An error occured synchronizing windows with time.windows.com

Question

Okay so I've tried stopping/registering the win32tm service on this Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Computer.

C:\Users\Administrator>net stop w32time
The Windows Time service is stopping.
The Windows Time service was stopped successfully.

C:\Users\Administrator>w32tm /unregister
The following error occurred: Access is denied. (0x80070005)

C:\Users\Administrator>w32tm /unregister
W32Time successfully unregistered.

C:\Users\Administrator>w32tm /register
W32Time successfully registered.

C:\Users\Administrator>net start w32time
The Windows Time service is starting.
The Windows Time service was started successfully.

(Source : http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverDS/thread/9bdfc2cc-4775-4435-8868-57d214e1e3ba/)

And I get this error from the Date and Time, Internet Time tab (After also following the steps here).

_{(source: iforce.co.nz)}

I've even tried the Atomic Time Clock Worldtimeserver and I get the error The following error occurred: The specified module could not be found. (0x8007007E).

I've also disabled the Windows Firewall, that might of been blocking the synchronization.

_{(source: iforce.co.nz)}

I've done a file scan with sfc /scannow that came back with no errors.

C:\Users\Administrator>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan.  This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

C:\Users\Administrator>

But I'm not having much luck. Is there anyway lo possibly solve this? or is the time.windows.com servers unsupported? because the software is from 2008? (I really don't know :/), My ping result to time.windows.com

C:\Users\Administrator>ping time.windows.com

Pinging time.microsoft.akadns.net [65.55.21.22] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 65.55.21.22:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

And tracert result

C:\Users\Administrator>tracert time.windows.com

Tracing route to time.microsoft.akadns.net [65.55.21.24] over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1 2 32 ms 31 ms 32 ms be2-100.bras1wtc.wlg.vf.net.nz [203.109.129.113]

3 31 ms 32 ms 31 ms be5-100.ppnzwtc01.wlg.vf.net.nz.129.109.203.in-a ddr.arpa [203.109.129.114] 4 31 ms 31 ms 31 ms gi0-2-0-3.ppnzwtc01.wlg.vf.net.nz.180.109.203.in -addr.arpa [203.109.180.210] 5 31 ms 31 ms 30 ms gi0-2-0-3.ppnzwtc02.wlg.vf.net.nz [203.109.180.2 09] 6 167 ms 166 ms 166 ms ip-141.199.31.114.VOCUS.net.au [114.31.199.141]

7 175 ms 175 ms 175 ms microsoft.com.any2ix.coresite.com [206.223.143.1 43] 8 177 ms 180 ms 176 ms xe-7-0-2-0.by2-96c-1a.ntwk.msn.net [207.46.42.17 6] 9 205 ms 205 ms 204 ms xe-10-0-2-0.co1-96c-1b.ntwk.msn.net [207.46.45.3 1] 10 * * * Request timed out. 11 * * * Request timed out. 12 * * * Request timed out. 13 * * * Request timed out. 14 * * * Request timed out. 15 * * * Request timed out. 16 ^C

And nslookup

C:\Users\Administrator>nslookup time.windows.com
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.1.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    time.microsoft.akadns.net
Address:  65.55.21.22
Aliases:  time.windows.com

