Microsoft Windows Vista has a built-in feature to synchronize your machine’s time automatically with global time servers around the world. The service can be scheduled to run automatically and works like charm keeping your system time up-to date, but there’s a tiny catch in here.
If your computer’s clock is async for more than 15 hours, this service will not work for you saying “An error occurred”.
Copy the following code and save it as .reg file, apply it and re-run the synchronization. It will work !
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config] "MaxNegPhaseCorrection"=dword:ffffffff "MaxPosPhaseCorrection"=dword:ffffffff
The above code is also available in pastie @ http://pastie.caboo.se/179732.
Rishav's blog 
Thank you, thank you!
I had a problem with time synchronisation after my CMOS reset. Manually changing the time did nothing, and it still wouldn’t synchronize despite seemingly being within 15 hours of the system/Internet time.
This worked for me, and has saved me a great deal of trouble.
Thank you again!
Thanks it works for Windows XP also. Fixed it right away.
Thank you very much! The only comment that time service should be restarted in order this hack will start working 😉
THANK YOU SO MUCH MY FRND!!
this worked, I’ve looked for ages, thanks a lot!
can someone take me step by step
It seemed that the registry change was not loaded until I restarted the Windows Time service. Restarted that, told it to re-update, sorted!
Thanks!
Craig.
Sir i tried so many solutions on the internet and yours is the only one that worked. Thanks!
Craig’s suggestion worked for me as well. I’m running windows XP. All you need to do is save the above code into Notepad and then click “Save As”. Name the file something like “time.reg” and in a folder you will remember. Once saved, navigate to the file and double click it. Choose Yes to the prompts. Then, go to Control Panel…Administrative Tools…Services….Now, scroll to the bottom of the list of services until you find “Windows Time”. Right click this and choose “Restart”. Once it’s done, you should be able to resync your time with no problem. Thanks Craig.
Thank you, this worked perfectly. to anyone reading, just remember to follow all steps without a fault, i forgot to click the notepad file, and when i went back it worked. thank you brad
WOW Thanks man haha..youre great! AWESOME
Excellent, worked like a charm. It is such a relief to find a simple solution to these annoying problems Microsoft seems to create for the world!!
This was the only solution that was of any use to me for my problem.
(Thanks Brad for breaking down the steps one-by-one. That was a huge help!)
Thanks.I have a laptop with a dead cmos battery so the time is always 1998 when I power it on. Doing this fix means I can have a batch script that runs on startup to sync the time with an internet time server automatically (changing the battery would be a major pain in the behind).
Thanks also to those who pointed out that the time service needed restarting.
Great, thanks a lot!
It tells me that it’s not a reg script? any help would be great
I got the file to update however i am getting the same issue with resyncing the time
100% Working!!
Windows XP (sync’d from 1980)
In the past i have had error messages like “an error occurred while windows was synchronizing with time” Also when trying to sync time from the CMD it said “The computer did not resync because the required time change was too big” Also Microsoft didnt let me Update now i can!
Thanks!
PS: Make shure you save it using “Note Pad”
i had trouble with that beacuse i forgot and opened a new text document instead
After a restart of the W32Time service it worked perfectly. Thanks!
After a restart of the W32Time service it worked. Thanks for Australia
from Australia I meant sorry
I have a Dell XPS 1530 and this was also happening to me on Vista on a fresh install. When the time server cannot sync, all kinds of problems are created. I was not able to run windows update because the time was out of sync and I could not connect to any https websites because I would get a strange certificate error. Attempting to run w32tm /resync in a command prompt would give me a “the computer did not resync because the required time change was too big” error. I performed the above steps and did another /resync and it works! Thank you, this has been a major headache. Hopefully it stays fixed.
Ok there is a quick fix without having to go into cmd and type jargon. http://keir.net/neutron.html download the program and run it. worked for me.
Thanks sazwqa! Works in Windows 7 too. My CMOS battery is probably on its way out and the time keeps lagging … usually by just a few hours, but sometimes more.
I changed those registry settings, restarted the service as others suggested and created the following bat file to run at startup:
@echo off
net start W32Time
w32tm /resync
exit
thanks man… worked for me.
I tried a lot of different fixes, this one worked!!!!!!
Thanks
It’s saying it’s not a reg script. Any help please??