Windows Clock drift - Time way off

[amac]

I concur with Opus. Having just went thru a bug submission and investigation process, all the discussion in the world on the forums would not have resolved the problem I had with playback stuttering. No sage.property setting would have resolved it (although many of the settings could also have caused similar problems if they had been set incorrectly). The forum was a good place to start because if an issue is a user problem, or something that other users have encountered and corrected, it reduces the demand on Sage developers.

If it's a problem with Sage code, only they can fix it. And with any development staff, they can't read all the fluff in forums, looking for gems. They would never fix any bugs. Sure some Sage staff read/participate on the forums from time to time, but one can't rely on it, especially when they have clearly stated their policy is not to use the forums for bug tracking.

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by Opus4

If this is your reasoning for not contacting SageTV or filing a bug report if you've tried it on the latest beta, then don't complain if it turns out to be something that SageTV could have handled, but never got fixed because no one cared to follow up with them about it.

- Andy

You are right. I submitted a bug report. However, Sage's response does not promise any feedback.
That's what the forum's is for.

And whether or not I report the bug does not mitigate my right to complain since as a paid licensed user I expect the software not to have such a serious bug. If they should fix it, then I will be less annoyed but it is still their fault for having a such a serious bug in the first place. I am assuming of course that it is not my hardware at fault. Maybe a corrupt windows install, etc. Either way, Clockmon is a great workaround and at least I can enjoy the product. But let's not forget that the user is the customer.

This is Sages automatic reponse to filing a bug report:

"Thank you for submitting a possible bug for SageTV version 4.
Your submissions will not generate a response but we will look into the problem you are experiencing."

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by amac

I concur with Opus. Having just went thru a bug submission and investigation process, all the discussion in the world on the forums would not have resolved the problem I had with playback stuttering. No sage.property setting would have resolved it (although many of the settings could also have caused similar problems if they had been set incorrectly). The forum was a good place to start because if an issue is a user problem, or something that other users have encountered and corrected, it reduces the demand on Sage developers.

If it's a problem with Sage code, only they can fix it. And with any development staff, they can't read all the fluff in forums, looking for gems. They would never fix any bugs. Sure some Sage staff read/participate on the forums from time to time, but one can't rely on it, especially when they have clearly stated their policy is not to use the forums for bug tracking.

You are right but they should read 'the fluff' and all. Why not? I am a paid user and read the forums fluf and and all. They have a greater interest at stake and should look at the forums. It would behove them otherwise to ignore the forums.

Anyway I submitted a bug report.

[gplasky]

I don't think it was meant or implied that tech support DOES NOT read the forums at all. I think the point was they don't read the forum looking for issues and registering them as support incidents to fix. I have seen postings from some support people and from Jeff (Narflex) himself so it is obvious they read the forums to glean as much knowledge as they can. But the forums are not an "offical" channel for expecting support for a problem.

Gerry

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I don't think it was meant or implied that tech support DOES NOT read the forums at all. I think the point was they don't read the forum looking for issues and registering them as support incidents to fix. I have seen postings from some support people and from Jeff (Narflex) himself so it is obvious they read the forums to glean as much knowledge as they can. But the forums are not an "offical" channel for expecting support for a problem.

Gerry

Gerry,
That explanation to me makes the most sense. Clockmon seems to solve my problem. By nature I like to fix problems and sometimes invent them. Now perhaps my system has a strange virus that is only triggered in certain apps or a strange windows corruption. Either way, I do not intend to reformat my system since Clockmon has saved my skin. So maybe I am just too picky.

Thanks guys for all your support.

EDIT -- NB-- It has been brought to my attention that the official version 4.1 that I have been running is in fact NOT the latest beta. I had assumed that by purchasing the software last week, that I must have benn purchasing the latest Beta. However, the Beta downloads are in a seperate page on the Sage site not accesible from their home page. I should have taken greater care to read the Information page in Sage and would've seen that my version was the older version.

So Now I plan to install Beta 4.1.12 and I think that will fix my problem. I feel like such a fool and I hope others take note to use the newest Beta. I will report back with my results.

EDIT 2: Well Beta 4.1.12 is the same result unfortunately. And even with older Java versions.

EDIT 3: With Jeff's help at Sage we concluded that its the same old Java problem that used to exist in the past. For some odd reason the flag fix known as -XX:+ForceTimeResolutionHigh does not do anything for me. So I am just resetting my windows clock at 1 minute intervals

[DFA]

roxy99:

Could you be more specific about "-XX:+ForceTimeResolutionHigh"? Nothing returned when I Googled this. Is this a registery entry or what?

DFA

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by DFA

roxy99:

Could you be more specific about "-XX:+ForceTimeResolutionHigh"? Nothing returned when I Googled this. Is this a registery entry or what?

DFA

It should be entered in the Java control panel. Under Aplet runtime you will find a parameter box. There you may enter '-XX:+ForceTimeResolutionHigh'.

However, it is a redundant setting because SageTv invokes the flag anyway. IOW, it did'nt help me. Mine is probably a pure hardware problem. Also windows AIPC mode could be causing screw ups in the IRQ requests and messing up the clock.

[rtaxx]

Hello.

i ran accross this thread when searching for a fix for clock drift with my own DVR PC setup. I've got a drift of a few minutes a day, though i haven't monitored it closely.

I'm running BTV (a different PVR product ) on a pretty new Dell E510 which
uses some Intel chipset. (Intel 954, i think).

Other stats: Windows MCE 2005
Pentium D 820 ( 2.8 GHz) , ATI radeon x300 (shared memory), PVR-150.

