strange system clock issues

[Jim Kuzdrall]

On Wednesday 26 August 2009 16:08, Paul Lussier wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I just noticed that my system clock doesn't seem to be working
> correctly all of a sudden.  I wasn't running ntpd, but now I am.  And
> when I run it, it keeps things up to date for a bit, but watching the
> "seconds" tick by seems very slow, I can actually count 5
> "mississippi"s between "seconds" on the clock.
>
> After the clock gets about an hour (maybe it's 2) out of sync, ntpd
> fails to sync and gives up.  Is this a system clock battery problem ?
> The system in question is about 10 years old...

    I would guess battery.  The current drawn by the 32KHz clock chip is 
so low that it always runs on battery.  The clock draws less current 
than the self-discharge of the battery.  But... the battery shelf life 
is about 10 years, highly dependent on storage temperature.

    If you can get at it, it would not hurt to replace the battery.

Jim Kuzdrall