[sacramento]

About every 3 to 5 days, my computer clock starts to run up to five minutes fast. I depend on this clock for accurate time and keep resetting it and it keeps running fast. What can I do to prevent this from happening?

[Perito]

Computer clocks usually run consistently slow so your symptom is a bit unusual. I assume this is Windows. Is it XP or Vista.

I'm not all that familiar with Vista, but this is the best way to fix this in Windows XP: Double-click on the clock time in the "system tray" (area at the bottom right of the screen). The "Date and Time Properties" window should appear (you can also get to this window through the Control Panel).

There are usually three tabs on the Date and Time Properties. The third tab should be labeled "Internet Time". Click on that. There should be a checkbox near the top that says "Automatically synchronize with an Internet time server". You should check that.

There are probably some Internet Time Servers in the drop-down box beneath the checkbox. "time.windows.com" is probably there and "time.nist.gov" may also be there. You can use one of those if you wish, but I find that since they are probably overused, it's better (IMHO) to find another one.

Google: "Internet time server" or "Internet time server list" and pick one from one of the pages that shows up -- preferably one relatively close to your state.

Let me google that for you

This really only works well if your computer is connected to the Internet most of the time.

[bhysics]

You can say to the clock it shold double check with the atom clock..
I do this, an my clock is the precisiest ever...