A few weeks ago our house experienced some power outages when sending email. While I did have some trouble getting back online, requiring some computer reboots, all the data appears to be intact and nothing has been lost. However, since this outage the clock in Outlook Express has been losing time. The time for incoming mail messages is correct, but the time for outbound (sent) messages is slow. How can I fix this problem? The computer is running Windows XP.

Many people believe that the time displayed for received and sent emails within Outlook Express is set by the computer. Through this logic, if you set the time on your computer to be different to the real time (e.g. you wanted to falsify the timestamp on the message to make it seem like the message was sent earlier than it was actually sent) the receiving party will see the time your computer thought the message was sent. However, this is not the case. In the case of sent emails, the time is generally set by the mail server of the party who sent the message, or your ISPs (internet service providers) mail server (which received the message). Obviously this prevents people from post dating or future dating email messages, which would otherwise cause mass confusion. However, in your case it seems that the timestamp on outbound messages is incorrect. There are a few reasons this could happen, which we will investigate.

Before beginning, we need to specify whether this problem occurs for the timestamp on messages which have been received by the people to whom the message was addressed, or whether the time is displaying incorrectly in your Outlook Express “Sent Items” folder. Dealing with the first instance, where the timestamp on the message is showing as incorrect when received by the message recipient, this indicates that the time on the mail server of the recipient’s ISP may be incorrect. This would result in all messages that person receives having an incorrect timestamp. However, this problem would only occur on messages which you send to that person (or other people who happen to use the same ISP) and would not occur for other people to whom you send email messages. An easy test for this theory is to send a message to someone on a completely different ISP to the recipient who reported the problem and see whether they experience the same problem. You can generally tell someone’s ISP from their email address. For example, bob@thebestisp.com.au would be on an ISP called The Best ISP. In contrast, bill@someotherisp.com.au is most likely on a different ISP. Should sending the email to a person on another ISP not have the same problem, then the issue is with the receiving mail server of that particular ISP. In this case, you should contact your friend who should then speak with their ISP about resolving the issue.

In the event that the problem does still occur when sending email to people on different ISPs, the problem is likely to be at your end of the transaction. In this case, it is highly likely to be related to your ISPs mail server. As we discussed above, modifying the time on your computer should not affect the timestamp on emails, as this is generally set by the mail servers at each end of the mail transaction (sending outbound mail server at your end, and the receiving mail server at the recipient’s end). Therefore, in this scenario you may wish to contact your ISP to seek whether this is a known problem, and whether they have any resolutions or suggestions which may assist with this problem.

Dealing with the other possible scenario, where the timestamp is displaying incorrectly within your Outlook Express “Sent Items” folder, does indicate a problem on your computer, rather than the mail server. In this case, we need to pay special attention to the time and date setting on your local computer. Outlook Express does not maintain its own date and time settings, so we need to check the Windows settings. Go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and open the “Date and Time” control panel (you may need to first open the ?Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options? category. In the Date and Time Properties window, check the time is accurate. If not, correct the time as necessary. Next, click the “Time Zone” tab and ensure that the correct time zone has been defined. If the time zone is incorrect this may cause Outlook Express to incorrectly calculate the time of mail messages (for more information on this behaviour, see: support.microsoft.com/kb/174989 . Once this has been completed, click OK to save and close. Check whether the problem persists.

If the problem continues check the Date and Time Properties within Windows, when the problem occurs, to see whether the clock is displaying the correct time. If the clock is incorrect, this indicates the problem does not reside with Outlook Express but instead is a side-effect of the Windows clock losing time. Should this be the case, you can attempt to resolve this problem by setting the Windows clock to synchronise with a time server over the internet. The use of time servers is a very good idea, and almost essential particularly within corporate environments to ensure that all computers are set to the same time, avoiding problems with email and calendaring. To setup time synchronisation within Windows, open the Date and Time Properties window and click the “Internet Time” tab. Within this window, tick “Automatically synchronise with an Internet time server” and select ?time.windows.com?. Click OK to save and close. The Windows time will now automatically synchronise with a time server, minimising the chance that the time runs slow.

However, if you find the time continues to run slow it is possible that the BIOS has been configured with the incorrect time and is also running slow. To check this theory, when you notice the Windows time has begun to run slow, check the time setting in the BIOS. The BIOS essentially contains the code allowing your computer to boot and recognise basic hardware (such as hard drives, memory, etc), before handing control over to the computer operating system (in the case of your computer, Windows XP). The BIOS also contains a clock with the current time, which is used by the operating system to determine the current time and keep this accurate even when the operating system is not running. To check the BIOS time, restart the computer and during the POST (power on self test) you should notice a message appear saying something like ?Press to enter setup?. When this message appears, press the nominated key to enter the BIOS setup (this will most likely be the DEL key or the F2, F3, etc. key). Once the BIOS setup appears, you should immediately be presented with the general page displaying information about the computer, which should also contain the current date and time. Unfortunately I cannot provide step-by-step instructions at this point, since each computer has a different BIOS setup and without knowing the exact BIOS in your computer I cannot provide instructions. If you notice the time is incorrect, modify the setting to correct the time. Make sure you only modify the time and/or date and nothing else ? the BIOS is a very sensitive part of the computer, and any wrong configuration settings could render your computer unbootable. Once you are done, save changes (if necessary) and exit. If you did not change any settings, select to not save changes and exit. The computer should reboot into Windows. Check whether the problem continues.

Should the problem continue, and you notice the BIOS clock is also running slow, this is a classic indication that the CMOS battery is going flat. The CMOS battery is a battery on the computer motherboard which provides a small amount of power to the computer motherboard even when the computer is off (and unplugged) so particular settings are retained, such as the current time and date, while the computer has no power. If this battery is going flat, or has gone flat, the clock may have difficulty keeping its settings and runs slow. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to determine for sure whether this is the cause. However, there is a better than average chance this is the problem. Therefore, in this situation I suggest you take the computer to a computer repair shop to have the CMOS battery replaced.