[time-nuts] M$-Vi$ta-compliant PC RTC clock card?

[Hal Murray]

> I have installed Rick Hambly's TAC32+ software. That software tells me
> that my motherboard's own Real Time Clock (RTC) is truly horrible: it
> drifts at a rate of about 5000 microseconds per second and is
> unstable, too. I want a better RTC than that (I don't really need it,
> but being a time-nut, I *want* it.) 

An error of 5000 ppm is way way off.  Something is broken.  I don't know if 
it's hardware or software.

If you have a scope or counter, you should be able to sanity check the 
crystal.

A couple generations back, the RTC used to live off in a separate big boxy 
"chip" with a crystal and battery all included.  Most modern boards have the 
RTC in a corner of the southbridge chip with a battery and crystal nearby.  
Look for a 32 KHz watch crystal.



> Wrong. In order for the PCI RTC clock card to replace the
> motherboard's RTC, I have to first stop or disable the Windows RTC
> service. This is something that Windows Vista does not permit me to
> do, even though I am the Administrator of my own computer. In at least
> the first release of Vista, only software which has been signed by the
> manufacturer can replace the motherboard's RTC service.

Keeping idiots from shooting themselves in the foot is probably the first 
step in making life harder for virus/trojan writers.

> (I know that some on this list will say, "You nitwit, you should be
> another OS than M$ Vista." Such replies will not be helpful to me.)

I've seen comments about people going out to buy a couple of copies of an 
older MS operating system in order to avoid problems like this.




-- 
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's.  I hate spam.