Hi

I have a strange problem, I have 4 computers in my office and suddenly they have also started losing the correct DATE. The time remains correct but the dates keep changing randomly every time a computer is restarted. I have already changed the CMOS battery on one of them, without much luck. The dates keep changing to different years. One time it's 1998 the next it will be 2002 etc.

I'm stumped!!!! All the machines are clones and are using Win XP,(Service pack 2), two with 80 gig HDDs one with 160 gig HDD and the other with two 40 gig HDDs. All are using 512mb RAM.

Thanks

You say you have 4 computers in your office. I am assuming they are on a network. If not, then your install disk is bad, contact Microsoft.

Is your network secure? If wireless, are you sure it is secure? How is each computer networked? If it is not a bad install disk that put the same bad image on each machine, it points to suspicious activity - one machine, no. Four at once? That does not sound good. Have you scanned for malware? What is your security setup? I cannot find any information about any malware that causes your symptom, but that does not mean it does not exist.

If you even just remotely suspect your network, (especially if using wireless) might have been compromised, and your business depends on these computer assets, you should call in an expert, now. This is CRITICAL if any of those (or other networked) computers contain customers' personal information, including credit card numbers, name, addresses, etc. I promise you, that is cheaper than the cost of damage control and disaster recovery after-the-fact!

If pursuing this yourself, I recommend you purge your system of clutter using Windows (XP or Vista) Disk Cleanup, or some commercially available product to rid each system of clutter.

Note: Ensure you know your site credentials (user name and password) for sites you frequent before cleaning; you may have to login again at next visit.

Then run all your anti-malware scanners to ensure your systems are clean. Since you indicated this is your office, indicating these computers are used commercially, most of "free" products recommended on these forums cannot be used as they are for home, personal, non-commercial use only. But it is important to ensure every connected computer is clean as malicious code often looks first in the local network when wanting to propagate. I suggest you isolate one computer from the rest, perhaps behind a firewall or another router, and resolve the issue one isolated computer at a time.

The battery is normally a good suspect, with one machine, but it appears you eliminated that. How long have they been working fine? Do you have volume licenses for them?

If you boot, change the date, all is good until you boot again. Right? Next time, set the date/time, then boot into the BIOS Setup Menu. Is the date still right. If you boot to a "malware free" bootable floppy or CD, is it right? Does the date change if you boot into safe mode?

It seems to me there are 4 possibilities:

1. They were all cloned from the same flawed or infected installation,
2. Malware has infested your network, and each machine,
3. They all synchronize on the same Time Server, which has some how gone array,
4. Someone is playing tricks when the cat is away and changing them.

If you right-click on your Desktop Data and Time and select Adjust Date/Time, then the Internet Time tab, is anything checked in there? Unfortunately, that defaults to checking once a week, though there are registry tweaks to change that to just about anything, such as hourly.

I guess I am a bit OCD when it comes to the correct time. I suspect that is due to a career in global military RF and land-line communications, where "coordinated time" was just second nature. This extended into my civilian life working with VPNs (private networks that run on other networks, such as the Internet). When multiple users from multiple time zones (or even in the same office) can make changes to the same files or databases, timestamps have to be precise to ensure the edits are in the correct order. So I have used Dimension4 (D4), running as a service on all my personal systems for many years. Free to home users for personal use, $10 a PC is not bad for commercial users, with volume licensing available.

When your computers are certain to be free of malware and your network is secured from intrusion, if everything seems to be fine otherwise, I would use D4 to contact your nearest atomic clock and synchronize the computers to the precise correct date and time.

My computers are on 24/7/365 so I have D4 check hourly. For folks that regularly power off their computers when done using, D4 provides the nice option of loading at boot, synchronizing date and time once, then terminate itself.

Thanks for all the info above, I'll try out what I can and give feed-back. However I have been making enquiries around and have discovered two more people with the same problem. In both cases they bought their pcs from reputable vendors and the pcs came in with pre-loaded windows. In one case two pcs out of 6 have the problem and in the other case one pc (out of 3 desk-tops and 4 laptops on the network) have the same problem. Initially I thought it was a bad installation disk, because my pcs where made by the same person, but the other computers came with pre-installed windows xp. Another thing is that the problems have only started recently. Could the RECYCLER virus have anything to do with it? I ask because I have found it on several of the pcs.

The advice given in my above post stands - ESPECIALLY if the other computers you found with the same problem are attached to the same network, and if that is the case, you should call in an expert immediately, especially if customer's personal information is at risk.