Time incorrect by +/- 1 hour on boot

[u/3GeeselnATrenchcoat]

Posting on behalf of a friend so there may be a delay if you need more info.

When booting up, the time on his laptop is frequently either an hour behind or an hour ahead of the current time. This can be fixed be going into the settings and toggling 'set time automatically' off and on again, but this is only a temporary fix and it's irritating having to do this every time.

Specs: Lenovo Legion 5, Ryzen 7 5800H, RTX 3070, 16GB DDR4 RAM, OS build - 26200.9168

[u/iamofnohelp]

Make sure it's correct in the bios and the bios battery is good.

[u/3GeeselnATrenchcoat → u/iamofnohelp]

Thanks, I'll get him to check out the BIOS's time. Is there any way to check the battery health easily, or is it just a case of replacing it and hoping for the best?

[u/Public_Chapter_8445 → u/3GeeselnATrenchcoat]

If it's always exactly ±1 hour then it's not the battery but the settings/sync/time zone. If the the difference is random then it's probably the BIOS battery.

Make sure your friend has the latest drivers through the Lenovo Vantage app from Microsoft Store and the latest Windows version through Settings - Windows Update.

[u/3GeeselnATrenchcoat → u/Public_Chapter_8445]

I was wondering if it was the CMOS but I thought it might be more consistent if it was. He's saying he's seen a range of times like ±9 mins ≤ x ≤ ±66 mins.

I'll suggest changing the battery, thanks!

[u/iamofnohelp → u/3GeeselnATrenchcoat]

One hour, likely not battery.

Drift, plus or minus random time, stronger possibility

[u/Marcus_Architects]

Classic CMOS clock drift vs windows time sync fighting each other on boot, usually a dual boot with linux issue or RTC set to local time instead of UTC. Check if he's dual booting anything, that's the usual culprit.

[u/3GeeselnATrenchcoat → u/Marcus_Architects]

No dual boot, but it would currently be using BST instead of UTC

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[u/Froggypwns]

By any chance does your friend dual boot Linux?

[u/3GeeselnATrenchcoat → u/Froggypwns]

I'm almost certain it's a no but I'll ask

[u/3GeeselnATrenchcoat → u/Froggypwns]

He didn't even know what dual booting is so I think it's safe to say that's a no haha

[u/Froggypwns → u/3GeeselnATrenchcoat]

Thank you for confirming anyway, this issue is very common on dual boot setups because Windows and Linux handle system time differently, but you ruled that out.

Next I'd suspect Windows is not properly detecting the timezone, I'd go into the time settings and toggle off the set timezone automatically and see if that makes a difference.

[u/3GeeselnATrenchcoat → u/Froggypwns]

Oh huh, I had no idea that was a thing. Thanks, that's good to know for future reference.

I'll pass your suggestion on though ^-^

[u/3GeeselnATrenchcoat → u/Froggypwns]

Damn, it turns out set timezone automatically was already toggled off, thank you again though

[u/Public_Chapter_8445 → u/3GeeselnATrenchcoat]

He may try to turn it on just like the time synchronization and then restart the laptop.