This Dell Inspiron N5110, which has Windows 7 Home Premium installed, was given to me because upon startup it would BSOD with a REGISTRY_ERROR. That was resolved with a system restore but I noticed another problem which has me puzzled. The system time does not advance when the unit is turned off. I went into the BIOS setup and noticed that within the time configuration, the seconds were not ticking. Once the machine is booted into Windows, the automatic time synchronization will eventually set it to the correct time and it stays that way until it's powered off. The CMOS battery measures above 3 volts in circuit and all the other BIOS settings are saved when the machine is off. I tried temporarily removing the battery to reset the BIOS and the result was that the time reverted back to several years earlier however the seconds were ticking normally. I entered the correct time/date and restarted the computer and all was well. I turned it off for a while and then powered it on again and entered the BIOS setup. The time was stuck again and the seconds were not advancing. It seems to me that no matter what condition the Windows operating system is in, it shouldn't be able to interrupt the time function when the set is powered off. I tried updating the BIOS to a newer version but that just crashed the machine. (Fortunately it didn't brick the machine). I found other users complaining about the frozen clock issue but as yet have found no solution. Here is an example of a similar complaint.
Anyone have any ideas what is causing this suspension of time?
Thanks for your reply.