I'll never forget it. It was September the 7th 1998 when I found out about the effects of Y2K. I had my husband fast forward our computer to Dec 31,1999. Then my husband waited for 5mins a went back into the computer to see if it would roll over, well it did not. My son's computer was even worse. It went back as far as 1980. That made me sit up and take notice. I think this Y2K thing is real. Try the test for your self, for those that don't think that this could be possible. Good luck

-- @@@ (aaa@Webtv.net), April 13, 1999

Answers

@@@, I just did your test and I'm currently operating at 12:03 am 1-1- 2000 clock time. It was interesting. As the rollover occurred, my harddrive suddendly began whirring and the icon that looks like two minitors beside the clock in the lower right corner began flashing. Then all the red colored thread titles on this forum changed to blue as though I had never read them. (Seriously!) Now I'm going to go into some of my other programs to see what's going on.

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), April 13, 1999.

Proceed with caution regarding that testing. I downloaded Microsoft"s Y2K fixes off their web site for Windows 95 for my Gateway. All went smoothly until I tried to check for new e-mail messages. I still get a message stating email is undeliverable due to memory shortage or something of that sort. My ISP suggested reloading Internet Exporer. On another note, my old Toshiba 486 DX2 simply reset to 1980 when I rolled the clock over. Too bad it doesn't weigh more, it would be a good boat anchor. I've read elsewhere on this forum that other folks have had problems with Microsoft's Y2K "fixes". This minor problem I'm having is driving me nuts. I can't imagine what all those Cobol and other programmers who are desperately trying to fix bugs are going through. Say a few prayers for these guys as the heat really turns up.

-- trafficjam (judgement@day.ahead), April 13, 1999.

Well, after a quick trip through my major programs, nothing appears to be blown up. The only thing I can see is the effect I mentioned above about all the thread titles changing from red to blue at rollover. I guess that's an example of something that's y2k ready but not y2k compliant. The basic functionality was unaffected.

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), April 13, 1999.

PLEASE don't set your clocks forward for a Y2k test until after you

(1) have a complete backup of your programs and data, or can recreate them in some other fashion, and

(2) have at least once actually either restored all your programs and data from backup, or recreated them in some other fashion. This means that you have actually practiced the total procedure at least once in a nonemergency situation.

If you don't do these steps first, and a Y2k problem destroys or corrupts your files, what are you going to do afterwards?

BTW, keep that backup for a long time. What if you don't discover a Y2k problem until several months after you run the test?

-- No Spam Please (No_Spam_Please@anon_ymous.com), April 13, 1999.

No Spam, I do keep all my stuff backed up, but I think I'll archive my current backups and not write over them just in case there is some insidious problem as you mentioned.

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), April 13, 1999.

To Puddintame,

Within Web Browsers they remember which links you selected within a specified time period eg the last 10 days. So when you advanced your clock forward it removed those links from the history database as to the web browser it had been over 10 days since you last clicked on those links.

Not a Y2K bug, just the software doing what it was told according to the parameters that it was using.

Regards, Simon Richards

-- Simon Richards (simon@wair.com.au), April 13, 1999.

I haven't date rolled my PC as yet, I have insufficient testes, however, I did advance the calendar date from the control panel time/date function. I have Windows 95 running.

I changed the year to 2000.

As soon as I did that ... the clock stopped. When I reset the date back to 1999 the clock picked up and runs normally.

Is this a good sign?

Do I have one of those "issues", or is this one of those "undocumented benefits" of Windows?

I have all of the latest and greatest downloads and patches from Microsoft running already.

Any of you techie types care to hazard a SWAG? I'm just curious.

S.O.B.

-- sweetolebob (buffgun@hotmail.com), April 13, 1999.

I've rolled the dates on tons of PC's. Seen everything from nothing, all the way to a complete lockup once certain software packages tried to start. One of the more interesting ones was when we rolled a non-compliant 486 over. The main application the owner was using was a very popular "compliant" accounting program. After the date rollover, the computer's date was 1980. The software opened and appeared to be working fine. Here's the catch. All the guy's invoices were gone. He couldn't find any of them.

The second instance that sticks out in my mind is when another person purchased a new compliant system to replace her older system. The date rolled over correctly, but she had reloaded her non-compliant DOS accounting package. When she attempted to start that particular application after the date read 2000, it completely locked the computer up. Oh well, all this while I still have people telling me I'm crazy to think Y2K can impact PC's.

-- Greg Sugg (gregsugg@bbnp.com), April 14, 1999.

If your PC is more than about 6 months old, unless you are a hard- core NERD (like, uh, me), you may want to just set your PC clock back 10 years, and forget about having it Y2K compatible.

To do it "right" (run with date greater than 1/1/2000), you often need to upgrade the BIOS on your PC's motherboard. Some systems can't be upgraded.

I have built all of my PCs for the last 10 years (my fastest is a Pentium 166 w128Mb RAM, about 1.5 years old), but I won't be "rolling- over" 1/1/2000 (I'm setting back the clock 10 years). It is a pain upgrading the BIOS (I had a lot of timing problems with memory last time I did that), and Micro$oft software isn't all ready for Y2K, unless EVERYTHING is upgraded.

The biggest downside is having to remember that all of your dates are really SYSDATE-10years.

Just my opinion...

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous99.xxx), April 14, 1999.

a word to the wise. you can test all levels of the problem pretty cheaply by getting the Intelliquis IntelliFix 2000. you can get it for about $50 from most office supply stores. it will be the best $50 you ever spend. you can visit them online at http://www.intelliquis.com. you can also visit them in person this week, april 19-22 at COMDEX at mccormick place in chicago. they will be at the Y2K Solutions Pavilion with the other y2k vendors. good luck, and BTW, i do not work for them or get any commission, sigh.

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), April 15, 1999.

On a website "Y2K Tip of the Week" for 4/9/99, it states "If you have an older VCR in your home, use this quick trick to fool it into Y2K compliance. When January rolls around, set the year to 1972. The dates and days match up with the year 2000, and it was a leap year." Wouldn't this work with a PC? However, for the VCR and/or the PC, one probably shouldn't wait til January but do the procedure the night before, right? Granny Holly

-- Hollaine Allen (Holly3325@juno.com), April 17, 1999.