[Sketch]

Hello Geniuses,

It has been a while since I have asked for help on the forum and it's about time .

So here is the problem:

I tried to open the Date & Time preference and then I saw in the activity monitor that is not responding. Tried again, this time it opened. so it was fine. Then wanted to change my time as for some reason suddenly it was changed when I logged on to the system. So I unchecked the "Set date and time automatically" and then this busy turning colorful wheel was rotating for a while, but nothing happened and again in the activity monitor it said System Preference not responding. Force quit, tried again, same thing. Again tried, same thing. Restared the computer, tried again same sh**. Fine, it is time for the disk utility. When I update my comp, I always repair my disk permissions. What the heck, so I repaired the disk permissions, tried it, still the same sh**. Verified the disk and the disk is fine. Alright, next step, deleted the caches in both home folder library and admin library, restared the comp, still the same sh**. Alright time to reset the friggin' PRAM, restared the comp, apple+alt+p+r, fine second 'bong' sound came, so I thought this time it is fine, bad call. Restared the comp, apple+s, /sbin/fsck -fy, when it is done, reboot, still not fine. O.k so basically tried every possible sh**. Only one more solution that is to re-installing the whole system. Backed-up the data, then zero-out the HDD, installed a clean copy of Mac OS X Tiger universal (wow), updated the compter, repaired disk permission. Opened the Date & Time, guess what? It opened, so I was happy. Shut down the comp. Today started the comp, since I had a scratch in my a** wanted to open the Date & Time, well this time, the piggies started to fly around my head... wtf... again the same shit. Tried the second time it opened, tried to uncheck the "Set date and time automatically", but it takes a lot of time, and in Activity Monitor it always say that not responding and after like a minute it is fine. But this is not a normal friggin' behavior, is it?

So here is my question:

What on friggin' earth can I do to fix this problem? Any suggestion/advice/guess (as long as it doesn't screw me even more, no offense)/food/desert/solution, please let me know.

I have a MBP, 1.5 GB DDR2 RAM, running Mac OS X v10.4.7

[Sketch]

so no one has a clue of what's going on with my System Preference? this is not good for me

[Brad]

Give it more than a day. Weekends are slow around here sometimes.

[torifile]

DNS problems? That wouldn't be changed by all the fixes you tried to implement. But it sounds like you've done nearly everything I would recommend. Can you ping time.apple.com? What happens?

[Brad]

If it is a DNS problem, try the following. Open System Preferences -> Network -> TCP/IP and enter into the "DNS Servers" field:

4.2.2.1 4.2.2.2 4.2.2.3

Earthlink's DNS servers suck and I have to use these on all my home computers. The above DNS servers belong to Verizon but are not restricted to Verizon users.

edit: There's also OpenDNS.

[Sketch]

Originally Posted by torifile Can you ping time.apple.com? What happens?

well the ping works. I get sth like this:

64 bytes from 17.254.0.31: icmp_seq=3 ttl=46 time=236.669 ms
64 bytes from 17.254.0.31: icmp_seq=4 ttl=46 time=197.190 ms
64 bytes from 17.254.0.31: icmp_seq=5 ttl=46 time=227.796 ms
64 bytes from 17.254.0.31: icmp_seq=6 ttl=46 time=390.593 ms
64 bytes from 17.254.0.31: icmp_seq=7 ttl=46 time=184.527 ms

Is this good or bad?

[Sketch]

Alright, it was the DNS. Because without anything in the DNS field, the Time and Date Sys Preference doesn't even open. But with the servers, works without any problems. Thanks Brad and torifile. Now I can sleep well

[Brad]

Just out of curiosity, what's your ISP?

[Sketch]

Originally Posted by Brad what's your ISP?

No clue. But I recently moved from my univeristy dorm to an apartment. So I guess that screwed up the things a bit.

[Brad]

I take it you don't pay the bills then.

[Sketch]

Originally Posted by Brad I take it you don't pay the bills then

yeap I don't, because it is already included in the rent.

[Brad]

Still, I believe it would be worth checking your rental agreement so you know exactly who to contact if your Internet (or other services) goes on the fritz. Usually it's a good idea to read those things so you can get some idea of the type of service to expect. Just a thought.

[Sketch]

Well the thing is my rental agreement doesn't show that and the internet is for the whole flat. So yeah I would like to know. But still I would have difficulties communicating with them as they don't speak good English.

[torifile]

Go to danasoft.com. It's that site that people use to make those silly banners in sigs. But it'll tell you what your IP address is, as well as who your ISP is.



edit: the image in my post should tell you what your ISP is.

[Sketch]

yeah well at the moment I am in the uni. I had this problem when I was at home. but thanks... I will check it when I am at home.