"w_tom" wrote in message
...
Why so many "it might be this" or "it might be that" or
"time is updated from the internet"? Every posts says nothing
useful AND does not answer the OPs question. OP even
clarified the question when some replies were rubbish.

The answer -- technically -- was posted without
speculation. Processor hangs obviously do not affect that
clock operation - it one first learned how something works
before posting. The OP posted this - a technical question
that required technical knowledge before replying:
Why do the battery powered clocks in personal computers tend
to keep worse time than quartz watches, even the $1 ones?

See that word "might" ? That word "might" means the poster
does not know the answer and therefore should not have
posted. Anyone can speculate. But even worse, he posted
without reading the answer that was already posted. He did
not read every previous post before replying. A program
called D4 is equivalent to telling us when that mountain will
fall - not relevant to the OP's question. Most replies were
just as useless as this one. Why? How can so many post when
they never bothered to first learn how a computer's battery
powered clock even works?

DBLEXPOSURE wrote:
Because the processor in your computer might hang or busy itself
with other things besides keeping time. It may also have
something to do with the clock pulses your computer uses not
being exactly divisible into real time.

look for a program called D4. It is a free download and will keep your
clock synced to universal time. Also, Widows XP can sync to the same
time
servers that D4 uses. Both work great!





What Happens and Why
There is a "CMOS clock" in your computer which is powered by a tiny battery.
As long as the battery is good, this clock keeps the correct time, and each
time your computer is restarted, Windows98 reads its initial time from the
CMOS clock. However, while Windows98 is running, it keeps track of the time
on its own without continuing to check the CMOS clock, and keeping track of
the time is not the only thing Windows has to do. The busier your system
gets, the more likely it is to lose time. Generally, the longer you use your
computer, the further behind it gets. When you leave your computer on for an
extended amount of time, the Windows clock (displayed on the taskbar) may
lose from two minutes to an hour per day.

Likely culprits
Anything that makes your computer especially "busy" can take Windows'
attention away from its time-keeping function and lead to this "losing time"
symptom. If you're running lots of programs, or even just one or two very
demanding programs, you may see the computer clock losing time. Furthermore,
anything you are running which causes the computer to have to spend time
"watching" for something to happen can also lead to a slow clock. Here are
the most common culprits:

a.. Games and other video-intensive programs

b.. Screen savers and "scheduling" programs

c.. Internet chat programs (ICQ, IM, etc.)

d.. Playing MP3 files, CDs, or internet audio

e.. Anti-virus programs

f.. Processor-intensive applications