[comp.os.msdos.programmer] DOS 24-hour clock information wanted.

boyd_m@intertel.UUCP (Mark Boyd) (04/10/91)

The application I'm writing is used on a PC that remains on all of the time.
I'm having a problem with the MS-DOS clock getting a day behind over the
weekend.  I've figured out that the clock BIOS keeps is rolling over midnight
and setting the rollover flag in BIOS, but MS-DOS isn't ever getting to the
point where it updates it's internal date.  Thus, on Monday when MS-DOS does
get control and updates the date it's a day behind.  Does anyone know how I
can get DOS to update it's date, i.e. a function call, so I don't have this
off by a day problem.

Mark Boyd
Inter-Tel, Inc.

dubner@hpspkla.spk.hp.com (Joe Dubner) (04/12/91)

> The application I'm writing is used on a PC that remains on all of the time.
> I'm having a problem with the MS-DOS clock getting a day behind over the
> weekend.  I've figured out that the clock BIOS keeps is rolling over midnight
> and setting the rollover flag in BIOS, but MS-DOS isn't ever getting to the
> point where it updates it's internal date.  Thus, on Monday when MS-DOS does
> get control and updates the date it's a day behind.  Does anyone know how I
> can get DOS to update it's date, i.e. a function call, so I don't have this
> off by a day problem.

> Mark Boyd
> Inter-Tel, Inc.

Jim Kyle wrote an excellent 3/4 page article on this subject and it
appears in the current issue (April/May) of PC Techniques magazine on
page 80.  There is too much "meat" in the article for me to summarize it
here and it's a little too long to type in, but I'd be happy to read it
or fax it to you on the phone.  (As an ex-Chandlerite, I'm always
looking for an excuse to talk with someone there -- wondering if I could
still afford to buy my old house :-)

But the problem is partially related to a bug in DOS 3.2 and also to
applications that get the date and time via BIOS rather than DOS.


Regards,
Joe
(509) 921-3514