Weird timestamp issue

[mistrowl]

Hallo

I recently started a new job and the machines here run OS X 10.5.8 (Mac Minis). Every timestamp in every window always starts with 9. If I save a file at 3:45, the modified time is 9:45. If I get an email at 11:30, the timestamp in Mac Mail says 9:30. This happens *everywhere* there's a timestamp, even on the clock that floats around during the screensaver.

The only clock that shows the proper time is the one in the menubar. Has anybody ever seen this, and how can I fix it?

TIA
J

 

[yellow]

Weeeiiirrrddd...

And what times does it say if you enter "date" in the Terminal?

null:~ yellow$ date
Mon Dec 13 14:43:27 EST 2010

 

[mistrowl]

It would seem the terminal knows what time it is too.

Mon Dec 13 14:01:16 CST 2010

?!

 

[yellow]

Curiouser and curiouser..

And is this on all Minis, or just the one you're using?

 

[stridemat]

Does it happen if you create a new user?

 

[mistrowl]

@yellow:

It's just on mine. There's one other person here on the network with a Mini and hers works fine re: timestamps.

@stridemat:

I'm hesitant to create a new user for testing purposes for 2 reasons..1) I'm the new guy here and haven't worked with OS X much, and I don't want to run the risk of breaking anything they might have set up, network/user wise... and 2) I don't know how.

As far as I know, no other machines on the network have this issue.

 

[stridemat]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Does the company you work for have it's own IT department? If so it would normally be better to let them sort it. If I was a Network admin I would much rather someone raised a support ticket, rather than messing with my system.

 

[mistrowl]

Heh yeah, I'm pretty sure there's no IT department, and odds are management would just say "S.E.P., deal with it" if I brought it to their attention. I was hoping there would be a simple fix like in the old days.. just rebuild the desktop, Ta-Da! No such luck, huh?

Ah well, thanks for all the help anyway!
J

 

[yellow]

Creating a new user is easy.

Apple pull-down menu -> System Preferences -> Accounts pane -> + at bottom to create a new user. Make them an admin. Logout and log in as test user.

Is the problem still there? Then it's a machine wide-issue. If not, then it's something relegated to the primary user, which means there's something amiss in the user Library. From there, I would go into /Users/youruser/Library/Preferences and delete com.apple.finder.plist and com.apple.systempreferences.plist. Also, trash everything in /Users/youruser/Library/Caches/.

Logout and log back in.. fixed?

 

[mistrowl]

Out of curiosity, what does deleting those items do? Will it affect admin priveledges or login/pass or networking stuff, or is it more akin to deleting an item in order to force the machine to rebuild said item correctly the next time it looks for it? Kinda like deleting prefs in the old days. heh (hopefully that makes sense)

 

[GGJstudios]

Out of curiosity, what does deleting those items do? Will it affect admin priveledges or login/pass or networking stuff, or is it more akin to deleting an item in order to force the machine to rebuild said item correctly the next time it looks for it? Kinda like deleting prefs in the old days. heh (hopefully that makes sense)

.plist files are preference lists. If you delete them, the app that uses them creates new ones as soon as it's launched. It's a safe way to eliminate the possibility of a corrupt plist.

You can also create a new user, as others have suggested. Test to see if the symptoms appear there. After you test, you can simply delete the new user you created.

 

[mistrowl]

Welp, I gave it a shot, and 2 things happened:

I lost the Alias to the one networked drive that I absolutely have to have access to.. not a HUGE deal, as I can still get to it the long way via the Shared list. Is there a way to get that shortcut back?

Timestamp issue was not corrected. Everything still starts with 9. Timestamps for the test user were correct, but this user is still fubar.

 

[GGJstudios]

I lost the Alias to the one networked drive that I absolutely have to have access to.. not a HUGE deal, as I can still get to it the long way via the Shared list. Is there a way to get that shortcut back?

Yes, locate the drive in Finder, right-click and select Create Alias. Then put that alias wherever you like.

 

[mistrowl]

Can't. Right-clicking only gives me

Open
Show Original
Eject
Get Info
Copy "S"
Label
More ->

... no Make Alias. I've managed to make an alias of the directory I need, but it makes the alias on the remote machine, not on my desktop.

(S is the name of the folder I need to get at)

Right-clicking the actual drive that the S directory is on (in Shared -> All) only gives me

Open
Get Info
Copy
Label
More ->

That "S" directory also used to be listed in Devices, but it's not there anymore. I managed to get it in there but after restarting it disappeared again and now I can't get it back in the Devices list. (via File -> Add to Sidebar). It worked once, but now it won't.

 

[GGJstudios]

If you're trying to make sure the drive is mounted whenever you log in, this may help:
Mac OS X: How to automatically connect to a server when you log in

Then, in Finder > Preferences > Sidebar, make sure you have checked what you want to appear

 

[mistrowl]

Woohoo that fixed that. Thanks.

Still have the timestamp issue though.. any other guesses?

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

(Edit) - The Apple forums had the answer.

Turns out there was a pull-down in the "International" preference pane that had been set to "Custom" whereas I made a guess and decided it needed to be set to United States.

I changed it to United States, rebooted, and now all is well.

Thanks for all the help guys!
J

(edited to show the edit)

 

[yellow]

Glad you found it!!