“Time of Day not set” error on Dell PC
If you see the following show up when you switch on your PC then this article is going to of help to you 🙂.
This occurs due to 2 possible reasons:
1. Your drivers may not be up to date
2. There might be issues related to the PC’s power supply
You could try the following in sequence to resolve this issue:
UPDATING DATE AND TIME IN BIOS
- Select the option “BIOS-Setup”.
- Navigate to “Date/Time”.
- Enter the date and time manually.
- If “Apply” button is not greyed out, click and apply your changes, else exit.
UPDATING DRIVERS
Your divers may not be up to date which might be the possible cause of this issue.
- Find out your current BIOS version by typing msinfo32 in the search bar on the Task bar. You will see the BIOS version/date on the right panel. Make a note of it.
- Go to https://www.dell.com/support/home/
- Now you need to either enter the service tag number or click on “Detect This PC” so that you are provided with the list of drivers that needs update.
- Under “Drivers and Downloads” you should be able to see the latest drivers that are available for you to download.
- Click on “BIOS” category. You will be able to see the latest version of the BIOS rolled out by DELL.
- Click on “Older version” and look for the BIOS version closest to what is installed on your system.
- If your BIOS version is older by more than 2 versions compared to the latest version rolled out by DELL, you should be updating the BIOS gradually. Update by skipping 2 versions at a time, or you should update to the next “recommended” version.
I highly would recommend you update all the other drivers (besides BIOS) as well. - Once you have all the drivers updated to the latest version, you should check if the problem still exists.
REPLACING CMOS BATTERY
If there are orange lights blinking in your CPU power button in this pattern — 3 orange blinks followed by 1 white blink. It is highly likely that your CMOS power is lost.
You could easily replace the CMOS battery by yourself at home. I would recommend this over going to a repair shop and paying an exorbitant price for a simple task. CMOS batteries are easily available in stores and online.
Now you should open up your CPU and check the CMOS battery. Remember to power off the device and remove all the wires attached to the CPU. Press and hold the power button for few seconds to get rid of any static charge while the device is unplugged.
The round cell is the CMOS battery that you need to replace. Make a note of the number, for me the number was CR2032. To open it, just push the left spring and it will pop out.
Clean up any dust inside the CPU. (You could also pop the CMOS battery in place and check if your issue is resolved at this point, sometimes accumulated dust cause issues with the functioning of the device!)
Get your new CMOS battery and pop it in place!
After this you should try and connect all the wires back in place and switch on your PC to check if the issue persists.
I have come across posts from users who said that they still faced the issue after replacing the battery. For some, restarting the PC a few times solved the problem. You should ideally check if the blinking orange light problem is no more there. At this point your CPU’s power button should light up normally in white as it used to.
WHAT TO DO IF NONE OF THIS WORKS?
If none of these methods work, you should visit the nearest computer repair shop and have them look into your issue.
I understand that this problem occurring at random might cause you a lot of inconvenience. I have faced this problem today and after looking at articles and tutorials for a few hours I could solve it by myself at home. I realized that there is a lack of articles that has all possible solutions in one place. This is the reason I decided to write this blog, hoping it will help someone in the future. I am adding references which was very helpful to me.
References:
- SupportAssist: Time of day not set error seen on start-up on Dell Laptops | Dell India
- Time-of-day not set — please run SETUP program | DELL Technologies (Users have complained — for a lot of us this issue is occurring even though our devices are relatively new)
- How to Update BIOS Dell (Official Dell Tech Support) — YouTube