[X4U] Time zone System Preferences bug (MacBook Pro/Boot Camp)

[Jim Robertson]

On 1/23/07 8:44 PM, "Stroller" <macmonster at myrealbox.com> wrote:

> It sounds like your timezone may be set incorrectly in Windows. You
> don't mention what time it says when you're booted to XP, so maybe
> you never look at the clock when you are? Could the time be set
> incorrectly in Windows, too? Double-click on the clock to change the
> time settings.

This problem has been reported by many, and supposedly it reflects something
about the way Windows and Mac OS store time differently in non-volatile RAM
when the machine is powered down. Supposedly Apple had fixed this in the
later versions of Boot Camp. When I'm in Windows, it's to run a medical
application that WILL NOT RUN except in Internet Exploder for Windows (I
think there's poetic justice in the fact that although the developers
carefully crafted it for the "universal" browser, it blows up in IE7 (and
I'm aware of VERY large enterprises facing similar problems after Windows
Update sneaks IE7 onto users' machines).

I don't use WiFi a lot on my laptop when I'm in Mac OS, so I keep Airport
turned off for whatever little bit of battery life extension that will give
me. Consequently, I think what happens is that when I'm in Windows, the
servers provide the correct time. If I reboot into Mac OS without plugging
in my ethernet cable, I have no internet access and my clock thinks I'm in
London (actually it still says "Cupertino" in my System Prefs). The thing
that Apple could do better is provide an alert dialog that says "I can't do
that, Dave" when I try to correct the time by asking the computer to look up
the correct time but don't HAVE internet access. Eventually I'll figure that
out, but it's confusing, because SOME internet services (like the WWW become
available automatically if I turn on Airport or plug in the ethernet cable,
no matter how I have my "Location" set up, but others (such as email) are
pickier and demand that all the syntax in my Location preference match.
Access to the time server seems to behave more like access to email servers,
if that makes any sense.

Jim Robertson
--