How does DOS time work?

[Robb Thomas]

 > From: gopstein at soleil.UUCP (Rich Gopstein)
 > Date: 24 May 90 13:28:16 GMT
 > Organization: Harris Semiconductor, Somerville, NJ
 > Message-ID: <962 at soleil.UUCP>
 > Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer,comp.sys.att
 >
 >
 >   I am having problems getting an accurate time-of-day clock on my ATT
 > 6300.  Since the internal 6300 clock (and AT&T's MSDOS) cannot have
 > their seconds set, and when the machine reboots, it resets the H/W
 > clock's seconds to zero, I can't keep accurate time.  I've installed a
 > separate clock card, and am now running Microsoft MS-DOS (generic from
 > Phoenix).

     I have ran into simular time problems on AT&T PC-6300's.  ATT Dos is 
very diferent from the generic MS/PC DOS being run elsewhere.  First of all, 
it looks at the AT&T 6300's internal hardware clock, whenever the time is 
checked.  (I tried running AT&T ver 3.1 on a generic clone & could not 
figure out why 'TIME STOOD STILL' <GRIN>).

     This means that when you are running under AT&T DOS, installing a clock 
card does NOTHING for you as AT&T DOS is constantly looking at it's own 
internal hardware clock.

      You should try booting your machine off floppy under a 'generic' 
version of MS-DOS.  Next, run your clock utilities off the floppy, and POOF, 
your clock problems should go away!

      The other 'minor' problem you might have to live with, is that older 
versions of AT&T DOS have been known to use NON-STANDARD disk partitioning,
which means that if you are considering switching to a generic dos, be very 
carefull!  I STRONGLY urge you to do a FULL backup before attempting the
usually 'harmless' SYS C: command!

Good Luck...

                                              ---- Robb ----

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