Windows 10 Clock Drift Issue

[HaydenS]

Hello all!

 

I feel like I'm losing my mind. I have encountered the strangest issue in all my years of computer magic. I recently upgraded to Windows 10 and noticed my systems clock slowly drifts out of sync as time goes by. I've tried syncing it to various time servers but it always ends up being a few seconds off at first and then will slowly lag behind by several minutes over the course of an hour. I've done some timing on it and it seems to lose roughly 4-7 seconds per minute. I have tried setting the time manually and disabling it from syncing to a web clock, but it will still drift.

 

I checked the voltage on the CMOS battery, it was still holding a solid 3V after many years of use, but I replaced it anyway with a fresh one (also tested to confirm proper voltage) and am still experiencing the same issue. I have yet to properly try timing the BIOS clock to see if it drifts as well, but my initial observations of it lead me to believe it is keeping good time (I will update with the results of that test). 

 

My system consists of an Asus Rampage iii Gene X58 mobo, Intel i7-950, 24GB of DDR3, GTX 960, 650W psu (I've tested the unit to make sure its spitting out the correct voltages). My hardware has not changed since upgrading to 10. 

 

At this point I'm really not sure if the issue is something on the OS side or on the hardware side. I'm guessing its either a weird registry issue where Windows is calculating each second off an incorrect number of ticks from the mobo clock (if that's even a thing, please enlighten me on how the OS runs its clock!), or the mobos crystal clock is operating at an incorrect frequency (I don't have an oscilloscope or RMS meter to measure the frequency its putting out).

 

Edit: The BIOS is the most recent version for the board V 1003, and all the chipset drivers are current. Also, I am running 64bit Windows

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

Edit: BIOS clock appears to be keeping time just fine. No drift recorded in BIOS.

[HaydenS]

17 minutes ago, brcdncn said:

Ok... so my time was busted. I turned off auto assign, turn off auto-detect timezone. In Service manager, set the Windows Time service to Automatic startup. Then I selected the timezone (Central) and switched on the set time automatically.

 

Reboot (of course).

 

Last few weeks no issues.

Thank you. I had read a similar solution from other forums, I just tried it again to be sure. After reboot the clock was still initially off by 10 seconds and continues to drift as time passes. Extreeeemely odd

[HaydenS]

Update - Still no solution found thus far. I tried booting into an old copy of Ubuntu I had lying around. Both Ubuntu and my BIOS are keeping correct time without any issue. At this point I am certain this is a problem with Windows 10 and not my hardware.

 

I have spoken to Microsoft support twice now (hooray India!).

The first tech I spoke to tried adjusting very basic settings within the control panel and ended up reinstalling Windows 10 remotely, the problem still persisted so she referred me to a level 2 technician.

The level 2 technician seemed far more knowledgeable and tried re-registering the Windows Time service and rebooting, still no luck. She suggested that it could possibly be the CMOS battery so I explained to her that I had already tested the voltage on the old battery and replaced it anyways. It was during our conversation that I tried booting into Ubuntu to see if the problem would exist in another operating system, which as said it did not. I have now been referred to a level 3 technician and should be contacted sometime later this week.

 

I'm curious how many more techs I have to speak to before they put me on the phone with an engineer in Bellevue, WA hahaha

 

More updates to come!

[HaydenS]

Just got off the phone with the level 3 technician. Still no solution yet. It seems level 3 is where you get a true engineer who understands the deeper workings of the OS. He adjusted a couple values within the registry so the windows time service will now re-sync every 15 seconds. The clock now keeps good enough time for most general purposes, but the lag is still there and still visible within that 15 second window. We recorded a loss of 2-3 seconds per minute. He told me back during the launch of Windows Vista they experienced the same problem on a small number of machines, but haven't seen the error arise in any version of Windows since then. He's going to do some more research on the topic and contact me again next Wednesday. Hopefully a solution is in the very near future!