Computers losing time rapidly!

(Not a joke, though the title sounds like one)

Two of the computers in my company are randomly adding on minutes - something near six minutes in the course of a day, even. They're domain controllers, so every other computer in the company needs to be within five minutes of one of the two servers, so this rapid time-gain isn't good for them. Sure, six minutes over the course of a day isn't bad, and correctable, but... why is it happening?

My supervisor thinks it's because of the battery backups they use. I installed a time sync program (World Time) which worked fine, but didnt seem to inititate syncs while the computers were locked - during which they went out of sync again.

Either the battery is dead or the CMOS clock got messed up somehow. Try replacing the motherboard batteries. If that doesn't work, it's a hardware problem.

But they're never turned off, so they use the current to power the clocks, no?

Presumably the batteries should still be alive, too, after two years.

>>1

Are your domain controllers clients of something else, like netware? If so, check THAT servermachine to see if its time is off. I have had that happen.

>>4
Oh, and checlk CMOS anyways, because for some reason, it can still matter, even though it should just be powered by the existing current. Possibly it uses the batteries because the batteries are always being used to prevent even brief voltage dips when cutting power from the powersupply.

CMOS clocks have always been a bit gay.

You'd think that in an age where we can make clocks accurate to billions of years, a cheap computer wouldn't suffer from clock skew. But they do.

>>6 clocks accurate to billions of years
talk about shitty accuracy...
maybe you're thinking accuracy to within "tenths of a nanosecond"?