This article applies to:
E-Prime 3.0
E-Prime 2.0
E-Prime Go 1.0
Detail
The Volatile Clock Experiment Advisor warning reports any timing inconsistencies that occur throughout an experiment run. These inconsistencies are usually relatively minor in scope and are easily explainable (i.e. due to a few known circumstances). Any major timing concerns throw Runtime errors with specific messages.
This warning is typically due to: 1. known issues with the Windows XP operating system (see RELEASE INFO: Operating system (Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, and XP) support in E-Prime [18652]), 2. the Test Run/Windowed Mode feature, particularly when clock scale is not set to the default of 1x Speed (1.0000) or 3. (region-specific) Windows Clock, Language & Region settings, accessible through the Control Panel.
Windows XP is known to have a volatile clock, as it sometimes incorrectly reports the speed of the processor as the clock frequency. When the speed of the processor changes during an experiment, this can interfere with E-Prime's timing. In this specific scenario, users have the option to switch to a power management clock instead. These settings do not improve/decrease the functionality of the software itself. This Experiment Advisor module is a development tool to report any potential issues within the experiment or with the machine configuration. For more information, see TIMING: Machine configuration, design, or faulty components may result in bad timing data [18014]. Please contact PST Support if you need to pursue this option.
In E-Prime, a decimal (.) point is used within the Clock timing device. This is viewable in the Experiment Object properties tab > Timing. Some regions do not use a decimal point as the Decimal Symbol in the Windows Clock, Language & Region settings. This circumstance does not impact your timing results. If you want to remove the warning nonetheless, open the Control Panel > Clock, Language & Region > Change the Date, Time, or Number format > Additional Settings.... > replace the current entry in the Decimal Symbol with a dot/period ( . ).
NOTE: Some circumstances that lead to this warning require turning off clock synchronization in your Windows Settings due to custom network settings, at least when you run experiments. The simplest way to accomplish this is to merely disconnect from your network during experiment runs, which you ideally want to do in any case, see TIMING: Network connection can interfere with timing [19529]. This does not apply to experiments you run in E-Prime Go's Automated Mode.
You can always verify the clock E-Prime uses on your machine for its timing calculations with the ClockBinTest in TIMING: Verifying your Clock and Timing in E-Prime [34371].
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