W500 System Clock Changes Time => Needs CMOS Battery?

[Emery0323]

My work-issued W500 type 4061 has suddenly started changing the system clock time randomly as of this morning.
I go back and re-set it to the correct time, and the problem recurs within an hour or two.

It has never done this before. Just to make sure there isn't some strange server synchronization issue, I disabled Daylight savings time, and disabled NIST synchronization, but the problem remains.

A quick google search suggests that this is the CMOS battery that powers the BIOS clock. The FRU listed in the
w500 manual online is 02K6572. I check Ebay, several are offered at widely varying prices. (I wonder if some of these replacements are counterfeit?)

This computer is less than two years old, I've had several thinkpads over the years and never had to replace a CMOS battery.

Has anybody else had this problem? I did a search and did not get any hits in the W5x0/W7x0 Series postings.
The machine seems awfully young to require a new CMOS battery.

[rkawakami]

This recent thread about a T60 having a similar issue with the clock may be helpful: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=98522

If you have recently updated the BIOS, then this could explain the problem. For the record, what are the revision levels of the BIOS and Embedded Controller in your system?

[Emery0323]

Hi Thanks for your reply.

Here's the information on the BIOS:

System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10 GenuineIntel ~2526 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date LENOVO 6FET84WW (3.14 ), 5/28/2010
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)"

I'm not sure how to look up the embedded controller Rev.#, but here's what was in msinfo32 dump:

Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Embedded Controller Yes SYSTEM 5.1.2535.0 7/1/2001 Microsoft
acpi.inf Not Available ACPI\PNP0C09\0

[awolfe63]

It would be really surprising if the CMOS battery is dead. 10-15 years is typical on late model thinkpads. I would look for SW problems - either a virus or a bad timeserver setting.

[Emery0323]

It would be really surprising if the CMOS battery is dead. 10-15 years is typical on late model thinkpads. I would look for SW problems - either a virus or a bad timeserver setting.

That was my initial take as well - too new for the CMOS battery to go bad. Interestingly enough, our Company Email server went down late last night and is still not back up. Ever since the Email outage, the erratoc time-changing problem has not returned. Some test Emails I sent to myself yesterday had timestamps off by an hour.