Win 10 — Automatic Clock Synchronization

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I have two Win 10 laptops, both running v1909.  Both have the buttons turned on to set the time and zone automatically.  Both have the button to adjust for DST automatically turned on.

I checked the Date and Time on one (the older one) and it showed that the last successful time synchronization was yesterday.  It seems to be doing automatic time synchronization on a regular basis and it thus shows the time accurately.

I cross-checked checked Date & Time on the other device (the newer one) and it shows that the last successful time synchronization was in January, 2020.  It was running about 6 minutes ahead of time.  Apparently, it does not do an automatic clock synchronization on a regular basis, even though the setting is to set time and zone automatically.

How can I get this newer device to do automatic clock synchronization on a regular basis??

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I would have to guess that the reason for the newer one to not synchronize time was it was either not connected to the internet or powered up whenever Windows 10 ‘wants to’ synchronize time.  In checking my desktop computer that’s always on when I am up and around, it last did a synchronize over 9 hours ago.  So it’s not like it attempts to synchronize the time non-stop 24 hours per day.

It’s also possible that one or both of the Windows 10 services to maintain accurate time has been disabled or otherwise prevented from running.   Check ‘auto time zone updater’ (manual(triggered)) and ‘cellular time’ (also manual(triggered)) are OK.  I haven’t a clue on what triggers them, though. It’s likely buried deep within Win 10 somewhere.  Apparently, they get triggered, do their ‘thing’, then terminate until triggered again.

As an experiment, leave both laptops plugged in and running all day.  I don’t know what your ‘sleep’ settings might do to allow/prevent/schedule for wake-up might do to the synchronization.  So you might have to adjust those settings for ‘plugged in’.

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WCHS wrote:

How can I get this newer device to do automatic clock synchronization on a regular basis??

It’s perhaps best to confirm whether the Windows Time service is working (‘cos it doesn’t run all the time nor does it synchronise at frequent intervals). Try this:

1. *Right*-click on Start and choose Windows PowerShell (Admin) [or Command Prompt (Admin)… either will do] then accept the User Account Control prompt.

2. When the PowerShell or Commandline window appears, enter net start w32time at the prompt. This will try to start the Windows Time service manually and you should see the following:

3. Next, enter w32tm /resync /rediscover /nowait (and make a note of the time you do this). This tells the Windows Time service to check the network settings for the the NTP (network time protocol), poll the configured time source(s) and synchronise the time immediately. You should see the following:

4. Next, to check everything is working, enter w32tm /query /status. If all has gone well then you should see something like this:

‘Last Successful Sync Time’ should show the time milliseconds after you last pressed the Return/Enter key; ‘Source’ shows the time source (the default is time.windows.com) and ‘source IP’ shows the IP address of the time source.

Post back to let us know whether this quick check of the Windows Time service all worked for you or if there were any errors.

(Note: Before you close the PowerShell/Commandline window, enter net stop w32time to return the Windows Time service to its original state. It will restart automatically when triggered by the system.)

Hope this helps…

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[Paul T]

Whilst you are at it, list the entire configuration and post it here.

w32tm /query /configuration

cheers, Paul

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Paul T.

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Paul T wrote:

Whilst you are at it, list the entire configuration and post it here.

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Rick Corbett wrote:

Post back to let us know whether this quick check of the Windows Time service all worked for you or if there were any errors.

I followed your steps.

1)  The time I recorded in Step 3 was 9:27:05. (I am not sure of why I record the time here).

2)  My screen for Step 4 looks almost like your Step 4 screen  (some values are different: Root Delay, Root Dispersion, and ReferenceiD (of course)),  The time of the Last Successful Sync Time at 9:27:26 AM.  I had recorded the time that I hit the return in this step and it was close to 9:27:26 AM.

3)  I right-clicked on the calendar > adjust time and date and it says that the Last successful time synchronization was at 9:27:26 AM.

So, it looks like there were no errors.

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As you have it sorted we don’t actually need the config anymore. 🙂

cheers, Paul

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WCHS wrote:

3) I right-clicked on the calendar > adjust time and date and it says that the Last successful time synchronization was at 9:27:26 AM.

Update:  at 11:04 AM, I looked again and now Last successful time synchronization was at 10:43:57 AM.

So, it looks like the automatic clock synchronization is working on a regular basis.

Rick Corbett wrote:

It’s perhaps best to confirm whether the Windows Time service is working (‘cos it doesn’t run all the time nor does it synchronise at frequent intervals). Try this:

Thank you very much for your screenshots and instructions at
#2302465

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WCHS wrote:

So, it looks like the automatic clock synchronization is working on a regular basis.

Thank you for posting back to let us know the outcome.

In this instance it looks like the Windows Time services’ /resync switch may have helped kick the service back into a working mode.

