I know this is not that noteworthy but I was wondering if anyone else has had this experience.......3-4 times since the 1st, my compaq computer has gained an hour. It is not a gradual thing, I will look at it one day and it is fine but the next day it is an hour fast. I have just reset it and gone on but it is getting a little weird since I do much tracking and accounting.

-- a mom (getting@older.fast), January 23, 2000

Answers

Next time it gains an hour, check stock prices!:-)

-- Back (Tothe@Future.com), January 23, 2000.

I have an Acer computer and it started losing an hour each day. I thought I had solved the problem by unchecking the box on daylight saving time. For about a week it kept perfect time - then it started gaining an hour occasionally. My daughter-in-law is having the same problem with the computer she uses as work. 'Tis a puzzlement!

-- Nadine Zint (nadine@hillsboro.net), January 23, 2000.

If you had your computer (the Compaq ) on during rollover, then you might be experiencing the much ridiculed Crouch Echlin Effect. It's existance was confirmed by INTEL several months before the CDC. It bit two Nuke plants and was reported as such. Also, one of the former regulars on this Forum had a wierd hard disk problem several days after Rollover traceable to the C-E effect.

Try resetting the time and then rebooting...should cure the problem.

-- K. Stevens (kstevens@ It ALL went away (including cheap GAS ) 23 days ago .com), January 23, 2000.

Oops, I reread your post and you did reset the time, and I have to assume that you rebooted immediately afterward. I would contact Compaq, or ACER in Nadine's case.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, but I got rid of a Compaq 4580 last January in favor of a GATEWAY. The Compaq had to be completely Reloaded from scratch 70+ times in the one year I had it. Enough is enough!!

-- K. Stevens (kstevens @ It's ALL... .com), January 23, 2000.

* * * 20000123 Sunday

I have an ACER (266MHz; 2 years old!). No date problems ... so far!

Ya know, there's been a lot of update releases (online!) from Microsoft since the 1st. My "educated" suspicion--totally unsubstantiated--is that MS is slipping Y2K fixes at the system and application levels with these upgrades/patches to take care of the LUSER ("[L]oveable" USER) that hasn't taken the time and/or effort to remediate their home/work computer.

The lawyers probably won't let them own up to it, however.

Just a thought.

Regards, Bob Mangus

* * *

-- Robert Mangus (rmangus1@yahoo.com), January 23, 2000.

If you had your computer (the Compaq ) on during rollover, then you might be experiencing the much ridiculed Crouch Echlin Effect. It's existance was confirmed by INTEL several months before the CDC. It bit two Nuke plants and was reported as such. Also, one of the former regulars on this Forum had a wierd hard disk problem several days after Rollover traceable to the C-E effect.

Try resetting the time and then rebooting...should cure the problem.

-- K. Stevens (kstevens@ It ALL went away (including cheap GAS ) 23 days ago .com), January 23, 2000.

K,

From what I have read, no company has confirmed the C-E effect. Where did you find this information?

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), January 23, 2000.

I HAVE A 286 16MHZ THAT WORK JUST FINE

-- 8TH MAN (SSTOLOWSKI@TNNS.NET), January 23, 2000.

Here's a link to a site that has a good technical description of the Couch Echlin effect. The symptoms match what you're seeing - clock jumps ahead sometimes after booting. It's possible that your PC will lose the ability to communicate with some of your peripherals - e.g. your hard drive or modem or serial port - as a result of this problem.

http://www.pcc2000.com/y2kreport_12.5-cefull.html

-- marc1a (marcia@nckodokan.com), January 23, 2000.

8TH MAN,

Do I envy you...LOVED my 286 with DOS 4.0. Problem came when my EGA Monitor refused to power up! Had to go first to the Compaq 4850 (YUCK!!) then to the Gateway (YUMMY).

Wasn't on the Net directly, but hung out on Prodigy Classic Bulletin Boards. That happy situation came to an end the very day the Monica Lewinsky story broke. There were a number of people who were dedicated researchers there who moved onto bigger and better things...Jim Robinson left and founded the FreeRepublic website, for example.

8TH MAN, what is your 286 internet setup?? What browser does it use?? I'm missing the Good Old Days!!

-- K. Stevens (kstevens@ It's ALL went away 23 days ago .com), January 23, 2000.

I was so surprised to see this today!

Our computer (new in March, 99)had worked fine for 9 months, then began having problems in December...we would turn on the main switch, everything would come on, except the monitor would remain black. If we turned it on and off 10-15 times, eventually it would come on, and everything seemed OK...we would use the computer all day, and then the next day, the same problem.

We took it into the shop (still under warranty) and left it for a week. They cleaned it, inspected it, tested it, and found absolutely no problem. Everything came on first time, every time.

We brought it back home, and it wouldn't come on(until we turned it on and off a dozen times).