It might be worth running Wireshark to see what's happening at the traffic level. — John Gardeniers, Oct 11 '12 at 02:39
Watch the NTP traffic to see how far it's getting and whether or not there are any replies, which will be ignored if they take longer than the timeout period. — John Gardeniers, Oct 11 '12 at 02:55
Only you can make that assessment. However, rather than format and reinstall from scratch I would first try in in-place reinstall, which generally leaves most settings and configurations intact. Whether that's possible with Server 2008 I can't say. — John Gardeniers, Oct 11 '12 at 03:03
You either misspelled time.windows.com in your tracert or you've got a DNS problem. If you run nslookup for time.windows.com does it resolve? — joeqwerty, Oct 11 '12 at 03:18
@JohnGardeniers "NTP" isn't a valid display filter: "NTP" is neither a field nor a protocol name. — classicjonesynz, Oct 11 '12 at 03:41
Ok, so no DNS problem. While ping and traceret aren't really the right tools to troubleshoot a time sync issue, they can illuminate potential routing problems. As it is though, I get the same tracert results as you. My tracert dies as it enters the MSN network, which tells me that routing is OK but that they block incoming ICMP Echo Request traffic to the time.windows.com server cluster. — joeqwerty, Oct 11 '12 at 03:42
@joeqwerty `"udp port 123" isn't a valid display filter: "port" was unexpected in this context.` that command doesn't work on wireshark :-/ — classicjonesynz, Oct 11 '12 at 03:51
Oh sorry. I forgot you were using Wireshark. I was using Microsoft Network Monitor (which I personally find easier to use). — joeqwerty, Oct 11 '12 at 03:59

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 11 '12 at 06:40

4

Its a little late, but you often get that error if your clock is wrong. Shockingly enough, you need to set the clock to a nearly correct time for it to synchronise properly.

Its probably so that if you DID get time related wierdness regularly , you will get off your rear and work out why its happening - its often due to a dead or weak bios battery.

answered Oct 11 '12 at 06:40

Journeyman Geek

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How do your pings timeout when your clock is off? – BlenderBender Nov 15 '18 at 00:49
A few years on.... I don't remember – Journeyman Geek Nov 15 '18 at 00:50

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 11 '12 at 02:25

3

Here's a better and pretty standard option... use the public NTP Pool or the USNO Master Clock for time synchronization. If you change your time clock source do you still have the same problem? Have you tried testing any external time source manually?

answered Oct 11 '12 at 02:25

Brent Pabst

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I've tried with [http://time.xmission.com](http://time.xmission.com), [time.nist.gov](http://time.nist.gov), [time-nw.nist.gov](http://time-nw.nist.gov), [time-a.nist.gov](http://time-a.nist.gov) and [time-b.nist.gov](http://time-b.nist.gov) they all give me timeout errors. – classicjonesynz Oct 11 '12 at 02:30
By the way I don't know what public NTP or USNO Master Clock, if you could provide some references? that would be nice. Regards – classicjonesynz Oct 11 '12 at 02:39
I've ran the command `net time /setsntp:"0.pool.ntp.org 1.pool.ntp.org 2.pool.ntp.org"` and `w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:0.pool.ntp.org,1.pool.ntp.org,2.pool.ntp.org,3.pool.ntp.org` and I'm still unable to sync.. :/ – classicjonesynz Oct 11 '12 at 02:40
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If you are unable to sync with any of the public NTP servers (and assuming they resolve to valid IPs using the nameserver on your network) you have a network level issue. Check all firewalls between you and the internet (a wireshark traffic dump like John suggested in his comments on the question would be a good idea too - if the firewalls are returning the ICMP "Communication prohibited by filter" message that would tell you which firewall is saying no.) – voretaq7 Oct 11 '12 at 03:25
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`0.nz.pool.ntp.org`. If that doesn't work, you almost certainly have a firewall problem. – Michael Hampton Oct 11 '12 at 03:33

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 11 '12 at 13:46

Is this server part of a domain? It's best practice to sync from the domain environment.

Is it a Hyper-V virtual machine? If it is you need to make sure you have the "Time Synchronization" Integration service disabled.

When you run:

W32tm /query /configuration

Do you see all [local] settings? If not that may be an indicator that Group Policy is setting the time settings.

Have you tried running the commands to sync from an external time source manually?

W32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:"us.pool.ntp.org"
W32tm /config /reliable:yes
W32tm /config /update
Net stop w32time && Net start w32time (Alternatively, reboot if you can)
W32tm /resync /rediscover

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 11 '12 at 04:15

-1

I downloaded http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptsync.asp and it now synchronizing

answered Oct 11 '12 at 04:15

classicjonesynz

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An error occured synchronizing windows with time.windows.com

4 Answers4