There is no malware that specifically targets the clock.

People look at their computer and they wonder at the marvel of its computing power yet
they fail to understand that a computer is NOT an accurate time piece. They expect it to
be because, hell computers are accurate - right ?

When it comes to the PC clock, no. The clock on one's wrist in the form of a watch is
much more accurate. Older platforms as expressed here just don't hold an accurate time
and one can't expect it to.

In a case like this one should just point the PC to the NIST's time server so when you are
in the OS, you have a pretty close time. When you are outside of the OS, who cares if it
doesn't have the correct time.

http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp40/its.cfm

Dave

Date forwarded: Tue, 01 Feb 2011 02:14:09 -0700 (MST)
Date sent: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:46:59 -0600
Forwarded by: focus-virus-return-3830 (at) securityfocus (dot) com [email concealed]
From: Jay Scalf <jayscalf (at) comcast (dot) net [email concealed]>
Subject: Let's start over
To: focus-virus (at) securityfocus (dot) com [email concealed]
Organization: James F. Scalf & Associates, Architects, AIA

> Dave ultimately had the answer for "updateg", but let me ask further, if
> I may: I normal maintain 3 computers and don't have a lot of problems.
> (I started in college on Cobol (is that how you spell it?) and Fortran
> over 40 years ago, learned to program in DOS and C in the 80's, and of
> all Windows, still prefer XP) The machine in question is a 7 year old
> machine given to me by my best friend's widow. He first thought he had a
> Trojan or a virus affecting the clock. I suggested the battery. He went
> to the Geeks at Best Buy and they sold him a new battery, put the old
> one back in and told him he needed a new hard drive - then sold him a
> new computer and charged $100 extra to move his data from the old to new
> machine. (Unbelievable, eh?) When I got home with it about 10 days ago,
> I put his new battery in it, ran all sorts of hardware tests, and I
> can't find anything wrong with it. Still, because of his first
> impression that it is infected, I am still running various scans. So -
> anyone ever heard of a virus or whatever that messes with the clock or
> somehow drains the clock battery? If he was right I would like to find
> and remove whatever. As I am beginning to feel pretty good about its PC
> state of health overall, if I don't find something in a couple of days,
> I will finish cleaning his personal stuff off of it and load my stuff.
>
> BTW: Thanks to everyone for their responses regarding "updateg" - lots
> of good information.
> Jay
>
> --
> As faxed/scanned signatures are considered legal in most States, hard copies of attachments, where applicable, will not be sent unless specifically requested.
>
>
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--

Mr. David H. Lipman
DLipman (at) Verizon (dot) Net [email concealed]
Yahoo IM: david_h_lipman

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