[Linux-users] the system clock stopped?!?

[Lonni J Friedman]

On 8/27/07, Leon Goldstein <metapsych at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Lonni J Friedman wrote:
>
> >I've got a Fedora 7 (x86) system that started exhibiting truly bizarre
> >behavior about a week ago.  Basically, the clock stopped working.  If
> >I run 'date' it shows the date/time from a few days earlier, and it
> >*never* changes.  If I touch a file, it has the date/timestamp from
> >the time/date in date output.  The odd thing is that this behavior
> >only happens when the system sits relatively idle for a long chunk of
> >time (at least 24 hours).  If i'm actively using it every day, then
> >its fine.  If I reboot, then the problem goes away (and the system has
> >the correct time after rebooting).
> >
> >The first time that this happened was last weekend (Aug 18), and I had
> >to reboot it last Monday (Aug 20) to fix the problem.  Its now
> >happened again.  At this moment in time, date claims that its Sat Aug
> >25, even though its actually Sun Aug 26 right now.
> >
> >To make matters worse, the system behaves oddly when this problem
> >occurs.  I suspect its because anything that relies on getting an
> >accurate (or changing) clock is failing.  If I attempt to reboot
> >cleanly, it just never happens.  The system acts frozen in time.
> >
> >I've checked dmesg & messages, and there's nothing there.  messages
> >just stops logging anything around the time that the clock appears to
> >have frozen.
> >
> >Anyone ever seen this bizarre behavior, or have any ideas what might
> >be going on?
> >
> >
> >
> I'd start by replacing the CMOS battery.  I experienced similar oddities
> after manually setting the BIOS clock to Bush time.  I had to keep
> resetting the clock until I replaced the battery.

To the best of my knowledge the CMOS battery only plays a role when
the system is powered off and/or doesn't have external power.
However, even if it were the CMOS battery, why would the time in the
BIOS be correct?


-- 
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L. Friedman                                    netllama at gmail.com
LlamaLand                       http://netllama.linux-sxs.org