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#1 |
Registered
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 3
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System Clock loses time - help
My system clock fails to keep time when the Marine Aquarium 2.6 screensaver is on for a while. It loses a few minutes every hour. How can I stop this system clock problem? I have to add some minutes to my clock every morning when I get to work.
This occurs on my Windows 2000 Server machine, a DELL Dimension V400, w/ S3 Graphics ProSavageDDR video... |
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#2 |
Only me...
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Essex, England
Posts: 2,584
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I'd say, offhand, that you need to replace your BIOS battery. Either that, or download one of those programs which keeps your system clock synched to an atomic clock somewhere.
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Mark
----------- Intel i7 12700K | Aorus Z690 Pro | Corsair DDR5 5600 32GB | Asus Dual RTX3060ti 6GB v2 Mini OC | Corsair RM850 Gold PSU | 1TB NVMe M.2 WD Black SN850 | 4TB Seagate BarraCuda HDD | Corsair Airflow 5000D Case | HP 32QHD 4K Monitor | Windows 11 x64 Professional |
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#3 |
Forum Administrator
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Rock Hill, SC
Posts: 10,939
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This is not the firsttime this has been reported.
"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman |
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#4 |
Registered
Join Date: Jan 2001
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Posts: 2,206
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Are you saying that the aquarium does indeed affect the system clock???? If so, that's a MAJOR flaw.
Frank
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#5 |
Forum Administrator
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Rock Hill, SC
Posts: 10,939
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It came up several times during the Marine Aquarium Time betas but I thought it had been resolved. Marine Aquarium Time makes extensive calls to the time functions in Windows. Because Marine Aquarium 2.6 contains the Marine Aquarium Time code, it also makes extensive calls to the time functions.
Why *reading* the clock can actually affect the time is beyond me.
"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman |
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#6 |
Developer
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 9,785
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I do remember someone asking about this before, but I thought that Edgar had looked into it. Like Morgan, I personally don't see how observing the time can affect the clock. Maybe there's a deep Physics issue - the Heisenberg Uncertanty Principle - at work here
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Jim Sachs
Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium |
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#7 |
Senior Puddle Jumper
Join Date: Jun 2004
![]() Location: California
Posts: 6,017
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Actually, it sounds like the ol' Quantum Physics Double Slit Experiment wherein the observer actually affects the observed event causing it to perform differently than it may when not observed.
Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes. |
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#8 |
Registered
Join Date: Jan 2001
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Posts: 2,206
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![]() ...Like Morgan, I personally don't see how observing the time can affect the clock...
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Frank
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#9 |
Developer
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 9,785
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I have run the Aquarium on many computers for weeks at a time, and none have ever lost a second of time. But I'm not totally discounting the report - about once a year it seems to come up. It's possible that the clock battery on those motherboards are just winding down.
Jim Sachs
Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium |
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#10 |
Prolific/SereneScreen Developer
Join Date: Mar 2003
![]() Location: Norwalk, CA
Posts: 513
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Here is a link that Microsoft knows about the time bug on some computers.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=821893 Edit: From the article: "Modify the program to call the timeBeginPeriod function at startup and to call the timeEndPeriod function on exit. This workaround eliminates repeated time increment changes." Note the screensaver code does this already. |
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#11 |
Registered
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 93
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Oh well
Mine keeps time better than my Rolex
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#12 |
Registered
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 3
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not hallucinating
Well, it is losing time. Serene Support has suggested a newer video driver, because mine is a bit out of date. I'll try it. Someone suggested syncing with a time service. Sure - I can do that, but that's not addressing the actual problem.
As someone else suggested, it could be the act of checking time that affects time itself. So, I sat at my desk watching my screensaver all day, and checking my watch every 10 seconds, for 8 hours. And, indeed, my watch sped up! According to my system clock, my watch was 7 minutes faster! ![]() |
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#13 |
Developer
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 9,785
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Ah, that's the problem. You are in a Quantum Time Warp. The computer clock is not slow, your own time has sped up. If the effect develops into a full-fledged wormhole, use it to go into the future. A year or two should be enough for us to find the solution.
Jim Sachs
Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium |
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#14 |
Registered
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 3
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Only loses time when Aqua Clock is disabled ?
Okay, a real experiment this time. Last night I re-enabled the crystal aquarium clock. I had it off before, because I like the nice and natural look of the aquarium (excellent application, if I haven't said that yet!)
Anyway, the system clock did NOT lose time when I arrived at work this morning. I find that very interesting... Aquarium clock enabled -> System clock keeps time Aquarium clock disabled -> System clock loses several minutes per day At least with my current configuration. Seems like perhaps this could be a useful clue to help resolve my issue... I suppose I can leave the clock enabled if need be...I just like the aquarium in it's nice & natural state... |
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#15 |
Developer
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 9,785
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Thanks for the experiment - the results may be useful to Edgar.
Jim Sachs
Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium |
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#16 |
Prolific/SereneScreen Developer
Join Date: Mar 2003
![]() Location: Norwalk, CA
Posts: 513
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That may be useful. I can at least look in the code to see what calls may be different that may affect the time. Of course if it the time doesn't slow down on my PCs, it will be basically guessing. I might have to ask you later to test it for me.
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