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- DOCUMENT:Q106434 08-DEC-1993 [W_NT]
- TITLE :System Clock Appears to Lose About One Second per Hour
- PRODUCT :Windows NT
- PROD/VER:3.10
- OPER/SYS:WINDOWS
- KEYWORDS:buglist3.10 fixlist3.10.003
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
- The information in this article applies to:
-
- - Microsoft Windows NT operating system version 3.1
- - Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server version 3.1
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- SYMPTOMS
- ========
-
- If the time is continuously read on an x86-based Windows NT machine,
- the system appears to lose a second each hour.
-
- CAUSE
- =====
-
- The Real Time Clock (RTC) in x86-based computers has a resolution of
- one second. Therefore, the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) on x86
- platforms uses an interval timer to increase the resolution of the
- system clock into the millisecond range. Windows NT's calculation of
- real time based on this interval timer is inaccurate enough that it
- could get out of sync by over a second every hour.
-
- RESOLUTION
- ==========
-
- The calculations to determine the correct time for the system clock
- based on the interval timer has been improved so that it remains much
- closer in sync with the RTC. The system clock is still resynchronized
- every hour but the size of the adjustment is negligible (at most, a
- few milliseconds).
-
- This was fixed within HAL.DLL for x86 based systems only. This is not
- a concern on MIPS or Alpha platforms.
-
- Additional reference words: 3.10
- KBCategory:
- KBSubCategory: ntap
-
- =============================================================================
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-
- Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1993.