Quartz crystal
Updated: 09/12/2023 by Computer Hope
Quartz is a crystal used in watches, computers, and other devices to keep time. When electricity is applied, the quartz crystal vibrates or ticks an exact 60 seconds per minute. The picture shows an example of a type of crystal you'll find in your computer. This example is of a 24.576 MHz crystal on a computer sound card.
Depending on the quality of the quartz crystal and other factors, the quartz crystal may not properly tick exactly 60 seconds each minute, causing a computer not to keep the proper time.