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excalibur313

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 7, 2003
780
5
Cambridge, MA
I'm running into troubles either in windows or os x where the time is always 4 hours behind what it should be. I tried resetting the pram and it didn't help. Is there anything else I can do?
 

kretzy

macrumors 604
Sep 11, 2004
7,921
2
Canberra, Australia
Set your clock to a time zone four hours ahead. :p

Sorry, I know that's now really not much help. Other than resetting PRAM I can't think of any other way of fixing it. What are your clock preferences set as? Have you got them to to be set automatically?
 

excalibur313

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 7, 2003
780
5
Cambridge, MA
Yes in both windows and os x. I can get it to reset correctly sometimes by opening up the time page but it always reverts back.
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
40,102
8,378
Los Angeles
Three questions about what you see in the Date & Time pane of Mac OS X System Preferences:

1. In the Time Zone tab, is it set to Eastern Time?

2. In the Date & Time tab, is "Set date & time automatically" checked?

3. In the Date & Time tab, is the time shown also 4 hours off, as in your menu bar?
 

azzurri000

macrumors 6502
Nov 9, 2005
307
0
Doctor Q said:
1. In the Time Zone tab, is it set to Eastern Time?

I agree with Doctor Q, as I had that same problem before, and it was fixed after I made sure it was set to the right time zone.
 

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
21,010
4,590
New Zealand
The problem is caused by the fact that OS X, as a Unix, expects your system's internal clock to be set to GMT, whereas Windows expects local time. Being in NZ, it's a 12 hour difference for me. The easiest solution is to set both OSes to synch with a time server.
 

excalibur313

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 7, 2003
780
5
Cambridge, MA
Hey guys, thanks for the replies. I tried resetting the CMOS again and it seemed to work for a while but now it is still screwed up. The time zones on both OS's are set to Boston and they are both checked to automatically sync with the server. I'm able to get them to roll over to the correct time for a while by just opening up the time page but it always reverts back upon restart. I think that OS X sets the time to be a few hours behind while in windows it is a few ahead so it makes sense when you say that the defaults for both are different. It just doesn't make sense to me why it wouldn't work when I have the syncing enabled. When I originally go into the date and time page it shows the time wrong there too but then it fixes it after about 45 seconds of being on that page.
 

ManchesterTrix

macrumors 6502
Feb 24, 2005
324
0
In the registry set a dword entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation\RealTimeIsUniversal to 1
 

benthewraith

macrumors 68040
May 27, 2006
3,140
143
Fort Lauderdale, FL
excalibur313 said:
Hey guys, thanks for the replies. I tried resetting the CMOS again and it seemed to work for a while but now it is still screwed up. The time zones on both OS's are set to Boston and they are both checked to automatically sync with the server. I'm able to get them to roll over to the correct time for a while by just opening up the time page but it always reverts back upon restart. I think that OS X sets the time to be a few hours behind while in windows it is a few ahead so it makes sense when you say that the defaults for both are different. It just doesn't make sense to me why it wouldn't work when I have the syncing enabled. When I originally go into the date and time page it shows the time wrong there too but then it fixes it after about 45 seconds of being on that page.

This was mentioned on Apple's website somewhere about why the times keep getting thrown off. They'll automatically correct themselves after a minute, and Apple's I know syncs time a lot quicker than Windows. It's to be expected, so don't worry about it. The times will automatically correct themselves as long as you keep those settings

1. Automatically sync to each time zone
 

excalibur313

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 7, 2003
780
5
Cambridge, MA
benthewraith said:
This was mentioned on Apple's website somewhere about why the times keep getting thrown off. They'll automatically correct themselves after a minute, and Apple's I know syncs time a lot quicker than Windows. It's to be expected, so don't worry about it. The times will automatically correct themselves as long as you keep those settings

1. Automatically sync to each time zone

It won't correct itself unless I specifically open up the date and time panel. Otherwise it will not automatically correct itself.
 
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