We limped through the rollover, frustrated with it, but not knowing what to do.

Then, after the first, I began to notice that every day, the clock would be wrong. I'd reset it, and the correct time would show for several hours, then suddenly it would be an hour off! I'd reset again, etc. etc. etc.

This went on for two weeks.

However, this past week, the computer has begun coming on the first time, every time, and ALSO, the clock suddenly has begun keeping the correct time (for a whole week, now).

It's interesting to read that other people have had clock problems.

-- Margo (margos@bigisland.com), January 23, 2000.

Sorry....

It's interesting...but does anyone know what to do about it, in case our machine begins acting up again?

-- Margo (margos@bigisland.com), January 23, 2000.

It is possible that you have your computer "placed" in the wrong time zone. That way it would be correct at certain times of the day and incorrect at others.

The C-E effect is supposed to be when the time on the computer is off by odd incriments rather than strict ones, like one hour etc.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), January 23, 2000.

Cherri...I checked, and the time zone is correct, so that's probably not the problem, for our computer, at least (may be the problem for some of the others, though).

When I said, off by an hour, I was simplifying...Actually, one day the computer might be off an hour and a half, the next day, it might be 47 minutes. The next day it might be off an hour and 13 minutes. It seemed to be a random time...it would just suddenly be wrong. It probably didn't change all at once, but over the course of a day, and I just didn't notice it, until suddenly it would be so wrong that it would get my attention.

-- Margo (margos@bigisland.com), January 23, 2000.

This HP computer clock has been off from the start--last September, I think. For a while it was going good, but now it goes wacky again. I just reset it when I notice.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), January 23, 2000.

Well, for starters, Intel most certainly NEVER confirmed the existence of the so-called Crouch-Echlin Effect. To the contrary, Intel said plainly, and still maintains, that C-E's existence could not be established.

Read more about it here:

http://www.int el.com/support/year2000/lbza3a.htm

and here:

http://www.in tel.com/support/year2000/lbza3b1.htm

But if you suspect that your machine's BIOS is not Y2k compliant, you can check it with the free McAfee/PC Magazine 2000 Toolbox Hardware Check, downloadable here.

If this tool confirms hardware noncompliance, you can fix the problem with the free Norton 2000 BIOS Fix and Test, downloadable at:

ftp: //ftp.symantec.com/misc/americas/sabu/n2k/nbfixall.exe

If, after installing this BIOS fix, your machine is still exhibiting time anomalies, you can download several tools that will synchronize your computer's clock with internet public time servers while online, at an interval of your choosing. (e.g. every 15 seconds, while online)

SocketWatch (shareware) is available at

http://www.locutuscod eware.com/swatch.htm

AtomTime98 (shareware) is available at

http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/swlib/hotfiles/info.html?fco de=0006AS

HiClock (free) is available at

ftp://ftp.kgsoft.com/Hiclock.z ip

WebTime (free) is available at

http://www.execpc.com/~ sbd/WebTime.html

See http://www.nonags.com /nonags/timec32.html for more free apps like these.

These tools use Public Time Servers to synchronize your computer's clock. End users should use the Secondary (as opposed to Primary) Time Servers. There is a list of active Secondary Time Servers at

http://www.eeci s.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/clock2.htm

For best results, choose the server in the list that's closest to you geographically.

For the record, I have absolutely nothing to do with any of the organizations mentioned here, other than working in the computer industry, and being located on the same planet. I've just used a lot of these products many dozens of times, with nary a hiccup yet. (BTW, these apps work with Windows 95/98/NT only. Some might work with Win2k; but I don't really know for sure.)

Hope this helps those who might need it.

-- Chicken Little (panic@forthebirds.net), January 24, 2000.

oops..in the above, I meant to say that a good time interval would be every 15 minutes, not seconds, for using one of the time synchronizer apps...every 15 seconds would be a bit of overkill, eh.

-- Chicken Little (panic@forthebirds.net), January 24, 2000.

Your battery could be starting to go. I've had machines that both gained and lost time, with no consistency, that worked fine with a new battery. <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), January 24, 2000.

a mom -

I'm sorry to echo another poster (Cherri), but the time zone setting really does sound like the problem. Are you sure you checked it? Can you describe how you're checking it?

-- 2 (living@C.T), January 24, 2000.

If the etime difference is not exactly an hour off, then sysman is probably right about the battery.

As for the person who has problems with the monitor not coming on, its the monitor, they are one of the last things that still use vacume tube technology, and vacume tubes use high voltage. That high voltage leaves the other hardware very suseptable to failing, especially if you turn the computer off when you are not using it. I'm not sure why, but if you leave the monitor on all of the time, (if you can) even when you power down the computer then they don't fail as often. This way the filiments are always powered up. It could be that the expansion of the filiments during powering up and cooling down wears them out sooner. Or you might want to get a new one monitor.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), January 25, 2000.