Hello, We have a task manager task that is set to start at 3:00 am. But for some reason ( and we've not touched the server since task job setup) the chron job in task manager will randomly start 20-25 mintues late! We can't see a pattern, it will just randomly start late a few times a week, then work as it should and then a few weeks later it starts late again. Why is this? This has never happened before to me in any NT system, is this a 2008 bug? As you can imagine this is wreaking havoc on that production server and causing client downtime and is completely unacceptable. Any ideas? (besides moving back to Linux ;) Thank you for your time, Donald

In the task's schedule, there's a checkbox for "Delay task for up to (random delay)" that could cause this behavior if checked. You'll also find an option for "Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed" in case you would prefer the task not be run if the schedule is missed for any reason (such as the previous instance still running, a reboot, etc).

Hi Andrew, Thank you for your reply. I'm looking in the tasks' properties window but cannot find "Delay task for up to...", which tab is this located? Thanks, dc

Hi Andrew, The delay box is not checked and the "Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed" (a good thing) is checked but for some reason the scheduled task still randomly started 15-20 minutes late, no pattern, one night it will just start late any day of the week sometimes every other week, sometimes every week, no particular day... Regarding, "Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed" in case you would prefer the task not be run if the schedule is missed for reason" I dont understand your logic, wouldn't that option be if one did prefer the task to be run if it missed start time? I don't see how checking that box would make it so that that tasks is not run, seems to me the opposite, ie "check this to make run if task has missed scheduled start etc.." What should I look for in the Events Log? Thanks, Donald