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Need Help With Automatic Time Zone Changes

Anonymous
2024-08-05T13:42:42+00:00

I have a work Surface Laptop 6 and a personal Laptop 4. I moved from Pacific to Eastern Time about 4 months ago.

Since then, I have had issues with only these laptops and time zones. At my rental, the Laptop 4 was solid and stayed on Eastern. However, the work laptop kept trying to switch me to Pacific whenever I joined a network (VPN, other WiFi).

I then moved to a permanent location one city over and now the Laptop 4 keeps trying to change me to Central at random and the Laptop 6 keeps trying to go to Pacific randomly. These changes are not linked to any action that I can tell, which is not what I saw at the rental.

I have set the maps app on both devices to have my current address as the default, which didn't help. I also checked all my network devices to ensure they are set to Eastern, including the NTP server settings for devices that pull time from the network.

So what gives? How can I stop this from happening?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Settings

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-08-05T14:18:34+00:00

    Hi Volitan83. My name is Ivan, and I am an Independent Assessor. I'd be more than happy to assist you. I'm so sorry that you are experiencing this issue. Don't worry, I'll do everything I can to help you.

    • Disable automatic time zone: Turn off the option to automatically set the time zone based on your location on both laptops. This might prevent conflicting network settings information.

    Go to Settings > Time & Language > Date & Time

    Turn off “Set time automatically” and “Set time zone automatically”.

    Manually set the correct time zone.

    • Make sure the NTP server you are using is correct and reliable. You can try using a different NTP server if problems persist.

    Go to Control Panel > Clock & Region > Date & Time.

    Click **Change Date & Time.

    Go to the Internet Time tab.

    Click Change Settings.

    Make sure the correct NTP server is selected.

    • If your VPN is causing the problem, try temporarily disabling it to see if the problem persists. If so, contact your VPN provider for support.
    • Check if there is a time or location-related setting in your BIOS/UEFI. Resetting the default settings might help.

    Following these steps should help you resolve time zone issues on your laptops. Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-08-05T14:50:11+00:00

    Set time zone automatically is off on both.

    I'm only able to stop the time update on my personal one. (This seems to have fixed the issue on this computer)

    As I cannot stop the "set time" on the work one, I tried changing the time server to time.nist.gov, which didn't help.

    I'll try the BIOS later today and update if I'm able to get in it. (It may be locked down).

    Where is this data being pulled from? Is there some database somewhere that thinks I'm still in pacific time that I can change? It seems odd to have to simply stop these computers from looking this up as they are obviously getting bad information somewhere. Again, the maps app is set with my new place as the default and every time the time zone changes, the maps app can find me at my house. This makes me think I'm in an old database somewhere as all my other devices have the correct time.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-08-05T15:08:50+00:00

    Interestingly, disabling automatic time zone updates fixed the problem on your laptop. This suggests that the problem might be with the way your laptops acquire location data. Here's what you can try on your work laptop:

    1. If your work laptop is managed by a domain, it's likely that group policy dictates the time zone setting. You may not be able to disable automatic time zone updates yourself. Check with your IT department to see if there's a way they can adjust the policy or manually set the time zone for you.
    2. Even with automatic time zone updates turned off, Windows might still use location services to determine your time zone.
    • Go to Settings > Privacy & security > Location.
    • Turn off "Allow apps to access your location."
    • Restart your computer and see if the time zone issue persists.

    Some VPN, network security, or productivity software may have location-based features that can override your settings.

    If these steps don't resolve the issue, explore the possibility that a locked BIOS is affecting your time settings. However, if it's locked by your IT department, changing it might not be an option.

    Consider reaching out to your IT department for further assistance. They may have more information about network-related settings or group policies causing the issue.

    If you try these suggestions and discuss the issue with your IT department if necessary, you should be able to resolve the automatic time zone changes on your work laptop.

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