PC didn't change for Daylight Savings Time. Now what?

March 11, 2007 4:20 AM

Uh-oh. My computer (MS XP) didn't make the leap and change itself for daylight savings time. I thought I was ready - I installed all the recommended updates. (Someone left the computer on overnight - that couldn't have caused our trouble, could it?) Is there any I should do other than manually change the clock in the systems tray?
posted by copystar to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

First thing that comes to mind is to shutdown the computer and reboot it (if you have not tried that yet of course).


You can keep your computer clock aligned on an atomic clock by using Dimension 4. It's free !
posted by Baud at 5:01 AM on March 11, 2007

Right click your time. Click the Time Zone tab. Check the box "automatically adjust for daylight savings time." I had to do it this morning.
posted by MattD at 5:37 AM on March 11, 2007

Best answer: I did too.

Strangely enough, I was set to GMT-5 (Bogata)!.

Once I set to GMS-5 (Eastern), the "allow for daylight changes" appeared, unchecked.

Checked it, and everything worked.
posted by gregvr at 5:59 AM on March 11, 2007

Response by poster: Much thanks!
posted by copystar at 6:08 AM on March 11, 2007

Keeping your computer on overnight is most likely not the culprit--I leave my computer on about 24/7 (including last night), and when I got home from my graveshift job, my computer reflected the adjusted time.
posted by booticon at 6:19 AM on March 11, 2007

Wow, Weird. Numerically, the clock on my Windows XP system, which I brought out of overnight hibernation about 15 minutes ago, reflects pacific standard time, but when I open up the clock/calendar it says I'm in the "Pacific Daylight Time" zone.
posted by Good Brain at 9:18 AM on March 11, 2007

A time sync program wont do this. Time is set using UTC and the local machine applies time zone/daylight changes. Check your time zone settings as mentioned above.

Also I believe SP2 machines by default synch to microsoft's time server anyway.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:13 PM on March 11, 2007

When the Western Australia dialy savings patch was released it had the following various problems on various:

• It didn't install properly and needed to be uninstalled and reinstalled
• It installed but did not turn itself on
• It installed and turned itself on at first but turned itself off after some random time.

So, I suggest: uninstall, reinstall and confirm it's turned on. Manually changing the time is not an option. As it is we're getting appointments from other organisation that are landing in the calendar one hour out.
posted by krisjohn at 3:35 PM on March 11, 2007