Laptop Clock not staying on time

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I am helping a friend with a SONY Vaio laptop – the clock does not keep accurate time. I have adjusted it twice and within hours, it shows the wrong time – I know in desktop systems, you have to replace a small battery – about the size of a quarter. What has to be done in a laptop?

Thanks for your help.

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Yes, your laptop should have a CMOS battery on it’s motherboard. Check the manufacturer’s website for documentation
on the exact location/how to get at it/what to replace it with, information.

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The clock is kept running by the system when it’s powered on and the battery when it’s not. The backup battery is only for the times you change the laptop battery.
If the clock is losing time whilst the machine is running you could have some software that is causing the problem. When does it lose the time?

cheers, Paul

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[optional]Try to establish if it is losing time when it is switched on or when it is switched off or both. Similarly, does it loose time when it is running from the mains or when on battery or both? That should establish if it is an errant utility or a battery falling. As Paul says above, Laptops don’t usually have a CMOS backup battery. They rely on the laptop’s battery plus a beefy reservoir capacitor that holds sufficient charge to keep the CMOS happy whilst the battery is being changed.

Terry[/optional]

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The clock loses time only when the computer is turned off. I shut it off and left it plugged in to my electrical connection and it lost time. I shut it off again and disconnected the electrical connection and it lost time again. I just turned it on again and have it on the battery and within two minutes the battery went from 100% to 81%. Does that mean the battery has a problem? And would this somehow be affecting the clock?

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How old is the battery? It is possible the battery is losing it’s ability to hold a charge over time, or perhaps even to charge fully. When a battery charge indicater shows a battery at 100 %, that generally means the battery is at 100 % of it’s ability to hold a charge. This level may be far below a new battery 100 % level.

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Seems that the hardware RTC (real time clock) is not happy. Not much you can do apart from synching every time you turn it on. I use NetTime V2 and sync to pool.ntp.org.

cheers, Paul

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It sounds as though you may have a battery problem. If it has lost a cell, the battery will lose charge quickly and the voltage will be low. Typically, Ni-MH batteries will last 18 months to 2 years. If it is much older than that, you have been lucky.

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