Strange Problem with Time Zones

I went through a period couple months ago on my main PC now running XP-SP3,
where I installed a bunch of MS Updates because wife and I had neglected to
"keep up" with the updates over the past year.

I had to struggle to get SP3 on that box, then I could get the rest of them
on there. However, after I finally got all "caught up", I noticed my Time
Zone setting was GMT-8 (which is correct) but said "Tijuana/Baha CA" rather
than U.S. Pacific Time.

System thinks I live in Mexico and this new time zone update has not fixed
it! OK now, I hope y'all had a nice chuckle at my expense; is a little
'glitch' I can live with, given that everything else on that computer is
up-to-date and running fine. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to fix
it, I'm all ears. Seriously would appreciate any helpful feedback to tshoot
this little 'bug'.

When I double-click on the Clock in the System Tray, then click on the Time
Zone tab, - I notice that there is NOTHING listed beyond GMT-8
(Tijuana/Baja, CA): no GMT-8 (Pacific Time US/Canada); no GMT-9 (Alaska); no
GMT-10 (Hawaii); no GMT-11 (Midway Island, Samoa); and no GMT-12
(International Date Line West).

The reason I know about the other time zones further removed from GMT-8
(Tijuana/Baja, CA) is, - I'm looking at them on another XP SP3 computer
which isn't messed up like my main PC is. I mean, which doesn't have a
messed up time zone configuration.

Strange little 'glitch' I can live with, although on my mother's grave I can
affirm that I really DON'T live in Tijuana/Baja, CA nor am I a Mexican
resident! I live in Santa Clara, CA not Tijuana/Baja, my Time Zone USED
to read "GMT-8 (Pacific Time US/Canada)" but no more, after a series of 200+
updates a couple months ago!

Randy Bell wrote:

> When I double-click on the Clock in the System Tray, then click on the
> Time Zone tab, - I notice that there is NOTHING listed beyond GMT-8
> (Tijuana/Baja, CA): no GMT-8 (Pacific Time US/Canada); no GMT-9
> (Alaska); no GMT-10 (Hawaii); no GMT-11 (Midway Island, Samoa); and no
> GMT-12 (International Date Line West).

Is there a scroll bar?

Harry.

Hello Harry,

Here's an uploaded screenshot of what I see (no scroll bar, only a dropdown
menu):

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/6...uptimezone.gif

Strange, when I click on the dropdown menu, the GMT-8 (Tijuana/Baja) is the
'highest' it will go; it won't go to GMT-9, GMT-10, etc.

Thank you for taking time to respond!




"Harry Johnston [MVP]" wrote:

> Randy Bell wrote:
>
> > When I double-click on the Clock in the System Tray, then click on the
> > Time Zone tab, - I notice that there is NOTHING listed beyond GMT-8
> > (Tijuana/Baja, CA): no GMT-8 (Pacific Time US/Canada); no GMT-9
> > (Alaska); no GMT-10 (Hawaii); no GMT-11 (Midway Island, Samoa); and no
> > GMT-12 (International Date Line West).
>
> Is there a scroll bar?
>
> Harry.

OK that reg-import fixed it, here's a screenshot:

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/9...ezonefixed.gif

Thanks! Regarding the other comment, this machine is otherwise totally
up-to-date and fully functional. Belarc Advisor gives an "all clean",
up-to-date report; so does MBSA (MS Baseline Security Analyzer). Full virus
scan by up-to-date CA Antivirus comes up clean. "CHKDSK /r" is clean. I
regularly defrag with Perfect-Disk, Crap Clean with the CCleaner app, daily
image backup with Acronis, and registry clean with reputable cleaners. I'm
fairly sure nothing else is wrong, although of course have no clue how the
time zones got a little messed up!

Thank you again for your kindness to respond!


Randy Bell wrote:

> I am wondering if I can manually edit the Registry and put those entries
> back? I have another computer running Windows XP-SP3 which isn't messed
> up, and it lists all the Time Zones that are missing, -- and I mentioned
> those in my original post to the newsgroup.

That might work, although you may find that whatever caused this to happen
has
also caused other problems you haven't noticed yet.

On the good machine, go to Start Menu/Run and type:

reg export "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Time
Zones" e:\timezones.reg

where e:\ is the drive letter of a USB disk, floppy disk or whatever. That's
all one line, with a space between Time and Zones and another one between the
last quote mark and the e:\.

Take the file to the faulty machine, go to Start Menu/Run and type:

reg import e:\timezones.reg

Let us know if this works.

Harry.


"Harry Johnston [MVP]" wrote:

> Randy Bell wrote:
>
> > When I double-click on the Clock in the System Tray, then click on the
> > Time Zone tab, - I notice that there is NOTHING listed beyond GMT-8
> > (Tijuana/Baja, CA): no GMT-8 (Pacific Time US/Canada); no GMT-9
> > (Alaska); no GMT-10 (Hawaii); no GMT-11 (Midway Island, Samoa); and no
> > GMT-12 (International Date Line West).
>
> Is there a scroll bar?
>
> Harry.

Randy,

Glad to hear the problem is sorted, and thanks for letting us know.

A few more comments:

Most experts recommend against the use of registry cleaners, some more
information can be found here:

<http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099>

http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099

Also if you haven't done a backup of your data in a while, now would be an
excellent time - that's good advice any day of the year, but be aware that the
last time I saw Windows randomly lose a piece of data like this it turned out to
be due to a failing disk drive; this was the only symptom until the day the
drive stopped altogether.

Regards,

Harry.

Randy Bell wrote:
> OK that reg-import fixed it, here's a screenshot:
>
> http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/9...ezonefixed.gif
>
> Thanks! Regarding the other comment, this machine is otherwise totally
> up-to-date and fully functional. Belarc Advisor gives an "all clean",
> up-to-date report; so does MBSA (MS Baseline Security Analyzer). Full virus
> scan by up-to-date CA Antivirus comes up clean. "CHKDSK /r" is clean. I
> regularly defrag with Perfect-Disk, Crap Clean with the CCleaner app, daily
> image backup with Acronis, and registry clean with reputable cleaners. I'm
> fairly sure nothing else is wrong, although of course have no clue how the
> time zones got a little messed up!
>
> Thank you again for your kindness to respond!
>
>
> Randy Bell wrote:
>
>> I am wondering if I can manually edit the Registry and put those entries
>> back? I have another computer running Windows XP-SP3 which isn't messed
>> up, and it lists all the Time Zones that are missing, -- and I mentioned
>> those in my original post to the newsgroup.
>
> That might work, although you may find that whatever caused this to happen
> has
> also caused other problems you haven't noticed yet.
>
> On the good machine, go to Start Menu/Run and type:
>
> reg export "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
> NT\CurrentVersion\Time
> Zones" e:\timezones.reg
>
> where e:\ is the drive letter of a USB disk, floppy disk or whatever. That's
> all one line, with a space between Time and Zones and another one between the
> last quote mark and the e:\.
>
> Take the file to the faulty machine, go to Start Menu/Run and type:
>
> reg import e:\timezones.reg
>
> Let us know if this works.
>
> Harry.
>
>
> "Harry Johnston [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> Randy Bell wrote:
>>
>>> When I double-click on the Clock in the System Tray, then click on the
>>> Time Zone tab, - I notice that there is NOTHING listed beyond GMT-8
>>> (Tijuana/Baja, CA): no GMT-8 (Pacific Time US/Canada); no GMT-9
>>> (Alaska); no GMT-10 (Hawaii); no GMT-11 (Midway Island, Samoa); and no
>>> GMT-12 (International Date Line West).
>> Is there a scroll bar?
>>
>> Harry.