Time & Date Crashes - Pls help!

Starting yesterday, I cannot load Time & Date (either from System Prefs or from the menu bar). I get the beachball and I have to Force Quit System Prefs.

I tried Repairing Permissions and rebooting but it didn't help.
I tried deleting .plist entries (as per a related thread on the Internet) and rebooting and that didn't work either.
I tried logging off and logging in with another account and the problem is still there.

I hope I can get some help because it's driving me nuts. I travel a lot and need to change my time zone.

If you need a crash report from me, please tell me how to get it from Console bc I don't know where to look for it!

P.S. I am using old OSX 10.4.11

thx for the reply, I checked the Crash Reporter folder and don't see any relevant entries. At least, none that say "System Preferences," "Date & Time" or "Clock" or anything like that. Is there smething else I should be looking for?

Basically it just hangs. I get the beach ball and then I have to Force Quit because System Preferences is not responding. This only happens when I enter into the Date & Time section. Nothing else (that I am aware of).

DewGuy1999 said:

Give it a try it after doing a Safe Boot.

Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?

Click to expand...

It still occurs in Safe Mode. I suppose the next step is resetting the NVRAM/PRAM?

LPZ said:

Can't hurt, I suppose. If that doesn't fix it, you could try getting more info, as follows:

1) Quit System Preferences

2) Open Activity Monitor (in Utilites)

3) In Activity Monitor menu bar, choose Window->Activity Monitor

4) Open Date & Time in System Preferences, and let it "beachball"

5) In Activity Monitor, type "System Preferences" in the filter/search box at the top of the panel.

6) Click on the System Preferences line in the Process Name column to select it, and then click Sample Process. Copy and post here, and perhaps someone can figure out what Date & Time is doing/ trying to do.

Click to expand...

Done. Here goes:

Analysis of sampling pid 213 every 10.000000 milliseconds
Call graph:
300 Thread_0f07
300 0xe34d
300 0xe426
300 NSApplicationMain
300 -[NSApplication run]
300 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:]
300 _DPSNextEvent
300 BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode
300 ReceiveNextEventCommon
300 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode
300 CFRunLoopRunInMode
300 CFRunLoopRunSpecific
300 mach_msg_trap
300 mach_msg_trap
300 Thread_1003
300 _pthread_body
300 wait4
300 wait4

Total number in stack (recursive counted multiple, when >=5):

Sort by top of stack, same collapsed (when >= 5):
mach_msg_trap 300
wait4 300
Sample analysis of process 213 written to file /dev/stdout
Sampling process 213 each 10 msecs 300 times


____________________

Tried again and got the following:

Analysis of sampling pid 213 every 10.000000 milliseconds
Call graph:
300 Thread_0f07
300 0xe34d
300 0xe426
300 NSApplicationMain
300 -[NSApplication run]
300 0x7b53
300 -[NSApplication sendEvent:]
300 -[NSWindow sendEvent:]
300 -[NSComboBox mouseDown:]
300 -[NSComboBoxCell trackMouse:inRectfView:untilMouseUp:]
300 -[NSButtonCell trackMouse:inRectfView:untilMouseUp:]
300 -[NSCell trackMouse:inRectfView:untilMouseUp:]
300 -[NSCell _sendActionFrom:]
300 -[NSControl sendAction:to:]
300 -[NSApplication sendAction:to:from:]
300 -[NSComboBoxCell popUp:]
300 -[NSComboBoxCell filterEvents:]
300 0x7b53
300 -[NSApplication sendEvent:]
300 -[NSWindow sendEvent:]
300 -[NSTableView mouseDown:]
300 -[NSTableView _sendAction:to:row:column:]
300 -[NSControl sendAction:to:]
300 -[NSApplication sendAction:to:from:]
300 -[NSComboBoxCell tableViewAction:]
300 -[NSControl sendAction:to:]
300 -[NSApplication sendAction:to:from:]
300 0x15e9e06c
300 _objc_msgForward
300 -[NSObject(NSForwardInvocation) forward::]
300 -[NSConnection sendInvocation:]
300 CFRunLoopRunInMode
300 CFRunLoopRunSpecific
299 mach_msg_trap
299 mach_msg_trap
1 __CFRunLoopDoObservers
1 _CFRelease
1 szone_free
1 szone_free
300 Thread_1003
300 _pthread_body
300 wait4
300 wait4

