Novell Clock Drivers

Windows NT Stand Alone Atomic Clock Drivers - Problem Sheet

Please note that this page is archived for historical purposes

• Overview
• Windows NT Installation
• Starting the NT Clock
• Error messages in Event Log
• Changing Clock Driver Options After Installation
• Setting the Time On Other Computers
• How accurate can the time be set on the host computer

Overview^ top

The Windows NT Stand Alone Atomic Clock driver runs as a service on a Windows NT 4.0 machine. The driver will accept the time from the clock and update the system time on the computer that the driver is running on.

Windows NT Installation^ top

To install under Windows NT. Start Windows NT and from the "Program Manager" execute the file Pcrsetup.exe that is contained in A:\pcrsetup.exe on the supplied disk. The following display will appear:

1. First select the COM's port you wish to use to communicate with the clock
2. Next select either UK British Summer Time or UTC.
3. Use the Clock Synchronisation box to enter in minutes, how often you wish to update your Server. This can be from 0 onwards.
4. The next box asks if you wish to log all updates. As this is a service you can log all the updates and view them in Event Viewer under Applications. The option variance allows the user to the server clock to tick naturally or by entering 0 , will not let the Server clock to fluctuate.
5. You can either enter your account and password during installation or in service manager. Finally click on install and the Exit

Starting the NT Clock^ top

Now that you have successfully installed your NT Clock software, you must now start the service. To do that follow the instructions below:-

Open the Control Panel and click onto services. The following screen will appear:-

Scroll down until you come to PC Radio Clock, at this point double click the directory which will open another window displaying the following:

Within this window select Automatic and if you haven't done so enter a valid account and click OK. After selecting OK the previous window will appear, simply select start, a message will appear telling you Windows NT is Attempting to start the service. Once it has completed starting the service you may exit services and control panel.

You have now completed your installation and the clock will synchronise your server as you have specified.

Error Messages in Event Log^ top

The following messages generated by the Clock Driver may appear in the Application Event Log.

Warning: The service was unable to open the COM port. Another process may be using its interrupt.

Problem: The specified serial port was found but the resource was in use by another application.

Solution: Either specify an alternative serial port or release the resource.

The COM port read failed. The data below shows the windows error number. A windows error occurred when reading the serial port.

Solution: This error usually denotes a windows configuration problem.

A valid time string was not received from the PC Radio Clock. The received string was... The service was unable to communicate successfully with the atomic clock.

Solution: Check that the clock is plugged into the specified serial port. Check the connections to the clock. Check the clock is powered on.

The service was unable to set the system time. Check its logon account has permission to set time. The time was read as... The service could not set the system time usually because the account that the service is running in does not have permission to set the time.

Solution: Modify the account permissions using user manager.

The System Time has been changed by more than the specified variance. UTC changed from/to: The system time was updated by more than the specified variance.

Solution: Possibly because the system time has been manually modified.

The PC Radio Clock has not received a time signal since 02:30. The clock has lost time signal broadcasts.

Solution: Reposition the antenna until the time signal is regained. Possible causes of Interference to the Time Signal.

The battery in the PC Radio Clock is low and should be changed. This message should only appear when a battery powered clock unit is used.

Solution: The batteries in the clock unit are low and require changing. Remove the clock unit from the host computer before changing batteries.

The PC Radio Clock has updated the System Time. UTC changed from/to: …

The system time has been successfully updated.

Changing Clock Driver Options After Installation^ top

The clock driver options can be modified after installation by running the PCRSetup.exe program from the supplied floppy disk. Options can be modified and then updated by clicking the 'update' button.

Setting the Time On Other Computers^ top

The stand alone windows NT driver does not synchronise the time on computers across a network. The driver only updates the time on a single computer. TimeSync NTP can be used to set the time across a network.

How accurate can the time be set on the host computer^ top

It is difficult to quantify the accuracy of time on any Windows based host computer due to the fact that most Windows platforms are multitasking. We aim for an accuracy of 20 milliseconds (0.020 seconds) or better.