Losing Time

[Ayman Altounji]

My Compaq Proliant 1600, running Novell 5 loses about 30 minutes every 24 hours. Any ideas?

[Ayman Altounji]

You should install os5pt2a.exe found on the novell site. This time patch should resolv your issue.

[Ayman Altounji]

Hello Chris,

There are several considerations to consider:

- Does the BIOS clock loose time? To verify, use the System Configuration Utility, not DOS. [Upon POST go to the F10 partition go to SYSTEM CONFIGURATION\POWER-ON DEFAULTS\SET DATE AND TIME here ensure that the proper date and time are set, be sure to set the time with a reliable time source. Then after a couple of days come back to see if the time system clock has changed if not then it is a Novell Software TIMESYNC issue] If the BIOS clock is slowing, the battery is most likely dying. In rare circumstances, the circuit board with the clock installed must be replaced.

- Netware suspends the DOS clock. As a result, the DOS time before and after a Netware session is the same. Following the end of the Netware session, the DOS clock continues to tick, but its time will be different than that of the BIOS clock. It has to do with real against protected mode execution. Novell TID 2926204.

- Is the server getting new time from an external clock source, like an atomic clock?

- Are there any timeservers on the network? Servers designated as Single Reference or Reference Servers read from the BIOS clock. Servers designated as a Secondary Server or Primary Reference server gets the time from Single Reference, Reference, or other Primary Reference servers. Reference servers typically provide time to Primary Reference servers. If no Primary Reference server is designated, it synchronizes Secondary Reference servers directly. Secondary Reference servers get their time from Single Reference servers if no Reference or Primary Reference servers are available through negotiation.

Starting in October of 1999, a number time synchronization problems happened to a number of people running Netware 5 Service Pack 3. The time would be fine in the BIOS, but would slow down in Netware proper. The problem is related to TIMESYNC.NLM and is documented in TID 10012120 (Novell still has not fully fixed this Time issue, as with NetWare 6 there is still TIME issues)

Novell recently released a patch for Netware 5.x that directly addresses this issue. See TID 2958591

If you head to the Novell Support site and search for TIMESYNC you will see many suggestions and fixes to this issue, just be sure to eliminate the HARDWARE BIOS CLOCK as an issue first.

Jason