My System time changes automatically... Hardware problem/malware?

[Leyvanom]

The system clock slows down over a period of time.
After shutdown/hibernate/standby the system time resumes at time the comp was stopped.
Comp- Toshiba Satellite
OS- Windows XP MCE 2002

[Forester]

The system clock slows down over a period of time.
After shutdown/hibernate/standby the system time resumes at time the comp was stopped.
Comp- Toshiba Satellite
OS- Windows XP MCE 2002

Hello Leyvanom and welcome to the Knoppix forms.

Do you mind my asking which version of Knoppix are you using (last time I looked Windows XP didn't count).

Also stating that you have a Toshiba Satellite tells us very little about your laptop. I'm guessing yours is a bit more recent than the Toshiba Satellite 100CS, running on an Intel Pentium processor @ 150 MHz, 32 MB of RAM, with an internal floppy drive on Windows 95.

My suspicion is that your Tosh has seen better days and the little battery that backs up its CMOS and RTC is almost dead. I'm not sure what that will look like in your Tosh but you can find a picky of a selection here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_cell.

It may be that the RTC on your Tosh is dead but not to worry. If you have an Internet connection you can install NTP, a protocol for talking to very accurate atomic clocks, which will soon put your time right whenever it starts to drift off.

Just because your laptop is a Toshiba doesn't mean it will try to talk to a Japanese atomic clock and I've read no reports of the recent events in Japan affecting their clocks or their Internet in any way anyway.

Install the ntp package using your favourite method and add ntp to the list of services in /etc/rc.local. If you are using Knoppix from CD without persistent store just stall the ntp package each time you notice the clock is wrong.

If anything is not clear, don't hesitate to ask.