Heres some food for thought.
LONDON, May 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Following publication of detailed reports in the UK press this morning, Prove It 2000, the world's leading supplier of PC auditing and fixing software for the Millennium bug, has confirmed it has reported Compaq (NYSE: CPQ) to the UK Advertising Standards Authority over claims that its PCs are Year 2000 compliant.
Prove It 2000 has made its official complaint following an advertisement in the London Daily Mail on 14 May 1998 which urged customers to ditch existing PC assets in favour of Compaq machines because its products passed Millennium compliancy tests.
Richard Coppel, chief executive of Prove It 2000, said: "We take issue with Compaq's claims. Our tests have shown that Compaq machines do not pass Year 2000 tests for important functions, notably the workings of the internal Real Time Clock.
"This is the most important element of a computer's ability to cope with the date change to the year 2000. Real Time Clocks are found in every PC and allows a PC to relate to time and date related functions, such as operating software.
"It is our very firm view that if Compaq PC's were tested in a more stringent fashion incorporating a test of the Real Time Clock, it would not be able to make its claims of being Year 2000 compliant.
"Considering that Compaq has warned in its 1997 Annual Report and Accounts to shareholders that it could face claims over the Year 2000 issue that 'if successful could have a material adverse impact on future results,' we argue that a company as responsible and powerful as Compaq should alert its customers to the issue of the Real Time Clock. Consumers have a right to be informed and to make up their own mind."
Compaq has insisted that the Real Time Clock issue is a "red herring" and that software that accesses the Real Time Clock is "bad" software. Prove It 2000 disputes this claim and points to the fact that Windows NT software, for instance, accesses the Real Time Clock for time and date related functions.
Additionally, the importance of the Real Time Clock in assuring PCs can work past the Year 2000 has been borne out by independent research by organisations such as Solace Consultancy Services, a UK government recognised authority on the Millennium computer bug (01424 217755 or www.solace.co.uk.) and Peter de Jaeger, a recognised expert on the Year 2000 issue.
Prove It 2000 has in the past discussed the issue of the Real Time Clock with Compaq and offered its assistance in providing a solution at minimal cost. SOURCE Prove It 2000
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