Event ID 54 — Service Status and Configuration

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008

The Windows Time service updates the time server configuration settings or status. Changes to configuration are implemented when the service is restarted and when the W32tm command is used with the /update switch. These configuration or status changes occur when the Windows Time service:

  • Enters a running status.
  • Sets up the log file to record operational information. The debug logging feature of the Windows Time service can be used to help troubleshoot issues.
  • Registers for network configuration change events. Computers use the network to send time samples back and forth.
  • Creates a named event, which is a shared resource that is used for synchronizing time.
  • Saves configuration settings to the registry.

Event Details

Product: Windows Operating System
ID: 54
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service
Version: 6.0
Symbolic Name: MSG_CONFIG_REFRESH_FAILED
Message: The time service encountered an error while refreshing its configuration in the registry and cannot start. The error was: %1

Resolve

Ensure that the service can write configuration settings to the registry

To perform these procedures, you must have membership in Administrators, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. Perform all steps on the computer that is logging the event to be resolved.

Caution: Incorrectly editing the registry might severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data.

To ensure that the Windows Time service can read its registry configuration settings:

  1. Open Registry Editor. To open Registry Editor, click Start. In Start Search, type regedit, and then press ENTER. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
  2. Navigate to the Config key in the registry by expanding the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time.
  3. Right-click the Config key, and then click Permissions. The Permissions for Config dialog box opens.
  4. On the Security tab, under Group or user names, ensure that W32Time is listed.
  5. Click Advanced. The Advanced Security Settings for Config dialog box opens.
  6. Select the W32Time account in the list of permission entries, and then click Edit. The Permission Entry for Config dialog box opens.
  7. In the Permission Entry for Config dialog box, ensure that W32Time has the following permissions selected in the Allow column: Query Value, Set Value, Create Subkey, Enumerate Subkeys, Notify, Delete, and ReadControl. If any of those permissions are not set to Allow, select the box next to the appropriate permission in the Allow column. Ensure that there is nothing selected in the Deny column.
  8. If you made any changes, click OK. Otherwise, click Cancel. The Permission Entry for Config dialog box closes.
  9. Use the same procedure to ensure that the W32Time account has the same permissions to the TimeProviders key as well as its subordinate keys (NtpClient and NtpServer). The TimeProviders key is under the same registry path as the Config key.

Update the Windows Time service configuration from the registry

Caution: Incorrectly editing the registry might severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data.

To update the Windows Time service configuration from the registry:

  1. Open a command prompt as an administrator. To open a command prompt as an administrator, click Start. In Start Search, type Command Prompt. At the top of the Start menu, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
  2. At the command prompt, type W32TM /config /update, and then press ENTER. This command forces a reload of the registry keys that are related to the Windows Time service. The command output indicates whether the loading of the values is successful.

Verify the Windows Time settings from the registry

If you or another administrator modified (or ran a program that modified) the default values, you can check the configuration of those default values by completing the following steps.

Caution: Incorrectly editing the registry might severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data.

To verify the Windows Time settings from the registry:

  1. Open a command prompt as an administrator. To open a command prompt as an administrator, click Start. In Start Search, type Command Prompt. At the top of the Start menu, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
  2. To verify that the values are configured as expected, at the command prompt, type w32tm /dumpreg /subkey:config, and then press ENTER. If the values are not configured as expected, correct the values in the registry.

Unregister and reregister the Windows Time service

If the previous steps do not resolve the issue, you can try unregistering and then reregistering the service. Complete the following steps to unregister and then register the Windows Time service.

To unregister and register the Windows Time service:

  1. To stop the Windows Time service, at a command prompt, running as an administrator, type net stop w32time, and then press ENTER.
  2. To unregister the Windows Time service dynamic-link library (DLL), at a command prompt, type w32tm /unregister, and then press ENTER.
  3. To register the Windows Time service DLL, at a command prompt, type w32time /register, and then press ENTER.
  4. To start the Windows Time service, at the command prompt, type net start w32time, and then press ENTER.

To learn more about the Windows Time service and related tools, see Windows Time Service Tools and Settings (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=42984).

Verify

To verify that the Windows Time service is functioning properly, restart the service, and then check Event Viewer for entries that indicate a successful restart and system time synchronization.

To perform this procedure, you must have membership in Administrators, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To verify that the Windows Time service is functioning properly:

  1. Click Start. In Start Search, type services.msc, and then click OK. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
  2. In the list of services, right-click Windows Time, and then click Restart.

When the service restarts successfully, the Service Control Manager reports that the Windows Time service has entered the running state (Event ID 7036) in the Event Viewer. The W32Time source in Event Viewer also reports that the Windows Time service is successfully receiving and synchronizing its clock (Event IDs 37 and 35, respectively).

For more information about the Windows Time service, see Windows Time Service Technical Reference https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=25393).

Service Status and Configuration

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