Time

[Jimg]

Anyone else having trouble with their computer's clock?  I noticed it was off an hour just after noon today.  When I run an update to an atomic clock, it sets the time as if we were back on standard time.  If it had happened yesterday, it would have made some kind of sense, but it happened today at noon. ?? 
I know microsoft has some kind of update for the change in date when daylight savings time is no longer in effect, but when I went to download it, it wanted a never ending stream of validations and crap.  I aborted when it insisted on installing a plugin to my browser.  Is there some other program that fixes this problem that isn't so ....


Windows XP sp2  ,  Pacific time zone (Oregon)

[Mark Jones]

Jim, I found my PC's CMOS backup battery is shot. If I shut down the PC for more than a few minutes, the time and date are lost and I have to re-synchronize the time.

The time servers that Windows come setup to use are likely very busy... it might behoof those talented among us to search for less-popular time servers. :-)

[Jimg]

Hi Mark-
I was having that problem about two months ago and so replaced my battery then to fix the problem.

I normally use "About Time" to synchronize with clock.psu.edu, my favorite, but get the same results with NASA, NIST, and the U.S. Naval Observatory.  I also tried another synchronizer, "TimeRC".  When I try to update with the built in Windows synchronizer, I get the error-
"An error occurred getting the status of the last synchronization. Element not found."
but I don't care, I use the other synchronizer as I said.

Normally, last weekend would have been the change from daylight to standard time before the politicians screwed around.  Is this date hard-coded in the synchronizers somewhere, or is it a function of the system (windows), or the bios?  I've never really worried about this stuff before.  Like I said, I tried to get the windows update for this problem, but was totally frustrated in my efforts.

[Mark Jones]

Actually, my PC clock set itself back one hour late last night. Interesting...

Hmm... politicians? Or hackers? (Or a combination of the two?) :lol

[Tedd]

There's a different date 'trigger' for each individual time zone - so it's a function of the time zone you've selected for your system (Date and Time properties.)

[P1]

I came to the conclusion it's the new daylight savings time changes too.

Seeing that in three days, it will not be an issue. 

But maybe it may take M$, how long to catch up?

Oh, well.  Thanks to M$ for job security.

Regards,  P1   :8)

[GregL]

It is the new Daylight Saving Time Rules for the U.S. that are effecting you guys. Applying the update is the best way to deal with it. Even though 2007 DST is over with, it will effect historical date values and you have 2008 and following years to deal with. The update also adds new 'Dynamic DST' registry keys. Just do it.

Note: Vista has the updates built in.

Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center

Unofficial Windows 2000 Daylight Saving Time Patch

I used the unofficial patch on a Windows 2000 system and it worked perfectly. It adds the new 'Dynamic DST' registry keys too.

[Jimg]

Thanks for the patch, Greg.  I wasn't about to let microsoft update my machine again, the last time it took me two weeks to get it working right again.

[GregL]

Jimq,

I should have added the unofficial patch works for Windows NT, 2003 and XP too. I only used it for Windows 2000 because Microsoft is charging big bucks for a Windows 2000 patch  :tdown  (support has expired for Windows 2000). I understand about the Microsoft updates, I haven't gotten to that point yet.

[hutch--]

My win2000 sp4 has always done the daylight saving changes automatically, come to think of it win98se did as well.

[Rockoon]

Some standards committee has changed the official date WHEN it is supposed to happen in some countries, hence its actualy a terrible thing that an OS does it automatically if said OS is not going to be regularly patched....

So you folks running really old OS's, or those unwilling to update the more modern ones, should probably turn the feature off and be done with it.

[GregL]

Hutch,

Beginning in 2007, daylight saving time (DST) will be extended in the United States. DST will start on March 11, 2007, which is three weeks earlier than usual, and it will end on November 4, 2007, which is one week later than usual (more details on the new DST start and end times can be found here). This results in a new DST period that is four weeks longer than in previous years.

If you don't apply the patch, Windows uses the old dates for DST in the effected time zones.

Canada chose to follow the U.S. change, in regions where DST is observed.


Rockoon,

It's just a registry modification.

[donkey]

Jimq,

I should have added the unofficial patch works for Windows NT, 2003 and XP too. I only used it for Windows 2000 because Microsoft is charging big bucks for a Windows 2000 patch  :tdown  (support has expired for Windows 2000). I understand about the Microsoft updates, I haven't gotten to that point yet.

Umm, tzedit is available for free from Microsoft and has been for quite a few years, worked fine for me. Not sure what patch you're talking about...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914387

http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/8/a/58a208b7-7dc7-4bc7-8357-28e29cdac52f/tzedit.exe

[GregL]

tzedit works too.

Not sure what patch you're talking about...

See the links in my first post here.