Clock shows the wrong time!

[gfroyle]

The clock on my Mac (running OS X 10.3.5) is exactly 12 hours wrong.

On "Date and Time" I have checked the "Set Date and Time Automatically" and chosen an Apple time server (I am offered three of them - Apple Americas, Apple Asia and Apple Europe) and correctly set my timezone (currently Wellington, New Zealand).

But it just reports it as exactly 12 hours ahead of the true time.. it is really 9.24am as I type this, but my machine shows 9.24pm!

It makes no difference if I change time server or time zone (the time changes of course, but it is still 12 hours ahead of what it should be in the zone that I am pretending to be in).

Why should this be happening?

Thanks

Gordon

 

[wrldwzrd89]

The clock on my Mac (running OS X 10.3.5) is exactly 12 hours wrong.

On "Date and Time" I have checked the "Set Date and Time Automatically" and chosen an Apple time server (I am offered three of them - Apple Americas, Apple Asia and Apple Europe) and correctly set my timezone (currently Wellington, New Zealand).

But it just reports it as exactly 12 hours ahead of the true time.. it is really 9.24am as I type this, but my machine shows 9.24pm!

It makes no difference if I change time server or time zone (the time changes of course, but it is still 12 hours ahead of what it should be in the zone that I am pretending to be in).

Why should this be happening?

Thanks

Gordon

From the information you've given, I suspect that the time server you're using is getting confused somehow. I'd try changing time servers first - if that makes the issue go away, then definitely contact Apple and let them know which time server was acting funny. I can test all three time servers when I return to my Mac (I'm posting this on a PC in college).

 

[RoadKill]

I would say it looks like a problem with timezones.

in your system preferences check your date and time settings (under the system subsection) and make sure the closest city is somewhere near you.

mine is set to London - England (cause i live there and picks up the fact i am currently in British Summer Time (GMT +1)

if this still doesn't give you the correct time, disable the set time and date automatically and try to find a ntp (network time protocol) server near you, a local university perhaps?

 

[gfroyle]

Not timezones..

I would say it looks like a problem with timezones.

The timezone is not the problem -- I am currently in Wellington, NZ and have set the timezone to that city... If I "pretend" to be in London and set the timezone to London then it thinks that the time there is 11.01am but I reckon you are currently at 11.01pm.

Basically whatever it is picking up from the timeserver it is mis-treating as 12 hours ahead; obviously the timezone calculation is done directly on my Mac just by adding or subtracting hours from whatever the timeserver says. (I guess that the timeserver just returns the UTC time?)

If I change timeservers, all three of them still give me the same incorrect time.

 

[realityisterror]

are you sure you know where you live???/

permissions=repair
(after you've checked all time servers...)

reality

 

[emw]

Basically whatever it is picking up from the timeserver it is mis-treating as 12 hours ahead; obviously the timezone calculation is done directly on my Mac just by adding or subtracting hours from whatever the timeserver says. (I guess that the timeserver just returns the UTC time?)

Did you check your International > Formats settings in System prefs? Perhaps something is wacked there.

 

[Kingsnapped]

Meh.. just set the time zone for somewhere halfway across the world. At most, you would have to fix it twice a year. I would rather have my time zone wrong than the time of all my saves and whatnot.

 

[gfroyle]

Problem Solved...

I have discovered the problem... the university that I am visiting does not allow "visiting" machines sufficient network access to get to ANY of Apple's timeservers. But despite being blocked, "Date and Time" does not produce an error message, but just silently continues as though nothing happened.

The solution, as mentioned by "RoadKill" is to set the timeserver field to point to a local ntp server...

But I wish they had bothered with an error message!