My current guess, after reading this thread, is that it's something to do w/ XP /MCE or how it's installed. I'm going to try that w32tm registering/unregistering thing mentioned near the top, maybe that will do something.

Synching Windows time w/ the HW clock or net time every couple of mintues, while effective, just isn't all that appealing as a long term solution.

[jbuszkie]

Originally Posted by rtaxx

Hello.

i ran accross this thread when searching for a fix for clock drift with my own DVR PC setup. I've got a drift of a few minutes a day, though i haven't monitored it closely.

I'm running BTV (a different PVR product ) on a pretty new Dell E510 which
uses some Intel chipset. (Intel 954, i think).

No help for you here!! Only Sage consumers can get help!!

Originally Posted by rtaxx

Synching Windows time w/ the HW clock or net time every couple of mintues, while effective, just isn't all that appealing as a long term solution.

Why not? I've been using clockmon for well over a year and I couldn't be happier! I installed it once and I never even worry about... Two of my machines (both Nforce 2) had issues and Clockmon with internet time sync once a day have completly fixed my problems!

[mangriotis]

Sorry to resurrect a 3 year old thread, but I resurrected my Asus A7N8X mobo and built my WHS and Sage Server out of it... now this clock inaccuracy is biting me again. I used to have clockmon running back in my other instantiation, but now I need something that will run as a service... any thoughts on this??

[S_M_E]

I use a VBS script which runs from a scheduled task 4 times per day to sync the clock to the time servers. It's not quite the same as a service but the effect is the same.

[mangriotis]

Can you share your script? Also, running scheduled tasks on WHS is ok? I guess I was a little scared of setting those up (and interfering with WHS activities). Do you just set these up as you would on a normal xp or vista installation (i.e. either remote desktop onto the WHS machine, or by logging in directly)?

I changed the W32Time polling interval to once per hour, but am now getting an error in the Event log, "Time was off more than 5000 ms for more than 900 seconds ... cannot synchronize". I fear this solution is not working.

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by mangriotis

Can you share your script? Also, running scheduled tasks on WHS is ok? I guess I was a little scared of setting those up (and interfering with WHS activities). Do you just set these up as you would on a normal xp or vista installation (i.e. either remote desktop onto the WHS machine, or by logging in directly)?

I changed the W32Time polling interval to once per hour, but am now getting an error in the Event log, "Time was off more than 5000 ms for more than 900 seconds ... cannot synchronize". I fear this solution is not working.

Yes, I'll attach it. (remove the .txt, it's a .vbs) I keep it in the system32 directory and run the task from there, as admin.
Setting up scheduled tasks on WHS isn't supported because you have to remote in to set them up but it works fine.
Exactly the same. I set it to repeat every 6 hours for 23 hours, you don't want to pound the time servers. If you need a screenshot of the task settings, let me know...

EDIT:
You can also edit the vbs to change to a time server closer to you, if you want.

[mangriotis]

Pardon my ignorance, but can you explain "every 6 hours for 23 hours"?

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by mangriotis

Pardon my ignorance, but can you explain "every 6 hours for 23 hours"?

Let's say it's a daily task that starts at 12:01 AM. Every 6 hours it repeats but you have to specify how long it should repeat. If it only repeated for 1 hour (default) then it would only run once. It doesn't need to repeat for 24 hours because it's a daily task. So, after 23 hours the task is done for the day but it still starts the next day.

[ke6guj]

Or you can just adjust the registry settings to poll the time server more often.

I first posted this when Windows XP was still in beta. It applies to Windows
Vista as well.


Windows XP (and now Windows Vista), as loaded, automatically updates the
system time every 7 days from one of the (default) time servers. This
update interval can be changed as follows:

Go to Start/Run. Type in regedit (the registry editor), then press enter.
Using regedit, press control/F (search). Type in "specialpollinterval"
without the quotes. Press enter.

When search has found the first entry, double click on the highlighted name.
Change the "base" to decimal. You will see that the decimal value is 604800,
the number of seconds in 7 days.

Edit this decimal value to any value you desire, remembering that there are
86400 seconds in one day, 3600 seconds in one hour. Click O.K.

Press F3 to find the next entry. Do this for each instance of the decimal
value "specialpollinterval".

Exit regedit.

Now reboot your system for the change to take effect.

Cheers!!!"


--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

[mangriotis]

Originally Posted by mangriotis

I changed the W32Time polling interval to once per hour, but am now getting an error in the Event log, "Time was off more than 5000 ms for more than 900 seconds ... cannot synchronize". I fear this solution is not working.

Yeah, I tried that as stated here...

[S_M_E]

By using a sheduled task it's easier to edit and change, no reboots required.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by mangriotis

Can you share your script? Also, running scheduled tasks on WHS is ok? I guess I was a little scared of setting those up (and interfering with WHS activities). Do you just set these up as you would on a normal xp or vista installation (i.e. either remote desktop onto the WHS machine, or by logging in directly)?

I changed the W32Time polling interval to once per hour, but am now getting an error in the Event log, "Time was off more than 5000 ms for more than 900 seconds ... cannot synchronize". I fear this solution is not working.

Have you tried ASrgosoft Time Syncronizer works as a service and has never failed me.

[mangriotis]

Thanks for that, sound like a nice solution also... for now, I have S_M_E's approach working and it seems to work well. I have set it for every 4 hours and the W32Time poll interval to 1.5 hrs. Server seems to keep time ok now...

I am beginning to think, however, that my ancient hardware just doesn't have enough juice to keep things running smoothly.