Computers date & time are incorrect message

Windows Vista Home Basic SP2.

 

Dell Inspiron 1525   32 bit operating system

 

For what I use it for computer has worked ok.  realize time for an upgrade, but would love to keep it as a 2nd computer.

 

About a month ago started getting this message '(can not cut & paste it) which basically says "Your clock is ahead.  A private connection can not be established because your computer's date & time are incorrect."

 

This appears on many websites, but not all.  and the date and time on my clock are correct.

 

Tried to "correct" date & time but that did not help.  Tried system restore, nothing.

 

Appreciate any info and/or help that is available.

This problem is very often caused by a failing CMOS battery which causes the date and time to go out of synchronisation. When you go to a web-site your browser checks the site's certificate and it's expiry date. If the internal clock says that the certificate is out of date then you get connection problems. And the fact that your date and time appear correct is no guarantee, it depends on how the date and time are formatted.

 

I once spent the best part of two hours trying to work out why another older computer was having certificate problems because the displayed time appeared correct. It was only when I looked at the full date I realised that while the displayed date and time were correct it wasn't set to show the year, and it was exactly six years out !  So as a first step, replace the CMOS battery. The most common battery used for this is the CR2032, widely available. Any super market with a battery stand will probably carry them, and if this doesn't fix the problem post back.

 

Chris Cosgrove

Thank you Chris.   Will check it out today and report back.

Put in new battery but sadly problem is still there.  Also on certain webpages I can connect with,  the entire page will not show, main example espn.com

 

Everything is so outdated like Chrome it may be just time to put this puppy down.   But if you have any ideas always willing to try,.

 

BTW Avast is my system protection.

Have a read here https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/dealing-with-windows-vista-time-sync-problems/amp/

Put in new battery but sadly problem is still there.  Also on certain webpages I can connect with,  the entire page will not show, main example espn.com

 

Everything is so outdated like Chrome it may be just time to put this puppy down....

Hi VaMaster54 - Mike:

 

These "Your clock is ahead" error messages can sometimes occur if there is a long time delay while your browser is trying to validate the security certificate of the server you are trying to connect to, although this timing issue is less common than having an incorrect date / time / time zone for your system clock

Does Firefox ESR v52.9.0 (Mozilla's legacy browser for Win XP and Vista, rel. 26-Jun-2018) display a similar "Your Computer Clock Is Wrong" error when you visit the ESPN site?  If so, the Mozilla support article How to Troubleshoot Time Related Errors on Secure Websites explains how to use the Advanced button on the error page to view a detailed error message that might provide more information about why a secure connection couldn't be established.

Full offline installers (all regions and languages) for Firefox ESR v52.9.0 are available for download from Mozilla's FTP server at https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/52.9.0esr/win32/; if you want the English-US installer (Firefox Setup 52.9.0esr.exe), for example, choose the /EN-US subfolder at https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/52.9.0esr/win32/en-US/. By default, Firefox ESR v52.9.0 supports TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 protocols for connecting to secure https sites, and I added the latest TLS 1.3 support to my Firefox ESR v52.9.0 browser (i.e., by changing security.tls.version.max to a value of 4 in the advanced settings) as instructed in Martin Brinkmann's June 2017 ghacks.net article How to Enable TLS 1.3 Support in Firefox and Chrome.

If Firefox ESR v52.9.0 displays the ESPN site correctly I'd suggest adding a reputable ad blocker like like Adblock Plus for Firefox that is still compatible with FF 52 and higher.
 

Tried everything on the page, no success.

 

I do appreciate your effort on my behalf.

Tried everything on the page, no success.

 

I do appreciate your effort on my behalf.

Imacri,  will give it a go.  Getting late here so may wait till morning when my head is clearer, if that is possible

Have you rebooted?

... Does Firefox ESR v52.9.0 (Mozilla's legacy browser for Win XP and Vista, rel. 26-Jun-2018) display a similar "Your Computer Clock Is Wrong" error when you visit the ESPN site?...

Hi VaMaster54 - Mike:

One other simple workaround you can try is to clear your entire browsing history in Chrome - see the section titled Deleting Chrome’s Cache and Cookies in the appauls.com article Google Chrome: Your Clock is Ahead/Behind.

Even if that suggestion works, I would still recommend that you use Firefox ESR 52.9.0 as your default browser.  Google has not supported Chrome on the Win XP and Vista platforms since Chrome v49 was released in April 2016 (see Google's official announcement <here>) and if your Chrome browser is having issues validating the digital security certificates of certain web servers using a certificate revocation list (CRL) you might have better luck with Firefox ESR. Like Chrome v49, Firefox ESR v52.9.0 also has built-in support for H.264 (using Cisco's OpenH264 Video Codec plugin) and is included in the list of compliant browsers at https://html5test.com/compare/feature/video.codecs.mp4.h264.html for playback of HTML5 videos.

Edited by lmacri, 10 November 2021 - 08:30 AM.

