Y2K

The Year 2000 will be important to all computers users

Preparing Computers For The Millennium

Software solutions to the problem of year 2000 could be useless without hardware fixes on most machines

Software is being upgraded throughout the world to help computers cope with the date change to the year 2000. But many PCs currently in use will give unexpected problems.

It was widely assumed that computers which successfully 'roll-over' to the year 2000 would have no problems in the millennium, provided they use 'millennium-compatible' software. Computer Experts are now warning that many machines will automatically revert to pre-millennium dates when they are switched off and on again - causing date-dependant calculations to go haywire.

Why It Matters

Software producers are feverishly upgrading their products to make them millennium-compatible, but this is also a hardware problem. Installing the new software will not solve the problem alone if the computer hardware is not millennium-compatible too - and a disturbingly high proportion of PCs are not.

On unmodified machines, people will be lulled into a false sense of security when they watch their PC change from 31/12/1999 to 1/1/2000. Unfortunately, tests are showing that a very high proportion of PCs will revert to various dates (usually 1980) once re-booted in the millennium. And this is only one of the problems which Computer Experts are highlighting with their new software.

The implications are horrific. The problem might go undetected for a long time, because the systems will look as if they are working properly, and people will naturally assume that the precautions they took would be permanent. Many of the problems which the new software ought to solve will return, and calculations for such things as interest charges, expiry dates, penalty clauses, appointment letters and follow up action will be thrown into chaos.

In worst cases, valuable and irreplaceable data could be lost in systems which have date-sensitive procedures to delete files which do not appear to have been used for long periods.

The Solution

Every PC which has not been declared to be "Millennium-Compatible" must be tested. Because of the wide variety of chips used in computers of even the same make and model, each machine needs testing individually.

We believe this  is important enough that we are now gathering information and will be testing all computers owned by the City of Marine City , to make sure that they will be Millennium-Compatible by year end..