[vivienne]

Hi

I have a brand new computer (bought a month ago). The clock is running fast. It has gained 7 minutes in four days!! This is according to time.nist.gov internet synchhronization. It did not just start. It has been running fast from the day I bought it.

Aida32 reports:

My motherboard is: Asus A7N8X Deluxe
CPU is: AMD Athlon XP-A, 1833 MHz (5.5 x 333) 2500+
Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce2 SPP
System Memory 1024 MB (DDR SDRAM)

Would anyone know what is causing this problem or how to fix it??

Thanks!

Vivienne

 

[rmay635703]

Hmm, it sounds like someone installed too fast of a crystal for the RTC and FSB clock modulation.
(my pcchips m571 which only supported up to 83mhz fsb I modded with a different RTC crystal for the PLL to support 110mhz fsb but then the clock ran too fast but the system was blazing)

One question is your FSB slightly higher than it should be? You can check by using Aida32 or CPUCool. What I mean is if your FSB is set to say 166mhz in the bios does your chip actually run too fast?

This would indicate to me (if its real important to you) to contact Asus directly as it might be a mistake on their end or even a design flaw.

Cheers

 

[~Candy~]

That's a strange one for me too. I have one user, no matter how many times I reset the clock it ends up EXACTLY 7 minutes off, consistently.......

 

[vivienne]

Hi rmay635703

Hmm, it sounds like someone installed too fast of a crystal for the RTC and FSB clock modulation.

I don't know what that means. Is there a way of checking if this happened?

( One question is your FSB slightly higher than it should be? You can check by using Aida32 or CPUCool. What I mean is if your FSB is set to say 166mhz in the bios does your chip actually run too fast?

Is this what you mean me to check?

Front Side Bus Properties:
Bus Type DEC Alpha EV6
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 167 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 333 MHz
Bandwidth 2666 MB/s

Does this mean it is higher than it should be??

Sorry, I have no idea how to interpret this.

Thanks!!

 

[vivienne]

Hi Candy

That's a strange one for me too. I have one user, no matter how many times I reset the clock it ends up EXACTLY 7 minutes off, consistently.......

Is this something that is important to find the cause of? I did a google search and some were suggesting a *defective* motherboard and were advising RMAs.

Vivienne

 

[~Candy~]

My thinking is along the lines of, if it stays put at being 7 minutes off for the rest of its life, I can live with it.

If you can be without it for the length of time that it takes to RMA it, get another one, and perhaps run into the same problem with the replacement??? Hard call, things SHOULD work when we pay that kind of $ for them, but it's a call only you can make for yourself.....now, if you have a backup computer Then different story

As a side note, it's my hubby's board, and I can sneak into the office prior to his arrival and fix the time every day if I need to rather than have him be without his computer for however long it takes to replace one and put up with his whining so be it

 

[vivienne]

My thinking is along the lines of, if it stays put at being 7 minutes off for the rest of its life, I can live with it.

Mine isn't always consistent. For example it has been 3 days now and it is two minutes fast. I will let it run past the seven minutes and see if it keeps running fast. I would imagine it would. (I do have a backup computer).

Did you see the Aida32 info I posted earlier? Does it tell if it is something that has to do with the settings???

Thanks!!

Vivienne

 

[~Candy~]

I don't read those Aida things well when it comes to FSB, clock speed, etc. Over my head

Initially I had thought that hubby's would keep changing too, but it's been quite a while now, and he's still 7 minutes off. His is slow by the way......and a brand new board too

 

[vivienne]

Hi again

His is slow by the way......and a brand new board too

Slow is different!!! It's fast that is so rare!!! In my Google search, I found very few references to *fast*!!

:-(

 

[~Candy~]

LOL, explain that one to my hubby

The thing I find odd, is that it's consistent........It will be interesting to see if yours sits still at 7 too

 

[rmay635703]

Hmm, that sounds like a design flaw.

PS, the pll is not a simple user replacable part, I had to desolder mine out and attach some wires and other garbly gunk to make it work.

If the company that made the board didn't bother calibrating the timing off the RTC's into the bios or if they used cheap crystals that weren't all the same "speed" that could account for the varience.

Now my talk of crystals and PLLs is all just speak for the
little device that makes your motherboard oscillate back and forth
giving you the MHZ speed you see everywhere, (just like a pendulum clock the oscillator keeps time for your PC)
the crystal (or its digital counterpart) and PLL together produce a very specific frequency depending on how their setup. If the frequency is a little off, your timer will be off, though the system will run fine.

Like I said, if its a big deal (not having the right time) I would contact Asus. Problems like this have always existed but usually the problem was on a low end chinese system where they didn't bother to get the timing for the clock right or didn't bother getting good quality components.

As for your FSB clock from Aida, it looks right on the money, unfortunately we need to see the 1st and 2nd decimal points to detect the 7min variation in a day

Good Luck

 

[vivienne]

Hi rmay635703

Like I said, if its a big deal (not having the right time) I would contact Asus. Problems like this have always existed but usually the problem was on a low end chinese system where they didn't bother to get the timing for the clock right or didn't bother getting good quality components.

It's not a big deal because I can synchronize with nist.gov. If that is all it is!! It's supposed to be a good quality motherboard!! It surprises me that the fault should be in the design. But you may be right. I went on the NForces forum and someone with the same motherboard I had was having the same problem. No one has yet solved it there either!

Thanks very much for your help and explanations. They are most appreciated.

Vivienne

 

[vivienne]

Hi

I took my computer into the shop for another matter and the technician decided to change my bios battery to see if that helps. And it did help!!!

My time now fluctuates between 15 seconds fast and 76 seconds fast.
It must sometimes be going fast and sometimes slow to get this fluctuation. In any case, I believe that this is normal with XP.

Thanks everyone for your help! Candy, I think we can consider this solved?? Thanks again for coming to my assistance!!

Vivienne

 

[~Candy~]

Great! Thanks for the update, although I wasn't much help on this one