Have a read here https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/dealing-with-windows-vista-time-sync-problems/amp/

Did you happen to glance at this?

 ...I added the latest TLS 1.3 support to my Firefox ESR v52.9.0 browser... 

That statement is inaccurate, as I have pointed out before. Firefox ESR 52 was released in March 2017, hence only had optional support for an experimental draft of TLS 1.3 (draft 18 out of 28 I believe). The TLS 1.3 protocol was not finalized until August 2018, by which time Mozilla had ended support for ESR 52. The good news for the OP is that TLS 1.2 is still the internet standard at this time. One reason: Microsoft never provided TLS 1.3 support for Internet Explorer 11, which still had about as many users as Firefox the last time I checked. Of course Chrome is by far the worlds most popular browser.

Did Chrome 49 support TLS 1.2? Yes, but that is not the real question. Did Chrome 49 install cipher suites for decryption of TLS 1.2? No: It relied on the OS for decryption, and the typical vanilla Vista system had no systemwide support for TLS 1.2. My own Vista system is an exception, but that is a rather advanced topic. The simplest solution is indeed to use Firefox 52, which has its own cipher suites for TLS 1.2. (Unfortunately some of them are considered insecure now.)

... That statement is inaccurate, as I have pointed out before. Firefox ESR 52 was released in March 2017, hence only had optional support for an experimental draft of TLS 1.3 (draft 18 out of 28 I believe). The TLS 1.3 protocol was not finalized until August 2018, by which time Mozilla had ended support for ESR 52. The good news for the OP is that TLS 1.2 is still the internet standard at this time...

Hi VaMaster54 - Mike:

 

I rarely boot up my Vista SP2 machine or browse online with my unsupported Firefox ESR v52.9.0 browser since I purchased a Win 10 Pro laptop, but the last time I checked the Qualys browser test site at https://clienttest.ssllabs.com:8443/ssltest/viewMyClient.html it reported that my Firefox ESR v52.9.0 browser supports TLS 1.3.

I understand that some other browser test sites will not show Firefox ESR v52.9.0 with TLS 1.3 support activated as being fully compatible with TLS 1.3 protocols, but I don't see the harm in adding TLS 1.3 support to Firefox ESR v52.9.0.  If a secure website can't make a TLS 1.3 connection it will simply default down to a TLS 1.2 connection and complete the connection regardless (assuming a TLS 1.3 connection isn't a strict requirement).

Apologies if I've taken your thread off-topic.  TLS protocol support is a moot point if Firefox v52.9.0 doesn't fix the "Your clock is ahead" error messages you see with ESPN and other problem web sites.
-----------
32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Malwarebytes Premium v3.5.1.2522-1.0.365
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, 256 GB Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVS SATA HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1288 * Firefox v94.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2110.6-1.1.18700.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.4.10.144-1.0.1499
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 62

...but I don't see the harm....(assuming a TLS 1.3 connection isn't a strict requirement)....
-----------
64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1288 * Firefox v94.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2110.6-1.1.18700.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.4.10.144-1.0.1499
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 62

...in which case your advice might be no more helpful than the specs of a Windows 10 laptop. Developer roytam1 over at MSFN has a variety of browser builds for XP/Vista that fully support TLS 1.3, so perhaps you should consider changing your standard browser recommendation? Some of the members there are even more enthusiastic about Extreme Explorer 360, which is a modern Chromium fork from China that supports Vista.

Windows Vista Home Basic SP2. Dell Inspiron 1525   32 bit operating system  ...

 

... About a month ago started getting this message '(can not cut & paste it) which basically says "Your clock is ahead.  A private connection can not be established because your computer's date & time are incorrect." This appears on many websites, but not all.  and the date and time on my clock are correct.

 

Tried to "correct" date & time but that did not help.  Tried system restore, nothing....

Hi VaMaster54 - Mike:

Just checking in to see if you found a solution to your Google Chrome "Your clock is ahead..." message. I've seen a few other Vista users recently reporting the same error with their unsupported Chrome v49 browser and was curious what solutions you tried, other than replacing your CMOS battery as Chris Cosgrove suggested in post # 2, that did (or didn't) fix your problem.

If you still require assistance let us know if your Vista SP2 OS is patched to the end of extended support (11-Apr-2017) since your system restore.   If you aren't sure, open your IE9 browser and go to Help | About Internet Explorer - if you have Update Versions 9.0.6 /  KB4014661 (Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9: April 11, 2017) that suggests that you likely received the last batch of Vista SP2 Patch Tuesday updates released in April 2017.

 

 IE9 Version KB4014661 April 2017.png   17.66KB   0 downloads

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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Malwarebytes Premium v3.5.1.2522-1.0.365
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, 256 GB Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVS SATA HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1348 * Firefox v94.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2110.6-1.1.18700.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.4.11.149-1.0.1513
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

Edited by lmacri, 23 November 2021 - 10:04 AM.