I have a server(CentOS 4 on dual Xeon) that continually loses the time of day. It is already set to use an internal ntp server elsewhere on the network. Lots of machines use the ntp server without a problem, and this one does too, altho the messages log shows both lost time synchronizations as well as successful ntp server connections and time resets. The real kicker is, looking at the logs, the server will lose as much as a whole minute in the span of a 10 minute gap where it cant talk to the ntp server. This is causing the server to lose an hour or more each day. The server is also crashing daily. When I bring it back up, I shutdown ntpd, use ntpdate to the ntp server, then restart ntpd without a problem, but the time loss persists.

since when does it crash?
since the install?
sorry to ask but crashing daily is not a server thingy more the tweak computer...

Only last 3 days, been working fine otherwise for the past year.

There's an rsync job running that I setup, but load is not high to affect the system.

what's chanced the last 3/4 day's, only time?

I had a system do this last year... the clock got worse and worse, to where it was losing about half an hour per hour. Then, one day, it refused to turn on at all. I replaced the power supply, and that made no difference. I had to replace the motherboard. That cured both problems.

I can't be 100% certain that the clock problem was an early symptom of whatever led to the motherboard's demise, but I have to think it's very likely.

Have you tried doing something more simple such as replacing the cmos battery? I run a few machines at home and this has been the cure for me whether it be windows or linux for years! Hopefully it's just that simple and will work for you.