Continually Changing Time Zone Settings on Cingular BlackJack

Mike Temporale

I've been using a Cingular BlackJack for a couple weeks now and it's a great phone. There are some things I liked better on the i320, but the much improved reception on the BlackJack outweighs all those things. One problem I've been having is getting my time zone and time set correctly. When the phone arrived, I was surprised to see that the time was correct. So I never checked the time zone settings on the phone. Silly me. A couple days later I noticed that my appointment reminders were firing long after the events. Confused

Checking the time zone settings, I found that my phone was actually set to GMT +4 Abu Dhabi. Now, I should be in GMT -5 Eastern, so that's a big difference. I corrected the time zone and went on about my business. A couple days later, I noticed the same thing again! I was starting to think that I dreamt the last problem. But this happened a couple more times. I keep updating it, but I keep finding that it changes back to GMT +4.

I just noticed that there's a Auto Update field at the bottom of the Date and Time settings page. I'm guessing that Auto Update is referring to the time zone settings, but I don't know for sure. i'll be setting it to No, and we'll see if my device can actually keep the correct time for a change. If anyone else is having this same issue, you might want to look into changing this setting too.
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Jerry Raia · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:20 am Post subject:

Thats quite a TZ change! I guess we can't say its because you are close to another TZ. Isn't Eastern -4? I spent a lot of time in Central and it was
-5 I thought. Mine is set to "on" and I haven't seen this happen.
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Mike Temporale · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:38 am Post subject:

Edgar · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:38 am Post subject:

Mine is set on - time is fine and even determined PST all on its own.

Aren't you in Canookia? The phone just wishes it was in warmer weather?

Jerry Raia · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:06 am Post subject:

Edgar · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:09 am Post subject:

Yup Dst is managed ok.

I'm thinking user error Jerry, what do you think? Wink

Jerry Raia · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:13 am Post subject:

It's the cold up there. Messes up the devices. Laughing

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Rocco Augusto · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:05 am Post subject:

what is your computers TZ set too? I remember once, way back when, i was having an odd problem such as this. turned out i had the TZ on my computer set to something crazy and it kept changing my phones TZ setting. Smile

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whydidnt · Smartphone Pupil Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 20

Well, certainly sounds odd. I think the phones are supposed to be able to pick up the time and timezone off from the cell tower, when that box is checked. It seems that either the BJ isn't reading that right or your local tower isn't configured correctly.

The issue with appointments would be compounded in this situation, due to MS decision to auto-adjust appointments based upon time zone. If you set the appointment while the phone was on Dubai time and then the time zone was adjusted, either manually or by the tower, the appointments would automatically adjust to accommodate the change in time. I have heard stories of people missing their airplanes because of this behavior. Shocked

Because of the issues in my second paragraph, I always turn off the auto update time feature on any of my phones. I often travel between timezones and it's too hard for me work backwords when entering an appointment I will have in the new time zone.

dd-mj · Smartphone Pupil Joined: 07 Feb 2005 Posts: 16

I ran into the same problem 2 weeks ago. I called Cingular support and they asked me to pull the battery and sim card out of the phone. They they said they pushed new information for the phone. When I put the card and battery back in the phone all was good. I have not had a problem since.

Prior to calling Cingular, I had turned on/off/on the phone, changed the time zone, etc. Nothing helped. I am in California and my time zone was being set to a time zone in China.

Originally I thought the problem was due to Facade/Paprus, because the phone date/time were showing differently on the phone then on the calendar.

In the end I think something went wacky on the Cingular side.

So no you are not alone...

Other than that problem - I have had no other problems with this phone. This is by far my best phone ever. It is definitely the best MS based device I have ever owned and I stared with the Philips Velo and Nino - for those who can remember back that far.