Is Your Windows 10 Time Wrong? Here’s How to Fix the Windows Clock

When the time on your Windows 10 computer is always wrong or keeps changing, the cause could be anything from a dying battery to a faulty setting. We show you why your computer clock is off and how you can make it right again.

3 Common Causes for Windows 10 Time Being Wrong

Let’s walk through the most common reasons that your computer clock is wrong, whether it’s off by a few minutes or keeps resetting.

1. A Dead CMOS Battery

This is a likely culprit of PC clock issues, especially if your computer is a little older.

The CMOS battery sits on your computer’s motherboard and provides power to the Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) chip. This chip stores information about the system configuration, including the date and time. The CMOS battery makes sure the chip can store this data, even while your computer is turned off and not hooked up to power.

If this battery goes bad, the chip starts losing information. One of the symptoms is that your Windows computer no longer maintains its time and date properly. Every time you restart your PC, you’ll find that the clock defaults to an incorrect date and time, such as January 1 at midnight.

Thankfully, replacing the CMOS battery is pretty easy. You just have to turn off your computer, ground yourself to protect against static electricity, open the case, and check which type of battery is in your motherboard. Then after you buy a replacement, open up your PC again and replace the CMOS battery.

See our guide to CMOS motherboard batteries for more information. It’s easy for desktop computers, but might be more difficult with a laptop, depending on your model.

2. An Incorrect Time Zone Setting

When your computer clock is off by exactly one or more hours, Windows may simply be set to the wrong time zone. Even if you fix the time manually, Windows will reset itself to the wrong time zone once you reboot. If the minutes are correct but the hour is wrong, a misconfigured time zone is probably the issue you’re dealing with.

To fix your time zone in Windows 10, right-click the system clock in your System Tray at the bottom-right corner of the screen and select Adjust date/time. You can also go to Settings > Time & Language > Date & time.

Here, in the Time zone box, check whether the information is correct. If not, select the correct time zone from the dropdown menu. You may need to disable the Set time zone automatically slider if the dropdown box is grayed out.

For convenience, you should enable both Adjust for daylight saving time automatically and and Set time automatically so you don’t have to worry about updating them manually. Finally, while here, you can click Sync now to make sure Windows pulls the right time.

3. Windows Time Is Out of Sync

If your CMOS battery is still good and your computer clock is only off by seconds or minutes over long periods of time, then you could be dealing with poor synchronization settings.

You should first confirm that your computer is syncing its clock with a valid time server. To do this, head to Settings > Time & Language > Region, then choose Additional date, time & regional settings from the right side.

This will take you to the old Control Panel interface. Under Date and Time, click Set the time and date, which opens another window. Switch to the Internet Time tab, click Change Settings, and you can change the Server if needed.

Pick an option from the dropdown menu or enter a server of your choosing. Your system will use this to synchronize the clock to keep it from drifting slowly over time.

Now, to make sure Windows is actually synchronizing its time regularly, press the Windows key to open the Start menu search, type services, and open that utility.

In the Services window, find Windows Time in the Name column, right-click it, and select Properties.

In the Windows Time Properties window, set Startup type to Automatic. Then click Start to make sure the service is running, followed by OK to save your changes.

Bonus: An Incorrect Computer Clock Could Be Malware

This is the least pleasant scenario, because malware is often difficult to remove.

If nothing above worked to fix your PC’s clock, perhaps malware hijacked your computer and messes with its time. To fix it, you need to gather a few malware removal tools. First, make sure your antivirus program is up to date with the latest virus definitions. Then, get a good on-demand secondary malware scanner, like Malwarebytes.

Once you have all these tools downloaded, updated, and installed, boot in Safe Mode and run them. It’s important to start in Safe Mode, because the malware won’t launch at startup and be active when you choose this boot mode. This means it’s less likely to escape detection and removal.

If you’re running Windows 10, it’s a good idea to reset or refresh your system so you’re sure to eliminate the malware.

To protect yourself from future infections, keep your both your system and installed software up-to-date, and follow basic advice to avoid getting viruses.

Your Windows Computer Clock Is Back on Time

Are you back on time now? If none of these fixes worked, some people have reported that updating their BIOS or UEFI version did the trick.

From now on, you’ll know to pay attention even to the smallest details of your computer. Simple oddities can be a sign of serious trouble ahead. For example, if your CMOS battery dies, your computer will forget everything when it reboots, so it has to be introduced to its hardware components (via the BIOS) every time it boots. That’s just as annoying as a virus playing tricks on you, or a bad time zone setting that messes up everything from the clock to your email client’s timestamps. So be wise and act immediately when you see trouble.

If you’re really into your PC’s clock, you can go further to make sure the time is always as accurate as possible.

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