What will happen to my PC on Jan 1, 2000...anything?

What will happen to my computer jan 1st 2000. I bought it in 96’ and I have done nothing to prepare it for the new millineum. Do I need to do anything? Will the date just flip over to 1/1/2000? or will it just explode in my face or nuttin at all?


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Depends on whether you turn it on or not.

There are manny, manny things which could happen.

You don’t have to worry aboyut it exploding or anything, but the best way to check to see if it will continue to function somewhat normally is to check with the manufacturer of the hardware and the software.

Go to the website for the manufacturer and they should have info on the y2k issues and how to deal with them. for any Microsoft software go to www.microsoft.com/y2k for all of their info.


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It will turn into a pumpkin, and the coachmen will turn into mice.


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Hi Mike R
On the hardware side, just about all machines made after 1995 have updated BIOS and Y2K is not going to be a problem to the onboard real time clock.
On the software side it is a different story, if you are running Win 95 you need to check out the link BurnMeUp provided to download the patch.
Win 98 is supposed to be Y2K compliant straight out of the box.
This is assumeing your machine is a IBM PC and not an Apple Macintosh.
Hope this helps.

Peace
t lion



" I Wonder What Happens When I push THIS Button? "


…because Apple Macintoshes are not only Y2K compliant, they are something like Y17K compliant.
I can just picture myself on the first, sipping lemonade, watching MS Earth crumble on my fully functioning Mac.


JMcC, San Francisco
http://members.tripod.com/~weirdstuff/index.html
“Hear the voices in my head, I swear to God it sounds like they’re snoring”

You know, your could change the date on your computer to 12/31/99 and the time to 11:55 pm. Then wait 5 minutes and see what happens. If it does mess up, you could use your DOS boot disk and change the date back.

Frankly, I think it should be alright unless you’re running some very old software that needs correct date info.

DON’T do what MrKnowItAll just advised you to do.

Especially if you have done nothing to your computer since you bought it . . . like update operating files.

When the clock is advanced like that, some systems wipe out stored data. It cannot be recovered.

Every major computer maker and most software companies have Y2K webpages; go look at some and find out what you need to do, if anything, to ensure your system and its software will operate properly.

your humble TubaDiva

It’ll transmorgify into an iMac. Lucky you.
Peace,
mangeorge


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Thanks, TD. I didn’t know that. Yes, mike, don’t do that.

Mike,

My PC was built in 97, it passed all the Y2K tests except the real time clock didn’t roll over correctly. If my system was on (which it always is) it would have crashed.

Anyhow, mine is a custom configured machine, but had the book to the motherboard. I went to the website for the motherboard manufacturer and was able to download the correct BIOS software. the testing seems fine, I haven’t had a chance to test it as though it were 12/31 yet, but I assume it’s okay.

CNET has a free download for Y2K testing, at http://www.download.com. This might help you.

It will evolve and gain new battle powers.

Pee-Cee-Chu, I choose you!

But if you’re really worried about it, couldn’t you set your computer’s date backwards? Would that mess up files, too? If you set the year back to, say, 1989 instead of 99, you’d just have to make a mental note to add 10 years to any dates that show up with your files. Or would that erase everything since that date, since they haven’t existed yet? Uh, did that make any sense at all?

Actually LION only the W98 2nd edition is compliant for the first edition you need to download a patch or two


Magnificent to behold - Greatly to be praised.

Actually, I think the year to set it back to is 1972 or something… then all the month/days fall on the same days of the week and stuff.



O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com

W95/98 may/maynot be in full compliance. Check at Mickeysoft.

Make a boot disk, put it in A:, boot to A: [change your cmos so it does that]. Change the date to jan 01 2000. Then do a directory read of the disk & if its okay, youll know. This does NOT effect the data on C:.

If you really want to you can disconnect the HD first just to be safe. Also, weird, there are programs on the net that can keep your computer clock from every hitting Jan 01 2000.

Lots of computers are going to see the date of ‘00’ as 1900 & get confused.

Done quite a bit of Y2K compliance testing recently. Use the test at http://www.nstl.com

Not only do you have to test for Dec 31 rollover, you all also have to test for leap day rollover at Feb 29. 2000 is a leap year. I saw one system application crash on the leap day rollover even as it passed all other tests! All BIOS level tests do just that, test the BIOS and hardware clock, but it does not test your applications!

What no funny?

The tax computer thinks its 1900. No income tax then, so youll owe no taxes.

The weather computer won’t give the weather. The weatherperson has to go outside & look & for the first time in a thousand years, we get an accurate forecast.

I don’t know what will happen to individual computers, but you probably don’t have to worry (I got my PC in 96, and HAVE done the clock thing with no problems), in any case, computers might be dumb, but their smarter than we give them credit for. Any one with a credit card that expires in 01 or 02 can see that.