Year 2000 (Y2K) Information You Need to Know Year 2000 BIOS clock errors occur in the vast majority of PC models built prior to 1997 and a good fraction of models built in 1997. We offer a reliable testing and solutions to the Year 2000 BIOS clock problem in IBM PC-compatible computers. This problem is also known as the Year 2000 real-time clock (RTC) problem or Y2K clock bug.

How Common are PC Year 2000 (Y2K) BIOS/Clock Problems? In a published 1997 study of 500 PC models, 93% of pre-1997 PC's failed Year 2000 tests. 47% of 1997 PC's failed Year 2000 tests. A computer which does not have Y2K Compliant real-time date services can exhibit a variety of errors if left uncorrected. If the real-time date services do not operate properly, then the operating system and application programs will receive erroneous dates instead of the correct current date. An error in the real-time date propagates many further date errors.

What is the Y2K problem?

Many software and hardware products were designed to store dates using a 2-digit year (98) instead of a 4-digit year (1998). This was done to save what was, at the time, valuable memory. As a result, some applications could misinterpret the year "00" as 1900, 1980, or some other date. Additionally, the year 2000 is a leap year. A leap year only occurs at the turn of the century every 400 years, and some applications may have failed to accommodate this.

How does it affect my system?

Your computer system consists of several components: applications (such as word processing, spreadsheet, database and other applications), an operating system (such as Windows® 95), a basic input/output system (BIOS) and a central processing unit (CPU). When your application requires a date, it requests one from the operating system. The operating system, in turn, requests the date from the BIOS, which requests it from the CPU clock. The CPU returns the date to the BIOS, which may interpret the date before it reports it to the operating system. The operating system may then format the date before reporting it to the application. As a result, if any one of these components fails to properly recognize the date, the application may fail to store and display the date correctly.

Can my operating system's default date formats affect my applications?

Yes. The default date formats of your operating system can affect your application, as outlined above. Be sure to set all the operating system default date formats to a 4-digit year.

What is done at a Y2K computer audit/update ?

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