pc speeds up (W98)

[Pete138]

My PC seems to speed up at times. It counts the minutes like seconds and everything is going to fast. I have a 500Mhz processor and 64 Mb of memory.

[Andy-S]

Can you please provide more details on the problem you are seeing.

Cheers
Andy

[Pete138]

Everything seems to speed up. I have been running thhis pc for about an hour and yet it has counted 4 hours already. Sometimes it behaves normal for about 2 weeks, then it speeds up again for 3 or 4 days, then normal again.
What kind of information do you require?
Thanks for the reply, Andy

[Andy-S]

When you say speeds up you mean that the clock advances 4 hours when it has only been 1 hour in actual time?

The clock time is read during OS load from CMOS and is then updated periodicaly to match the time in CMOS. When you shut down and then power back on the system is the time still 4 hours out or has it been reset to the correct time?

If it is still 4 hours ahead then it looks like it is the real time clock in CMOS that is going out of whack.
You can try reseting CMOS and then entering the new time to see if this fixes the problem.

If the time is reset back then the problem is with Windows updating the time. I'm now sure how you would address that if it is the problem.

Cheers
Andy

[Pete138]

Well, when I restart windows my pc clock is reset to the correct time. Is there anything I can do?
Thanks

[Andy-S]

Pete,

It looks like the hardware is working correctly and your problem lies with the way that Windows 98 updates the system time. I'm not sure what the mechanism is for updating the clock therefore I can't offer you any advice other than trying to re-install the OS.

I would wait to see if someone else has a solution before doing a re-install.

Cheers
Andy

[7ate9]

Out of my own curiosity, how long has this been going on? Do you know if your computer is setup to synchronize time with an online server?

7ate9
WinGuides Driver Guide</font color=blue> (http://www.winguides.com/drivers/><font)

[Pete138]

It has been going like this for about 8 months now. I have Atomic clock sync installed.
Thanks for the reply.

[Andy-S]

Pete,

Have you tried disabling atomic clock sync to see if that corrects the problem. If the real time clock is not out of whack (which we have already confirmed) then it is a software problem. It may be a flaw with the atomic clock sync.

Cheers
Andy

[Pete138]

I uninstalled atomic clock sync but nothing changes

[Andy-S]

Sorry Pete,

I have no other ideas other than re-installing the OS.

Cheers
Andy

[Pete138]

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.
How would I re-install windows?

[Andy-S]

Do you have the Windows 98 CD?

If so just download a bootdisk from <a target="_blank" href=http://www.bootdisk.com>www.bootdisk.com</a> and boot up the machine with the disk in the floppy drive.

Select boot with CD support from the boot menu.

Navigate to the CD drive and type setup.

The installation should start and just install over the previous version. You will lose any updates you have made to the operating system and will need to re-install your applications. Someone posted a method of re-installing without losing the registry information (that way you won't have to re-install the applications). I think it has something to do with renaming win.com to win.old but I don't work with Windows 98 so I can't confirm whether it will work or not.

If you don't have anything that is really important on the system or if you can back it up to some removable media then a better solution would be to re-fromat the drive before installing the OS.

Cheers
Andy

[Pete138]

I found another thing. When I reboot and press the Pause key, it shows I have only a 250Mhz processor, while I have a 500Mhz. When the PC is normal, it shows 500Mhz.
What could this be?
Thanks

[Andy-S]

Pete,

What type of processor do you have? There are several ways that the processor speed is detected. It can be measured using the internal timestamp counter register, it can be determined by reading a set of switch values that are manually set on the motherboard. It may be that you have a set of switches that are being read by the BIOS and these are set incorrectly. You should check your motherboard manual to see.

Intel has frequency locked processors that run at a speed independent of the hardware switches on the motherboard and that may be why the correct speed is being seen by the OS.

You may want to look at upgrading your BIOS if this is the case.

Cheers
Andy

[Pete138]

I have an AMD K6 500Mhz processor.
Thanks

[Andy-S]

Pete,

Sorry, but I don't know anything about AMD. Everything I work with is Intel only. Maybe someone else who is more familiar with the AMD processor speed setting will be able to help.

Cheers
Andy

[BertImmenschuh]

The jumper settings work the same whether using AMD, Intel, Cyrix, or IBM CPUs, etc. The settings chart/s in the book for the motherboard have to be used to get them right for the particular CPU in use. The motherboard maker's site usually has the jumper settings for the model of the board. Some boards have a BIOS that allows setting of clock speed, voltage, etc., without many jumpers on the board [jumperless board].

[Andy-S]

Bert,

I was thinking more of the discrepancy between what is reported by the BIOS during startup (250MHz) and when in the OS (500MHz). If it was an Intel CPU then it could be due to the fact that Intel have speed strapped CPU's i.e. they run at a specific speed governed only by the host bus speed and not by any jumper settings. In that case the BIOS could read a set of switches and display 250MHz yet the CPU will always run at 500MHz.

I know that AMD processors can be overclocked but I'm not aware of anything that would cause the processor speed to be reported as 250MHz during POST and 500MHz during normal OS runtime. Any ideas?

Cheers
Andy

[BertImmenschuh]

The only Intel I've used with the Speed Step is on my notebook, a 1.0GHz, it steps down when on battery alone.

The only way I know to underclock a CPU is with jumpers on the board or the BIOS on a jumperless board.

If all these are correctly set, then I'd suspicion the CPU or board has been damaged somehow. I just received a replacement HP computer [1.3GHz] for a client that took 12 and 12.5 hours to do full restores, finally wouldn't run at all. I ran 2 diagnostics and 1 reported 111MB RAM of the 128 installed and the 1.3GHz CPU and the other test reported 110MB RAM but the processor was at 666MHz. When I gave these figures to the HP tech. there were no more questions, just an RMA number and a new machine on the way.

I did so want to play further but not as long as it was under warranty.

And I just remembered while writing this that I did forget to tell them the sound card was gone.

[Andy-S]

Bert,

Thanks for the info. Looks like it's a secondary problem that doesn't need to be addressed just now.

Pete,

Did re-installing the OS resolve your problem with the PC clock?

Cheers
Andy

[Pete138]

I re-installed. Everything went fine for about 10 minutes, then it speeded up again.
Thanks

[Andy-S]

When you re-installed did you also re-install all the applications including atomic clock sync?

I can't think of any hardware problems that would cause your issue if the RTC is showing the correct time on a reboot.

Cheers
Andy

[Pete138]

I did'nt actually re-install windows, I just ran setup from the cd and copied all the files over.

[Andy-S]

At least that let's us know that the problem is not related to the OS system files but is more likely due to one of the applications you have installed. If you have a way of backing up any data you require then you can re-format and re-install the OS. That should correct the problem. However as you go and add in your applications you may see the problem return.

Cheers
Andy

[Pete138]

Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.