After talking with a few people that dual-boot OS X and Windows XP through the use of Boot Camp, it appears as though there is a slight bug. If the user boots into Windows and then boots back into OS X (or vice versa) the time changes by itself. Changing it back has no effect as it becomes altered again on the next boot into the other OS. I’m not sure if this is the result of using Boot Camp or whether it stems from the shortcomings of using these two operating systems which might poll the hardware clock differently and affect each other.
Scouring Google did not uncover an official support thread or anything of that nature. Is anyone else experiencing this problem on their Boot Camp’d dual-boot Intel Macs? Hopefully we can make this issue heard and someone or group of people can find a fix. So far, I have experienced this problem on a MacBook Pro and an Intel Mac Mini. Let us know if you have come across this problem.
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The time bug is annoying. Windows is always four hours ahead. OS X and Windows store time differently from what I’ve read. Pick the OS you want to see accurate time under and set the time correctly there (disable the internet time sync in the OS you won’t have accurate time under, or it gets borked again when it fetches the time) – I have to have OS X with accurate time or Kerberos fails due to time skew.
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I don’t know much about boot camp, but boot camps in general frown upon tardiness. In fact, being late in general pretty much guarantees an extra lap, or standing out in the rain etc.
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This past Friday I had an IT meeting at work and Boot Camp came up. The one user’s experience with it said the required firmware upgrade fried his motherboard. When he returned it to Apple for the warranty repair, they told him that had happened with quite a few computers. At $1,100 a board, you would think Apple might want to save money and fix the software problem. He also mentioned that Apple recommended a software suite called Parallels instead of Boot Camp. It is always interesting to hear a company shy you away from their products.
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I’m not a mac user, but I did have OSX 10.4.5 installed on my PC, and when ever I booted into WindowsXP after use OSX, the time is out by a good couple of hours.
I’m not sure if the two are related, but it’s not just happening on Boot Camp.
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I have the same problem here on my iMac 20″, haven’t done much to fix it though since I’ve barely used Boot Camp…
The reason for this is quite simple – alas the fix for Apple is not so easy and would involve adding a configuration option to OS X at best.
Basically OS X always stores the GMT time in the hardware clock. Windows stores the local time (including any DST’s) in order to be compatible with DOS.
One option would be to set your Windows time zone to GMT and remove the daylight savings time offset and also turn off network time sync.
[)amien
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I’ve seen this with dual booting Linux and Windows. It is indeed a GMT issue. At least with Linux i can make it compatible and change to EST rather than GMT and windows itself wouldnt get annoyed. The BIOS and Windows seem to love each other, but I am a big fan of NTP, much easier to deal with.
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Yes, I’m experiencing this bug on my 20 ” iMac.
Interestingly enough, I’m seeing the same issue while dual booting Ubuntu Linux and Windows XP. It looks like it has to do with the way they handle time sync. I still need to play with the issue but I thought it was interesting that its not just an issue with Boot Camp…
Here’s the fix:
Make a batch file within Windows that contains the following 4 lines:
@echo off
net time /setsntp:tick.usno.navy.mil
net stop w32time
net start w32time
how to make a batch file if you don’t know: open Notepad, paste the following lines then save as synctime.bat, or whatever.bat… doesn’t really matter as long as you have the .bat extension.
Then add the batch file to your startup folder in your Start menu so that it starts whenever windows starts up.
This works perfectly on my MacBook Pro.
I can’t take credit for it, though.. I found it on a forum somewhere.
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I’m still struggling trying to get Boot Camp Assistant to open. It wants me to update firmware but I’ve done the SMC firmware update… everytime I open Boot Camp I get a message that tells me that I need to do the update…my firmware tells me that I am up to date. catch 22.
I had Paralells installed and uninstalled that just incase it was the issue but still the same problem. Anyone heard of this or know of any fixes? I’ve been searching and haven’t seen anyone with the same issue.
I have the same problem as Bruce. I found other on Macfixit.com with similar issue. But I have not found a solution yet. A bit frustrating. Welcome any suggestion.
I just found this post over on the Apple boards and it works for me. Basically OS X resets the system clock to GMT and you have to set a Windows Registry flag to get XP to recognize that:
I figured out the firmware issue with bootcamp. there were 2 firmware updates… the last one (SMC) does not include the first one, they run in tandem. I installed the firmware posted 4/17 and it works fine.
Here’s what I do.
In Windows I have a startup script that will adjust the time zone to your local time, and a shutdown script that will return the time zone to GMT.
