In message <p4vuvvo3k5gt8ifv6mkdktcipo05a2q052@4ax.com>, f/fgeorge <f/fgeorge@yourplace.com> writes

Okay Terry, what did you to the machine just prior to you noticing the
change in time?
And please don't say "nothing" because that is like Sears telling me a
few years back that "the computer made the mistake, not a person"!

Nevertheless, I will say 'nothing', on the basis outlined below.  And while I'm well aware that it isn't the computer that puts the coffee cup on the CD tray, Windows is quite capable of throwing the occasional spanner  into its own works.

Computers are VERY stupid they only do what we tell them.
Soooo.... what did you do just before the problem?
Did you load any programs?

None that were not familiar or previously run.

Did you check for a virus lately, there are
several places on-line that are free to do this.

We run Nortons 2003 all the time, in auto-protect mode.  A virus update and full system scan was done a couple of days before.   No automatic update by anything that leaves a trace took place on Dec 31 or Jan 1. Two virus scans and one update since then have found nothing.

Are you not shutting down the monitor any more?

I began to use computers in a world where TVs had a ping-pong game etched in the phosphor -- I'm neurotic about switching monitors off, even now:-)

What?

The last 'short' unit (6hrs.03 minutes) was given to the machine by SetiQueue  at 03.20 on Jan 1.  I could be wrong, but that leads me to believe that nothing magically happened at midnight, but possibly happened while that unit  was being run.  The next unit, given to the machine at 9.24, took more that 15 hours to run.

This would have been New Year's Eve, not a time for major system overhauls. The machine was last used at about 7pm on Dec 31 and I certainly wasn't back in my office by 9.24 the following day, which is a holiday here.

The search will continue on Monday, when I'll work on another machine and let my PA loose on the offender.