3 Reasons Why Your Windows Computer Clock Loses Its Time

There are many things that most people take for granted. One of them is that clocks always show the current time. When you tend to rely on your computer’s time and your computer clock loses time, this can be fatal.

There are several situations where the Windows clock starts showing the wrong time. If you’re obsessed with having the exact time on your computer no matter what, you may want to set up synchronization with a remote server. Before you do that however, please note that an inaccurate Windows clock should not be taken lightly.

If the computer clock loses time although you keep fixing it, there may be a serious cause. This article shows you what the underlying causes may be and how you can fix them.

1. CMOS Battery
This is the most likely scenario, especially if your computer is not brand new.

The CMOS battery sits on your computer’s motherboard and provides power to the Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) chip. The CMOS chip stores information about the system configuration, including the date and time. The CMOS battery makes sure the chip can store this data even while the computer is turned off and not hooked up to power. If the battery goes bad, the chip starts losing information and one of the symptoms is that your computer no longer maintains its time and date.

Replacing the CMOS battery is pretty easy. You just have to turn off your computer, ground yourself, open the case, find out which type of battery sits on your motherboard, go buy it, start over, and exchange the battery.

2. Time Zone
This is an easy to fix cause for when your computer clock loses time.

Your computer may simply be set to the wrong time zone and every time you fix the time, it resets itself to that time zone when you reboot. If the minutes are correct and only the hour is bad, that’s probably the issue you’re dealing with.

In Windows 7 you can easily fix the time zone. Right-click the system clock in your taskbar and select > Adjust date/time. Under the headline > Time Zone check whether the information is correct. If not, click the > Change time zone… button and set your time zone. Don’t forget to confirm your changes and you’re all set.

3. Malware
This is the least pleasant and most difficult to manage scenario.

Your computer may have been hijacked by a virus that messes with your computer time. To fix it, you need to gather a few tools. First, make sure your anti-virus program is up to date with the latest virus definitions. Then get a good malware scanner, for example Malwarebytes or Spybot Search & Destroy.

Once you have all these tools downloaded, updated and installed, start in Safe Mode and run them. It’s important to start in safe mode because the malware won’t launch and be active when you choose this boot mode. This means that it is less likely to escape detection and removal.

Conclusion

It’s important to pay attention to the most basic features of your computer. Simple things going wrong can be a sign of serious trouble ahead. For example if your CMOS battery dies, your computer will act like it has Alzheimers and you have to introduce it to its hardware components (via the BIOS) every time it boots. That’s just as annoying as a virus that plays tricks on you or a bad time zone setting that messes up everything from the clock to your email client’s time stamps. So be wise and act immediately.