Windows 7 Intermittent Windows Clock Errors: Time Jumps and Potential AV Infection

seekermeister

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May 29, 2009
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It's never been a problem before...at least not like this. At about 4:00 A.M. I noticed that Windows time was 2 hours behind the actual time, so I ran a sync on time.nist.gov, which corrected it. However, just ~20 minutes later, I was dismayed to see it had gone back again, but this time 3 hours. I changed the time server to time.windows.com to correct it, and then left computer until now, and found it now 4 hours in the past.

This behavior isn't because of a problem with the BIOS time, and since it occurred on two different time servers, I doubt that is a problem. Why does it keep jumping back in time?

EDIT: Not only are the time jumps progressive in scale, but they are to precise hours...the minute time is always correct. Thinking this may possibly be due to some kind of AV infection, I just started a custom full scan of the OS drive with Kaspersky, even though it had automatically run a rootkit scan at 6:00 A.M.
 
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Yes, I guess I will, because I just booted into the BIOS and found the hardware time off also. Cost isn't a factor,because I already have spares, it just that the battery position is such that changing the battery is something of a chore, and I'm a bit lazy. However I can't tolerate this for very long. It seems odd that syncing windows time would have any effect on the hardware clock. I had always thought it to only be the other way around.

EDIT: I just checked the date of purchase of the battery in use, and it was in April of this year, which means that it should be good for quite some time more. The expiry on the package is for 12-2020, so I would be surprised if the battery is failing, but who knows?
 
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The CMOS battery will drain if the computer has been completely unplugged for an extended period of time. If the hardware time is off in the BIOS, it must be that battery.
 
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The computer is never unplugged, it runs 24/7/365. It may still be the battery, but after resetting the hardware clock 3 hours ago, Windows has been keeping the right time. That's not much, but a lot longer than it ran before without the time jumping.
 
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I doubt that it has anything to do with this, but Malwarebytes detected PUP.Optional.Hao123.A. From what I've read, it doesn't sound like anything too potent, but I had MBAM delete it anyway.
 
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If it was simply the bios battery not only would the time be off but also any settings you'd changed in the bios would revert back to default settings. My money is on the positive Malwarebytes scan.
 
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