Clock gains about 9 minutes per week. X220 Win7

X200, X201, X220 (including equivalent tablet models) and X300, X301 series specific matters only.
Post Reply
Message
Author
StarGehzer
Posts: 33
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 9:00 pm
Location: Toronto Ontario Canada

Clock gains about 9 minutes per week. X220 Win7

#1 Post by StarGehzer » Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:01 am

I've noticed that the clock (bottom right corner of the screen) on my X220 is always running fast.
I have it set to sync with the internet, but I've seen it up to 15 minutes fast.
Whenever I notice it's off, I've gone ahead & manually synced to correct it.
I just adjusted the registry so it will sync daily instead of weekly. Hopefully this will end the problem.
Just thought I'd put this up here in case others have experienced the same problem.
If anyone has an idea for a 'proper' fix, please let me know.

Thanks..

Saucey
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 836
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2012 9:22 pm
Location: San Diego, California
Contact:

Re: Clock gains about 9 minutes per week. X220 Win7

#2 Post by Saucey » Thu Oct 10, 2013 1:23 pm

I've had a strange problem with my desktop, somewhat the same issue, but the clock was 34 minutes faster.
I tried to sync it but it would reset every start up.
Didn't make sense, but I guess I had a bad Win7 update somewhere.
Incompitent(sp?) Electronic Recycler: caffeine addicted, techno blasting, ThinkPad hoarder.

Current: T430s, T431s, Pixel, MC207LL/A
Still around: X61T, A31p, T43p
Past: W700ds, X1C3, 701C, T60p

StarGehzer
Posts: 33
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 9:00 pm
Location: Toronto Ontario Canada

Re: Clock gains about 9 minutes per week. X220 Win7

#3 Post by StarGehzer » Mon Oct 21, 2013 11:11 am

My registry fix didn't help. :( Laptop still gains time & won't correct itself by connecting automatically to one of the internet time clocks.
Between the time I did the registry hack & now (11 days) the computers clock has gained 12 minutes.
Does anyone have a clue what might be happening?

twistero
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 851
Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2012 2:25 am
Location: Princeton, New Jersey
Contact:

Re: Clock gains about 9 minutes per week. X220 Win7

#4 Post by twistero » Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:01 pm

After syncing the time, go into BIOS and check the time there to see whether it is set properly.

Recently I had a similar problem that the system clock would be several hours off after boot. Turns out that a registry hack I was using to set the BIOS clock to UTC (RealTimeIsUniversal) prevents Windows from modifying the BIOS clock after time sync, therefore the correct time is not set in BIOS even though the system clock is synced correctly.
X60 tablet 6363-P3U, 3GB ram, 128GB SanDisk Extreme SSD, SXGA+ screen, Intel 6300
T61 Frankenpad in 15 inch T60 body, UXGA LED-lit AFFS LCD, T9300, 6GB RAM, NVidia NVS140m, Intel 6205, 128GB Crucial M4 SSD, 1TB HGST HDD + eBay caddy in Ultrabay
701c butterfly, 75MHz 486DX4, 40MB ram, 1GB CF card

rkawakami
Admin
Admin
Posts: 10052
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2006 1:26 am
Location: San Jose, CA 95120 USA
Contact:

Re: Clock gains about 9 minutes per week. X220 Win7

#5 Post by rkawakami » Tue Oct 22, 2013 3:00 am

My best guess is that there's two things going on:

1) The real time clock (RTC) on the motherboard is not functioning correctly. The clock is dependent upon the accuracy of an oscillator circuit that is set to a typical value of 32.768Khz. That circuit is based on a crystal and some resistors and capacitors. If any one of those components are out of spec, then the clock will run too fast or too slow. If that's the case, there's not much you can to to easily correct the circuit; there's no "knob" that you can adjust to tune the oscillator to the correct frequency. One could verify this as being the problem by using a frequency counter to measure the oscillator. One other possibility might be to run the PC Doctor for DOS diagnostic as it contains a RTC test module. I believe that there was a version released for the X220 but I don't have the resources at my fingertips at the moment to confirm. The factory would say that in order to fix the problem you would have to change the motherboard.

2) Windows failure to properly set/reset the system time to an internet time server could be due to a number of reasons. With that being said, I use a freely available utility program called DS Clock to keep my systems in sync with eBay time :) . DS Clock can be set to query one of any number of internet time servers as often as every hour. It can also be programmed to float above any window so you can always have the time displayed (in several different time zones if you want). You can get the program here: http://www.dualitysoft.com/dsclock/
Ray Kawakami
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “ThinkPad X200/201/220 and X300/301 Series”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests