Dear Forum Members,

In my "Sunday supplement" of the newspaper today, I read that if a PC is more than a year old, it could malfunction next year. The article was written by Michael Hayatt, and stated that "as recently as a year ago, half of all computer manufactureres were still shipping units infected with the bug."

I went to Hayatt's site, but couldn't find the article there. Does anyone know if this information is correct? I have been assuming this two-year-old was virus-free.

-- Laura (Ladylogic46@aol.com), November 28, 1999

Answers

I have found very few computers that could not be
set to the year 2000 after the roll-over and would
show 1980 on reboot. The only problem would be that
it would not roll-over to the year 2000 on its own.

You can download a freeware utility that would check
your BIOS from most any shareware site.

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), November 28, 1999.

"PCs" consists of hardware, firmware, software. All has to be Y2k compliant to work correctly as a "Y2k compliant PC." PC manufacturers have distanced themselves from the bundled software that they ship with it. I expect that situation to blow up big time next year when the USER has to figure out what part of the PC is not working right. (Have been there.) I expect that sometime in 2000 no manufacturer will be able to ship bundled software ("preloaded" software) with a Y2k disclaimer. People simply won't buy that anymore.

-- WFK (kb2fs@mindspring.com), November 28, 1999.

Laura-Your hardware may be compliant, but your software, operating system, applications are not. This is one fly in the Y2k ointment we haven't heard much about. Stay tuned. Pc's are gonna puke!

-- Brian Bretzke (bretzke@tir.com), November 28, 1999.

WFK: Wrong! The RTC chip is not, and never has been (except for a very few high-priced units) even year 100 compliant. Compliance is a BIOS issue. The BIOS is windowed, pretty far up the line.

For that matter, MTBF for the old EPROMS was 7 years. I have replaced oddles of them when they failed in expensive equipment. Didn't cause any major crises.

-- Lurker (Lurk@att.net), November 28, 1999.

You find an interesting survey of 251 business PCs at this site, look on right of screen and should have the link to the survey results.

The Pres of Greenwich Mean Time (?) in the UK has been on uk-y2k email group and says that 48% rate of failure is about right. The above survey found that PCs off the shelf sold as compliant flunked.

Fixes are available, so are generators and 1,000 gal tanks for the fuel you'll need to keep processing those words of anguish come Jan.

-- johno (jobriy2k@yahoo.com), November 28, 1999.

ROTFLHAO... This one comes up over and over. Look, If you use your PC to play games, it doesn't matter whether it handles 2000 correctly or not. It will still work.

If you are doing accounting or business work (or compiling code) on your PC, you might have serious problems because of the roll over.

Y2K is a NON-ISSUE for 75% of home users of PC's. It is much more important that you have food, fuel, and power for atleast ten days set aside.

If you are running accounting or other such business (or personal finance software) check it with the vendor. You should also download the upgrades (patches) Microsux has put out on the web and install them.

I have a friend, he is 70+ years young. Everytime I see him he brings up the idea that his PC might not be y2k compliant. I am courteous and simply can't bring myself to say, "Why do you give a damn? You don't use the thing for anything but accessing the web."

So, "Why do you care? Do you use it for anything but accessing the web? If you use it for IMPORTANT work, you might have a reason to trouble yourself. If you don't, you don't.

-- (...@.......), November 28, 1999.

Thank you all,

Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have heard a difference in opinion regarding computer compliance. Suffice it to say; I still don't know what to do.

I use Quicken for my business, but I think I can get by with Excel, and hand-write checks (~Sigh~ fortunately, it's a small business).

However, the impetus for my preparations began when my nephew set his computer ahead and it wouldn't boot up. It took him two days to fix it, so I'm going to use that as a guideline. I'm going to set my computer ahead this weekend, and see what happens.

If you don't hear from me, you'll know which of you was right! (I'm hoping it's you @.)

-- (Ladylogic@aol.com), November 28, 1999.

I never mentioned RTC in my previous post, because I had learned about pit bulls in an earlier post. Others have already said much about the technical specifics. My point is still that we USERs of PCs (who have been told to use it like a tool!) are now being told that it may not work right. Now, instead of "drivers" we have to become "mechanics" so that we can talk to "mechanics" (Helplines, Customer Support -or NON-Support for PS/2) because they will ask US for the diagnostics (hardware/software?) There is nothing more frustrating than being told (right or wrong): "it's not us". (Again, I HAVE BEEN THERE.) What I am predicting is that sometime in 2000 manufacturers of PCs WILL define a Y2k compliant PC as end-to-end compliant (as purchased, with bundled software) because market pressure will force them. We are NOT there yet, Nov 1999! For my own PCs, I know where I stand. Have tested, analyzed, upgraded, re-tested. That is NOT A TRIVIAL JOB for the average PC user. (My own remediation is too specific to be of value to others.) Those who think that they can solve everything by just purchasing a new PC (Y2k "ready"), must understand that the software must be compliant too, and that they can't move their old programs into the new PC and expect that they will work correctly.

-- WFK (kb2fs@mindspring.com), November 29, 1999.

"That is NOT A TRIVIAL JOB for the average PC user."

Yup, I've said it here myself many times. The Average Joe needs to figure out all of the pieces of the puzzle. Hardware, OS and applications.

How many are going to go down to the local PC store, spend $29.95 on the latest Y2K "fix" program, then sit back thinking that their machine is Y2K OK?

Tick... Tock... <:00=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), November 29, 1999.

Well, damn. I'm not gonna set it ahead then. I'll just wait until the 1st and crash and burn with everybody else...then I'll take this thousand dollar piece of junk...gut it... and make it into a bread box. At least I'll get some use out of it.

-- (Ladylogic@aol.com), November 29, 1999.