Year 2000 Resource Center

How can I tell if my PC is Year 2000 compliant?

Martin Computing can test your hardware and research your operating system and software applications to determine your PC environments compliance for Y2K. Or, if you're the technical type you can do the testing and research yourself. To get a better understanding of just what the PC is facing, read on!

The PC has 6 main layers of exposure to Year 2000 problems.

1. Hardware

The most common Year 2000 PC hardware problem is associated with the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System).To identify your BIOS reboot your computer and press the PAUSE key on your keyboard just after the memory count is performed. Write down the information, then press ENTER to continue booting. Check your BIOS Manufacturers Website for specific identification and compliance information.

Award Software International
American Megatrends, Inc
Phoenix Technologies!
MR BIOS

2. Operating System

Identify all operating systems used in your organization. DOS, OS2, Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 Windows 95 etc...See what Microsoft and IBM are saying about their operating systems and Y2K.

3. Application Software

All the programs you use need to be examined. Word, Excel, Quicken, etc.The best way to verify a programs compliance is to visit the manufacturer's website!

4. Runtime Librarys

Files that provide functionality to applications.

5. Custom Code

Non commercial software written for a specific purpose.

6. Data Interfaces

Connections to outside systems, Banks, UPS, and Credit Card Verification Services for example.

Unfortunately there are several ways that the century rollover can lead to malfunction. The most common four are as follows:

1) The century rollover code in the machine’s ROM BIOS is missing. This code is the one that is supposed to notice that the low digits of the year have changed from 99 to 0. Without this code, the century value in the CMOS can’t be incremented.

2) The code is broken. Errors occur if the century rollover code in the machine’s ROM BIOS described in No. 1 above is present, but it doesn't work properly.

3) The "date validation" code is broken. What occurs in this instance is that the century rollover code in the machine’s ROM BIOS works properly, but elsewhere in the machine’s ROM BIOS a piece of code that is supposed to validate the date has a bug in it. The bug won't allow the century mark to be anything but 19.

4) The century mark is hard wired to 19. In this case the century mark is not stored in the machine's CMOS but rather in the ROM, meaning the numeral 19 is burned into the read-only memory and cannot be changed.

Operating systems: It is important to identify all operating systems being used and obtain appropriate Year 2000 information.

Application Software: Some applications have internal calendars that could miscalculate the leap year; others may force a two-digit date, depending on the manufacturer of that particular application.

Runtime Librarys: Runtime Libraries are files that provide functionality to applications. Users do not directly interact with runtime libraries; rather, it is the user’s actions with an application that utilize runtimes. There is interdependency between the runtime libraries and applications. By loading a Windows application you are using runtime libraries. It is possible, though, that you can be running an application such as Excel and then add a third-party product that provides yet another runtime library. If that is the case, the dependency roles are reversed. If a runtime library mishandles the date, it doesn’t matter if the application, operating system or BIOS were designed properly. The environment is still not ready. Therefore, it is possible for a non-Microsoft runtime library to be used in conjunction with a Microsoft application and for it to break the Microsoft application.

Custom code: Custom code is the largest exposure to Year 2000 problems on any platform. Many organizations have in-house or contracted programmers developing custom applications that better meet business needs. Due to non-standard programming practices throughout the software development community, date handling is not consistent and will need to be examined on an application-by-application basis.

Data interfaces: An end-to-end view of the organization is the best way to deal with understanding problems with data interfaces. The PC platform in an organization may be just fine for the year 2000. Yet, if there is an interface from that PC to a legacy system that is not working properly with dates, the information placed into the PC environment can cause problems.