Fault-finding
The recorder's clock keeps going wrong
A dead internal clock battery is the usual cause: every power interruption resets the recorder to its factory date, and Islamabad's outages make that a weekly event. The coin cell costs very little to replace. It matters because footage carrying an impossible timestamp is easy to challenge in an insurance or police matter.
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Replace the coin cell on the board
A small CR2032 battery inside the recorder keeps the clock running whenever mains power drops. It dies quietly after three or four years, and from that day every IESCO outage or tripped breaker throws the date back years. Replacing it is a ten-minute job inside a service visit, it stops the resets permanently, and checking it is part of every AMC inspection we do — plans start at PKR 15,000 a year.
Switch on time synchronisation
Any recorder with an internet connection can fetch the correct time automatically from an NTP server. Enable it, set the zone to Pakistan time, and the clock corrects itself after every outage without anyone touching a menu. A recorder with no internet still drifts a few minutes each month on its own, so on offline systems put a manual clock check on the calendar alongside lens cleaning.
Check the region settings once
A recorder configured for the wrong time zone stamps every recording hours out even with a healthy battery, and a daylight-saving option left enabled — Pakistan does not observe it — shifts footage twice a year. Confirm the zone once, write down the current offset for anything already recorded, and never edit timestamps afterwards. A documented offset keeps old footage usable; an edited clock destroys its standing entirely.
Why does my CCTV show the wrong time and date?
Does a wrong timestamp really weaken footage?
Considerably. An assessor or investigator who notices an impossible date has grounds to question the entire recording. If the clock was wrong when an incident happened, record the true offset in writing at export time.
Why does it reset after every load-shedding spell?
Because the internal battery that should bridge the outage is dead. Islamabad's cuts are shorter than rural Punjab's but frequent enough to expose the fault weekly. The battery is the fix; a UPS is the bonus.
Rather have it done?
Security camera repair covers black screens, recorders that stopped writing, lost phone access after an internet change, and footage that will not play back. Most faults trace to power, connectors or settings rather than a dead camera. Callout in Islamabad or Rawalpindi starts at PKR 3,000, with the full fix priced before any work.
Security camera repair in Islamabad — prices and scope