Windows Time Sync error: 0x800705B4

When trying to display the time difference between a local computer and another time source using the Windows Time Sync command: w32tm /stripchart /computer:targetcomputer /samples:number /dataonly you may see the response as “timestamp, error: 0x800705B4”. This just means the local machine’s time source isn’t available.

To fix this error you need to set the client machine to use an external time source like another server. In order to do that the other server must be setup as a Authoritative Time Server. Then configure a manual time source using w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:targetcomputer /syncfromflags:manual /update.

When running the manual time source command on a Windows 2008 R2 SP1 machine I got a different error “The service has not been started. 0x80070426”. To fix this problem go to services.msc, find Windows Time and start it. When you rerun the command all will be well.

I’m not sure why Windows Time Syncing has to be such an issue without a domain controller setup but it is!