Event ID 145 — Time Service Advertisement

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2

The Windows Time service (W32time) provides time source advertisements that clients can use to synchronize their clocks. The Windows Time service on a domain controller can be configured as either a reliable or an unreliable time source. The Windows Time service running on a client will attempt to synchronize its time source with servers that are indicated as reliable. The Windows Time service can configure a domain controller within its domain as a reliable time source, and it synchronizes itself periodically with this source.

Event Details

Product: Windows Operating System
ID: 145
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Time-Service
Version: 6.0
Symbolic Name: MSG_STOP_ADVERTISING_GENERIC
Message: The time service has stopped advertising as a time source.

Resolve

Enable and review the Windows Time service log

The Windows Time service running on the local computer has stopped advertising as a time source for an unspecified reason. To further investigate this issue, review entries in the Windows Time service log.

Determine whether the Windows Time service logging is enabled. If logging is enabled, find the log file location. If logging is not enabled, enable it. Update the Windows Time service configuration, and then review the log. If necessary, you can reset the configuration of the Windows Time service by unregistering and then registering the time service.

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

Determine whether logging is enabled, and locate the log file location

To determine the if Windows Time service logging is enabled and find the log file location:

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

  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. Select the Config key. You should see a string value named FileLogName in the right pane. The path and file name in the FileLogName value tell you where the log is configured to be written. If you cannot read the full path and file name, double-click the FileLogName value. The Edit String dialog box opens, displaying the entire path and file name. Note the volume name and location. If you opened the Edit String dialog box, click Cancel to close it.

Enable Windows Time service logging

If Windows Time service logging is not enabled, enable it.

To enable Windows Time service logging:

  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. Create a folder to receive the Windows Time service log file. In the command prompt window, type md c:\W32Time, and then press ENTER. This command creates a directory named W32Time on the C: drive.
  3. To enable Windows Time service debug logging, at a command prompt, type w32tm /debug /enable /file:c:\W32Time\w32time.log /size:10000000 /entries:0-116, and then press ENTER.
  4. Type w32tm /config /update, and then press ENTER.

Review the Windows Time log file

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

To review the Windows Time log file:

  1. In Notepad, open the w32time.log file. At a command prompt, type start notepad c:\w32time\w32time.log, and then press ENTER.
  2. Scroll to the end of the log file to see if you can identify any errors that indicate that Windows Time service values from the registry were null. If so, locate those values in the registry, and then enter values as appropriate.
  3. To update a value in Registry Editor, right-click the value, and then click Modify.
  4. Change the data as necessary, and then click OK.
  5. Close Notepad.

If necessary, you can reset all the original default Windows Time registry values by unregistering and registering the W32time service.

To unregister and register the W32time 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.

Update the Windows Time service configuration, and review the log file

To update the Windows Time service configuration and review the log file:

  1. Return to the command prompt window, and reload the Windows Time entries. At the command prompt, type w32tm /config /update, and then press ENTER.
  2. In Notepad, open the w32time.log file again. Check to see that all registry values were read and loaded properly.

Post-troubleshooting cleanup

To disable Windows Time debug logging, at the command prompt, type W32tm /debug /disable, and then press ENTER.

You can also remove the c:\w32time folder and w32time.log file when troubleshooting is complete.

To remove the folder and log file:

  1. Stop the Windows Time service. To stop the Windows Time service, at a command prompt, type net stop w32time, and then press ENTER.
  2. To remove the c:\w32time folder, at the command prompt, type rd c:\w32time /s /q, and then press ENTER.
  3. Start the Windows Time service again. At the command prompt, type net start w32time, and then press ENTER.

For more information about enabling logging for the Windows Time service, see article 816043 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=84199).

Verify

When the Windows Time service is advertising time as a time source, Event ID 139, "The time service has started advertising as a time source," is logged in Event Viewer.

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

Time Service Advertisement

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