A technician is troubleshooting a workstation that displays the correct time for most of the year, but is consistently off by one hour during the months when Daylight Saving Time (DST) is in effect. The technician has already replaced the CMOS battery, but the issue persists. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this problem?
The hardware's Real-Time Clock (RTC) is faulty.
The operating system's time zone or DST settings are misconfigured.
The configured Network Time Protocol (NTP) server is incorrect.
The most likely cause is a misconfiguration of the time zone or Daylight Saving Time settings within the operating system. The hardware clock, or Real-Time Clock (RTC), on the motherboard maintains time but is not aware of time zones or DST. The operating system reads the hardware time and applies the necessary adjustments for the local time zone and DST. If these OS settings are incorrect, the displayed time will be wrong during DST periods, even if the hardware clock is accurate and the CMOS battery is functional. A faulty RTC or an outdated BIOS are less likely to cause a problem that is specific only to DST periods. While an incorrect NTP server can cause time sync issues, the specific, recurring one-hour shift points directly to an OS-level DST configuration problem.
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What is a Real-Time Clock (RTC)?
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How does the operating system manage time zones and Daylight Saving Time?