Total number in stack (recursive counted multiple, when >=5):

Sort by top of stack, same collapsed (when >= 5):
wait4 300
mach_msg_trap 299
Sample analysis of process 213 written to file /dev/stdout
Sampling process 213 each 10 msecs 300 times

LPZ said:

So I guess this is indicative of the problem, but I don't know what one needs to do to fix it. Looks like Date & Time is waiting for some child process to terminate or report back. I wonder what Thread_1003 is all about.

Maybe someone else can be more helpful.

[EDIT] Out of curiosity, is the Date & Time preference pane locked when you open it? Can you lock and unlock it?

Click to expand...

Interesting you ask the question about the lock. Usually the lock icon does not have a chance to show, because the hangup happens immediately. I think once the lock showed before the freeze, and I'm pretty sure it was in unlock position.

LPZ said:

Go to some other Preference Pane (Energy Saver, for example) and lock and then unlock that pane. Then try Date & Time again.

Click to expand...

Didn't change anything. Actually as soon as I clicked Date & Time, System Preferences froze and the beach ball appeared. Usually the Date & Time pane opens briefly and then a second later the beach ball appears.

BTW I forgot to add that after one of my many reboots since this problem started, the clock no longer appears at all in the menu bar.

DewGuy1999 said:

I missed that. How about a PRAM/NVRAM zap?

Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM

Click to expand...

I tried that already, it did not work. Although I was suspicious that the resetting didn't "take" because my wallpaper was the same...

As for the suggestion to look at Console Logs--what exactly should I look for in there? I can copy & paste but there is a lot of text there.

LPZ said:

Quit System Preferences and then reopen and go to Date & Time. Then see if you can find a portion of a log file whose timestamp matches that sequence of events. Just hoping for a clue ...

Click to expand...

I did that. Interestingly the time stamps are all wrong. I assume that is related to my problem--but could just be a concidence. There is nothing really of note in the Console Logs except maybe the part about "ntpdate...adjust time server" for the regional apple.com. Is that related?

DewGuy1999 said:

Did you install or uninstall anything prior to this happening? Does everything else with the MacBook seem to be working okay? You said you did a reboot, but have you done a complete shut down and startup since the problem occurred? Have you done a Verify Disk with Disk Utility?

Click to expand...

Answers to questions in order:
No.
Yes.
Yes, more than once.
Yes, more than once.

LPZ said:

Probably? Please post that portion in its entirety.

Click to expand...

There are a few entries like this:

Looking for host time.euro.apple.com and service ntp
host found : time4.euro.apple.com
6 Oct 17:04:25 ntpdate[245]: adjust time server 17.72.255.12 offset 0.061335 sec
Looking for host time.euro.apple.com and service ntp
host found : time4.euro.apple.com
6 Oct 18:56:17 ntpdate[269]: adjust time server 17.72.255.12 offset 0.160269 sec

LPZ said:

Nothing seems to be hanging ...

At this point I think I'd download the 10.4.11 combo update and install it, hoping that it will repair/replace whatever is amiss. Since you have an Intel system, you can download from here.

You might also get the Tiger version of OnyX and have it clean various system cache files.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link and tips.

LPZ said:

Nothing seems to be hanging ...

At this point I think I'd download the 10.4.11 combo update and install it, hoping that it will repair/replace whatever is amiss. Since you have an Intel system, you can download from here.

You might also get the Tiger version of OnyX and have it clean various system cache files.

Click to expand...

The 10.4.11 combo update worked! Thank you SO MUCH for your help--I'm sure my Macbook is healthier all around for it, too