(PS – Your Windows Time service ‘config’ screenshot shows that your device is synching at ‘Stratum level 4’ level, i.e. several hops down from stratum level 0 (i.e. authenticated cesium clocks or GPS receiver sources.)

Hope this helps…

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Rick Corbett wrote:

(PS – Your Windows Time service ‘config’ screenshot shows that your device is synching at ‘Stratum level 4’ level, i.e. several hops down from stratum level 0 (i.e. authenticated cesium clocks or GPS receiver sources.)

Several hops down from stratum level 0 is OK with me. I don’t have to know the exact time down to the cesium clock nanosecond nor does it have to match up to the second with my older device — just so the hour and minutes is the same.

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My local server has been off by almost 20 minutes for a long time.  Tried many things.  So when I saw this I decided to try these steps to see if they would work.

So the problem is the results show are still almost 20 minutes off.  Any thoughts?

Cheers!!
Willie McClure
“We are trying to build a gentler, kinder society, and if we all pitch in just a little bit, we are going to get there.” Alex Trebek

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[PeterJ]

Hi,  If you get too far out of sync, time sync may not fix the the time.  Manually set the clock time and see if the time sync keeps it up to date.

Also check that the BIOS time is correct.  Sometimes that can cause an issue.

My list on the home system (two lines) run in an admin prompt.
w32tm /config “/manualpeerlist:time.windows.com,0x9 us.pool.ntp.org,0xA tick.usno.navy.mil,0xA tock.usno.navy.mil,0xA” /syncfromflags:ALL /reliable:yes /update
w32tm /resync

If you have an internal time sync server replace the first one on the list.  The first one must be attribute 0x9 (zerox9).  Additional entries are 0xA.  This is a space separated list.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by PeterJ.

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Why must the first peer have a value of 0x9? Leaving that setting blank is usual as it allows Windows to decide what update interval to use.
If you really want to set a min/max time sync period you would use 0x1, but you then need to set the min/max values you require.

0xA is usually reserved for domain clients. What is its use in your example?

cheers, Paul

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You have a radio clock installed and that is either wrong, or giving bad time info to your machine. Do you have an alternative time source? Can the server access a time server on the internet?

What do you get with /query /configuration?

cheers, Paul

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[EspressoWillie]

BTW this is a Windows Server 2012 R2.

Here is the configuration:

Cheers!!
Willie McClure
“We are trying to build a gentler, kinder society, and if we all pitch in just a little bit, we are going to get there.” Alex Trebek

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by EspressoWillie.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by EspressoWillie.

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As it’s a server you seem to have it configured for domain time sync (client type = NT5DS), yet the last sync was from a “free-running system clock”.

Is this the only server or a member of a domain?
If it’s a member, is it the only server with the time out?

cheers, Paul

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It’s the only server. But it is my domain here. I have one workstation logged on as a domain client, and others as standalone.  Lots of test workstations here with different configurations so I can test our software.

Cheers!!
Willie McClure
“We are trying to build a gentler, kinder society, and if we all pitch in just a little bit, we are going to get there.” Alex Trebek

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So you have no access to a time source?
Does the radio source shown in your post actually exist in that server?
What happens if you manually adjust the time on the server?

cheers, Paul

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There is no radio.  I would like to just change it to go get the time, say using time.windows.com or whatever is a good, reliable time server.  Been going through the MS docs on Windows Time Service and it seems I can change it to point to time.windows.com.  But then do I leave the client type at NT5DS?  The docs are referring to changing the root forest settings. Don’t want to trash anything!

Cheers!!
Willie McClure
“We are trying to build a gentler, kinder society, and if we all pitch in just a little bit, we are going to get there.” Alex Trebek

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[Paul T]

As it’s the PDC you should set it to pick up the time from somewhere.
I use this command: w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:pool.ntp.com
This assumes you have internet access, or a hole in the firewall.

cheers, Paul

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Paul T.

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I got it to work using the following commands:

w32tm /config /update /manualpeerlist:”0.pool.ntp.org,0x8 1.pool.ntp.org,0x8 2.pool.ntp.org,0x8 3.pool.ntp.org,0x8″ /syncfromflags:MANUAL

Net stop w32time
Net start w32time

Thanks for your help.

Cheers!!
Willie McClure
“We are trying to build a gentler, kinder society, and if we all pitch in just a little bit, we are going to get there.” Alex Trebek

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Paul T

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How can I get this newer device to do automatic clock synchronization on a regular basis??

You need Meinberg NTP:

https://www.meinbergglobal.com/english/sw/ntp.htm

It is recommended by timenuts:

https://lists.febo.com/pipermail/time-nuts_lists.febo.com/

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You are quoting my question posted on Oct 7, 2020 at #2302386.

In answer to my question, I followed the steps outlined by R. Corbett in #2302465. See my follow-up at #2302526.

Automatic synchronization has been occurring every day or so ever since Oct 7 — a very simple solution for my non-server device and not dependent on 3rd party software.

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