RunDLL32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL %SystemRoot%\system32\TIMEDATE.cpl,,/Z Greenwich Standard Time
Er that’s the shutdown script. To locate your timezone regedit and find HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones, looking for the key name of your time zone (may not be the time shown in the time zones control of windows). I’m a Singaporean, hence
RunDLL32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL %SystemRoot%\system32\TIMEDATE.cpl,,/Z Singapore Standard Time
You know you’ve got it wrong when Windows prompts you to choose your time zone in a window.
Yep. I have a MacBook with Boot Camp installed to dual boot, and the clock changes when you change OS’s. It has been my experience that whenever you have a dual boot system with a Microsoft OS and “something else” (OS X, Linux, etc.), the clock changes whenever you move from one OS to the other.
This has not been the case with using, say, a dual boot computer with two Microsoft OS’s installed.
The earlier post I think is right: it has something to do with how the OS handles the clock.
For now, initialE is right with is solution it actually works well.
write up an bat file with notepad like described eralier in this thread.
(if your system keeps opening the file as an text file, try this: go to tools folder options in a folder and select view. scroll down and UNselect “hide extentions for known file types”. now you can rename your file with the correct extention).
Cant wait until all apps are ported to os x, so I dont need two systems anymore.
Can anyon help? This issue is so annoying, It seems if you go to install boot camp before updating your firmware, it is too late. I went back and updated my firmware, I checked in system profiler I most defintiely have the updated firware 1.2 for my Mac Book Pro, and hwen I run Firware updater it agrees I am up to date.
But When I run Boot Camp assistant, it tells me I need to update my firmwae for it to run. Anyone know anyway I can fix this without redoing the machine?
you need to install the April 06 firmware as well as the May 06 firmware release (you need them both)
you need to install the April 06 firmware as well as the May 06 firmware release (you need them both). I couldn’t find any documentation on this when I was having the problem back in May… and had the exact same problem. the fix above will take care of it.
Thanks for the info…. (I made a batch file like listed above) I am running into this problem as well. My biggist problem with the system is that for my work I need to send out emails from a cobalt server that requires me to use the Windows OS (sucks, I know). I have to send out emails to inquiring customers within a two hour window… the program logs my clock, not theirs. This problem makes my response times way very inacurate. Thanks for the fix… I hope it works!!! (though I dont know what the firmware update is you are talking about is)
Here is a quick and simple method of getting Windows to reSync it’s clock during startup.
1. Create a new shortcut with the following information:
%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\w32tm.exe /resync /nowait
2. Place the newly created shortcut in your “Startup” folder (located in the Start Menu).
That’s it! This will tell Windows to resync it’s clock to the default internet time server when availiable, which means this will only work if you have an internet connection.
.
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Any ideas for startup/shutdown scripts that don’t require syncing to internet time? (or altering prev posted one?) i like to keep my computer clock 20 mins ahead because it keeps me on time (yes, i’m that bad at pulling myself away from the computer–pathetic. . .)
Is it possible to solve the problem like this? First observe what is the amount of time discrepency between your Mac and Windows systems. Then select a correponding time zone (which is not your actual time zone) in either Mac or Windows to offset the difference.
I seem to have this issue with the clock. My windows Time is always right since I favor windows at home. My Mac OS X clock however it + or – 6 hours. EX: it’s 11:03am right now and my Mac clock reads 5:03am
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I am using the latest OS X10.5, bootcamp 2.1 and Vista Business. Time is still shifting when booting from OSX to Vista and back. Apple support said that we need to set the system preference to “automatic clock” and with internet connection. I done as instructed but useless–> still time shift. So, I think the bug is still there with 10.5 and bootcamp 2.1
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this works, but i am in EST and now the clock is 1 hour off
the batch file idea only vaguely works. when i log onto my admin account i can see the batch file run and then fix my clock, but when i log into my normal account i don’t see the batch file run and the clock is still wrong. also, so far my mac osx is still showing the wrong time every time i reboot into it.
So at 2/18/09 this is still an issue when you boot into windows directly, not thru VMWare. I use a macbook pro and at times I need to take it into the field and boot up xp to do some programming work. When I do XP is off by 5 hours [Im in EST zone] After much searching I came up with this solution;
Create text file call fix time
Add following text;
Check System Time, if windows is boot source and no internet present, time will be off.
Save it to drive
Drag it into start up items so it opens at boot
this reminds me to fix time every time I boot into xp. simple but it works. [not really just reminds me to correct the time so my time based programming work is on time.]
The OSx86 Tips and Tricks page describes a really good fix, you can find it here: http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Tips_And_Tricks#Use_Localtime_instead_of_Universal_for_RTC. If you don’t want to perform this task manually I created an script to automate it which you can find on my blog http://zachgriswold.blogspot.com/. Hope this helps someone!
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