Windows 7: "Unable to Continue" Error When Attempting to Synchronize Time

(I'll tell you some background before I get to the issue in case there is something related)



I recently cleaned my computer case (took it all apart and vacuumed it out). When I plugged everything back in and tried to boot up, all of my BIOS settings had cleared and I had to re-enter/set them again. I found this odd, but maybe the CMOS battery is failing or dead. A few days later I realize my time is off by about 15 minutes (roughly, the amount of time the PC was unplugged as I was cleaning it). However, when I left click on the time in the bottom right, "Change date and time settings", select the Internet Time tab, and click on Change Settings, I get the following error:

Unable to Continue
You do not have permission to perform this task.
Please contact your computer administrator for help.

Unfortunately, I have the only account on this machine, I am the admin, and this is not a domain machine (it's a home PC). I have no clue how or why this error has come about but it's rather annoying. I went into my BIOS and manually set the time to make it accurate and hopefully fix the issue but I still get the error. To further complicate things, when I look in the list of Services, there is no Windows Time service. When I run "w32tm /config /update" from an elevated command prompt, I get the error "The specified service does not exist as an installed service."

I ran an SFC /scannow check and it found/repaired a corrupt file (mfds.dll) but that doesn't sound like it's related.

Any ideas?

Hello FliGi7,

You should have a Windows Time service listed. You might see if using the tutorial below to restore it may be able to sort this for you.

Services - Restore Default Services in Windows 7

Hope this helps.

Thanks. I'll give it a go when I get home.