Year 2000 Bug no Problem to Many PC Users
20:49:14, 26 May 1998
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By Phillip Robinson, San Jose Mercury News, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News May 26--At the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31, 1999, the "Y2K" bug will strike.
Some of the big computers that run corporations and governments, and some of the tiny computers that run appliances and industrial equipment, will suddenly freeze or go crazy.
Because they use simplified or ancient software that knows years by only two digits -- this is year "98" for example -- they won't know how to deal with the change to 2000. Some will just give up, some will think it is 1900 again -- the year "00" -- and will print checks, issue orders, close locks and bill customers accordingly.
What about your personal computer? Do you need to worry about the year 2000 problem, commonly abbreviated in the computer industry as Y2K?
Not if you have a Macintosh. Even in the modern era of Windows, the PC design is older and dumber than the Mac. It won't surprise Mac owners, at least, that Macs will be fine until the year 29940. Even the old Apple IIgs computer, with System 6 of its software, will be fine after 2000. On either computer it is possible that a badly programmed application might have trouble, but it should be extremely rare.
You may bump into Y2K troubles if you're running Windows 95 or 3.1 or any version of MS-DOS on a PC made before 1996. Many of these had a "BIOS" chip -- which stores the Basic Input Output System software that starts up even before the operating system -- that's date dumb, and will turn from 12-31-99 to 1-01-80.
These PCs figure the world began with the design of the original IBM PC in 1980. If that bad BIOS feeds wrong dates to your Windows or MS-DOS programs, those programs will in turn produce dumb results.
There's less to worry about if you're running Windows NT, Windows 98 (when it arrives) or the old PC-DOS 7 from IBM on your PC. Though not as good as having a Mac, these operating systems and any software that follow their rules -- which means most commercial programs, though not all -- should move smoothly into the 21st century.
Whatever a PC's age or operating system, most home computer owners won't notice the Year 2000 problem. That's because most home computing tasks -- such as processing words, painting pictures, playing games and getting on the Internet -- don't involve noticing what the computer perceives as the date or hour.
I've often used computers without properly setting the clock-calendar inside. Generally the only negative is that I'll find files the computer thinks were last modified in 1984 instead of 1998, or Friday at 2:30 a.m. instead of Monday at 7:15 p.m. Who cares?
But a Y2K bug -- from bad BIOS, bad operating system or bad application program -- is a big deal if you use financial, business, industrial or utility software where the date matters. Some examples
-- An old version of Intuit's Quicken for DOS could get confused if it thinks you're asking about stocks you bought in 1995 and plan to sell in 1984, when you really meant to sell in 2004.
-- A personnel database in Microsoft's "Access 1.0" for Windows might suddenly say the entire company is due a sabbatical because they've all been working without one since 1980.
-- An accounting database, custom-written years ago in "dBASE" for DOS threatens all customers for bills that are 20 years overdue, and simultaneously stops ordering new inventory because it thinks 20 years and a month must pass before the next manufacturing cycle.
-- A backup utility that erases your most recent stuff and keeps older records, because it thinks the new stuff is from the year 1900, could quietly kill your entire data protection plan.
-- A custom temperature-monitoring program in a laboratory, created in BASIC just after the age of dinosaurs and COBOL, might do who knows what when it suddenly perceives a time warp back to 1980.
So be glad if you've got a Mac. To pat yourself on the back further and get more details, go to Apple's World Wide Web site (http:--www.apple.com-macos-info-2000.html).
If you've got a PC and just use it for fun stuff, don't worry. If you've got a PC that you use for business, you're in good shape if it was made after 1995 and is running Windows NT or Windows 98 software.
You still might want to look to Web sites for your most important programs to see if there are any Y2K announcements. Microsoft, for example, just put up some information (http:--www.microsoft.com-year2000) and IBM has a lot of detail (http:--www.ibm.com-IBM-year2000).
If you've got a PC made before 1996 and you're running Windows 95, Windows 3.1 or any version of MS-DOS, you might have trouble. You could have a dumb BIOS or an application program that doesn't understand four-digit years, and your operating systems won't help.
The most complete fix is to finally leap away from DOS and old Windows software into new programs, but that could be expensive. I'm not a fan of upgrades for no good reason, and there are plenty of computers happily crunching away after 10 or 15 years, running DOS or early Windows and doing their jobs. If that's where you are, consider upgrading from MS-DOS to PC-DOS 7 or IBM's OS-2, which understand Y2K and could possibly bring that understanding to your old DOS programs.
Or try upgrading your BIOS, either by downloading a new version of it or by replacing your current BIOS chip with a new one.
First, you need to figure out who made the BIOS. You see the name of your BIOS maker flash on screen each time you start your PC. You can also check the PC's manual, or call the company that made your machine. The big three BIOS providers are: AMI (http:--www.amibios.com), Award (http:--www.award.com) and Phoenix (http:--www.phoenix.com).
Before I tell you how to test your BIOS, though, watch out. As the Apple site warns when telling you how to test your Mac's clock, superfluous information since you don't need to on a Mac: "Resetting the clock in the following tests can cause scheduling programs to malfunction, server logs to be deleted, delayed mail to be sent and other unpleasant side-effects. Do not change your clock settings unless you are certain that doing so will not adversely affect any applications or data." In other words, don't do it until you've backed up your hard drive, disconnected from the network, and are sure you won't need this computer again in the next few hours, or even days.
Then grab your emergency start-up floppy. You do have one, right? If not, make one before any of these other steps. It'll come in handy if you have power failures, virus attacks, or a hard drive crash. Restart your PC using that floppy. When the PC is running, set the clock to just before midnight, 12-31-99. See what happens when the computer clicks past the witching hour. If it thinks 2000 has begun, you're fine. If not, you need a better BIOS.
You can get this by purchasing a newer computer -- the most expensive route, but maybe you were going to, anyway. Or you could install a new BIOS chip. That's possible on some computers, so check with your computer company and BIOS maker. In some cases, you can even download a BIOS upgrade from the BIOS maker's Web site.
The BIOS maker Web sites are also a good place to find Y2K diagnostic utilities more sophisticated than the floppy restart mentioned above.
Finally, if you want a source of more Y2K news and tools, try the "Year 2000" Web site (http:--www.year2000.com). It's full of disaster talk, not surprising from a Y2K fix-it outfit, but has good links and a great top-of-the-page clock that counts down, in days, minutes and seconds, to the Y2K Dooms-moment.
Write Phillip Robinson in care of the Mercury News, Business Department, 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, Calif. 95190; or e-mail: prrobinson(at)aol.com.
----- Visit Mercury Center, the World Wide Web site of the San Jose Mercury News, at sjmercury.com
----- (c) 1998, San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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