A timer mismatch is when two routers have different values set for the same timer. For example if one router declares a router dead after 45 seconds and another waits for 4 minutes that difference in time will result in those two routers being out of synch for that period of time—one will still see that offline router as being online.

The easiest method to check the timers is to check the configuration on each router. Another method is to sniff some packets, and read the timer values in the packets themselves from different routers. Each packet contains the hello interval, and dead interval periods, so you can compare them easily enough.