid idea but...

Overclock settings - the one thing I've changed recently is I slightly lowered the 'vcore' voltage setting on my CPU. I could be clutching at straws here, but can this affect a PC's ability to keep the correct time?

(FWIW I'm very rarely doing anything strenuous to my PC. CPU load is usually low.)
 
first thing i would do is replace the battery, its cheap and something that can be done quickly.

never known the time to change while the PC is on as it normally happens once its been off for awhile
 
Which motherboard?

Try disabling HPET in your BIOS if this is an old style bios board. Test without the over-clock active too.
 
Last edited:
ED209 said:
first thing i would do is replace the battery, its cheap and something that can be done quickly.

never known the time to change while the PC is on as it normally happens once its been off for awhile
Click to expand...

I've seen it happen before, change the battery then check back.
 
Wanted to say a belated 'thanks' for the replies.

It looks like the clock problem was probably caused by the overclock/'vcore' setting.

Because that was the last thing I had changed before the Windows clock started playing up, I opted to reduce the overclock one notch and up the voltage slightly.

My PC's clock has been 100% fine since then.

By the way, my motherboard is a Gigabyte X58-USB3.

Thanks all!
 
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