The iMac in my office at work always runs 5 minutes and 10 seconds fast. It doesn't gain time, it's just always the same amount of fast. The "Set date and time automatically" option is on in Date & Time but the **** machine runs fast. I've zapped the PRAM a few times over the years but it never seems to make any difference.
Any ideas?
iMac, OS X Mountain Lion
How old is the computer, it's possible the PRAM battery is getting old and need to be changed.
Thanks for your question. It's getting on a bit… about 5 years old I think.
It doesn't forget the time, or drift, it insists the time is 5 minutes sooner than reality. If I switch off "set date and time automatically" and manually set the time correctly as soon as I turn that setting back on it resets it's clock to 5 mins in the future. It's very consistent.
Maybe I should just switch off automatic time setting but it just seems kind of weird.
Try a different time server. Look at this hint.
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20080326123203721
Thanks, LowLuster. I searched for a local time server and entered the following into the "Set date and time automatically" field:
0.au.pool.ntp.org 1.au.pool.ntp.org 2.au.pool.ntp.org 3.au.pool.ntp.org
These are Australian servers and my clock now matches the time on my iPhone and iPad. Hurrah! 🙂
Strangley I continue to use the time.asia.apple.com server on my other Macs without problem. 😕
Thanks for the help.
For US mac users, I found this governmental site with servers to choose from...http://tf.nist.gov/tf-cgi/servers.cgi
When I updated with these addresses,was AndrewScott described (settings, date/time), the time now matches my phone's time! YAY!
Why does my iMac clock always run 5 min fast?
