Troubleshooting TIPS – How an unset / wrong system DATE contributes to your troubles?
Although one may think that the date and time feature in windows is just for our knowledge that what date/time is it now, but it isn’t so. Numerous applications depend on the system date to function correctly.
How the system date goes wrong?
Well there can be a couple of reasons. Perhaps the user changed the system date/time and set the wrong date and time Or there is a malware that changes it. To correct the system date time you can do it from BIOS or Windows (and any other OS).
Troubles that arise due to incorrect system date
I have encountered some curious problems due to incorrect system date while providing support to my clients. So, if somehow you got here due to the following reasons, you don’t need to search the web anymore;
1. You can’t access your email account (hotmail/gmail/yahoo)
The server's security certificate is not yet valid, so you are not able to access your email account. this problem is also due to wronge date and time.
2. You can’t save documents, especially in MS Word.The system has to assign datetime stamp to the file while saving it to the hard drive (date showing when the file was created). Apparently, the timestamps are bounded, so when your date is out of bounds, you may get errors.
3.You get invalid time stamp errors while running the CHKDSK utility.
As said above the system assigns datetime stamp to a file when it saves it. Somehow some of your files got the wrong date time stamp. Although for the date or time to be invalid, you know the month cannot be > 12, minute cannot be >60 etc.
4.You have no free space in C Drive
Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 generates error reports and stores them in ‘\Windows\pchealth\ERRORREP\’ due to incorrect system date. The reports can grow into GBs to eat up the precious free space in your system drive. Other applications including antivirus softwares may accumulate error reports, so much so, that it takes GBs of free space.
5.Antivirus does not get virus definitions (updates)
When your antivirus client contacts the server for virus definitions, it has to ask for updates pertaining to particular dates. But if your system date is wrong, the client asks for a wronge update package and the server denies it.
6.Sent messages may not be saved in the Sent Items folder in Outlook Express
You may refer to the Microsoft article: KB184059 for further details.
---Solution---
To get rid of the problems mentioned above, just reset your system date so it shows the correct date/time. The list of problems provided is what I have experienced; I believe there will be a host of other problems due to incorrect system date. You can browse the internet and open any website except the yahoomail.com, gmail.com and hotmail.com apart from others email facility sites, the problem is due to incorrect system date. But this may not be the only reason, you should check your browser and other settings too.
If the system date goes wrong again after each boot-up, your system battery may be totally consumed so you need to replace it.
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