Real Time Clock Problem

[allens]

Hello,
I have just seen a HP Proliant that passes BurnIn Test V5.3. Looking at the time display on the main window, it was obvious that the clock was running about twice too fast.

Cross-referenced with PC-Check and the unit fails the motherboard/Non-Volatile CMOS RAM Test/Clock Sync Test. It passed their System Timer Test though.

I realise this is perhaps a rare failure but it would have caused real problems in the field. Could such a test be included in BurnIn Test?
Do tests like DMA Controller, Interrupt Controller tests need consideration as well?

Thank you

Steve

[David (PassMark)]

We will consider this for a future release of BurnInTest.

Do you know the root cause of the problem. e.g. was it the result of an ocerclocking adventure gone bad, or a BIOS bug, bad motherboard device driver, etc..

If all the clocks in the PC are running fast it can be hard to detect. (an external clock source might be required for comparision).

[allens]

Hello and thanks for the quick response.
It was a bad motherboard.

Can you not use the clock in the cmos ?

Looking at the PcCheck test, I beleive it makes a start point between the cmos "tick" and the system timer, runs for a predetermined "system" amount of time, marks the stop point and compares the two. If they differ it would, I think, assume the cmos was faulty.

As long as it returns a fail, it would not matter which sub system is the faulty party.

Thanks,

Steve