Yep, I thought so too, but lately I have been reading of a lot of PC
     owners that are following the instructions in various computing mags,
     and finding that their PC's won't handle >1999. In short, to test your
     PC, set your clock to a few minutes before midnight, December 31,
     1999, then shut off your PC. Wait a few minutes, until the clock
     should be well into January 1, 2000 and run your PC back on. Your OS
     will read the clock setting from the BIOS, and although most PC's will
     correctly read Jan 1, 2000, apparently many are being set back to Jan
     1, 1980 or 1900.

     Again, as you said, I have not personally seen a PC that can't handle
     Y2K, but it seems that not everyone is so lucky.

     BTW, to properly perform this test you MUST shut off your PC as
     described, otherwise the time will not be read in from the hardware
     clock, and the OS will happily roll over into 2000, and you will think
     everything is Ok, when it's not.


     CIAO - Martin.


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: There is a problem with the date ???.
Author:  pic microcontroller discussion list <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU> at
Internet
Date:    6/22/98 5:18 PM


THere must be something that I am totally not noticing, but I can not
ever remember seeing a PC whose BIOS couldn't handle years >2000. Not
that I went and tested every one, but I have sometimes seen PC's dates
accidentally get set to a year like 2048. I can buy that banks and the
gov't will have a problem with older systems, but I have always been
under the impression that it was standard in PCs to store the date in a
format offset from some recent year (I think 1980). I also thought that
at least 8 bits were devoted to it.

Sean


On Mon, 22 Jun 1998, Martin Green wrote:

>      Whether or not your PC can handle Y2K has less to do with your
>      hardware than with your firmware. If you have or can obtain a newer
>      BIOS for your PC you should be OK. Most Pentium systems I have seen
>      have a flash BIOS, so if you can get a upgrade file from the PC vendor
>      your machine should be able to be made Y2K compliant. If you don't
>      have a flash, you may be able to get a newer EPROM from the
>      manufacturer, or from MR BIOS (http://www.mrbios.com).
>
>      I know you said your PC is OK with Y2K, but this is for those out
>      there who are less fortunate.
>
>
>      CIAO - Martin
>
>
> ______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
> Subject: There is a problem with the date ???.
> Author:  pic microcontroller discussion list <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU> at
> Internet
> Date:    6/20/98 3:04 PM
>
>
>         Hi to you all,
>
>
>         Excuse me, I know this doesn't have relation with the PIC's stuff but
I
> think that somebody can help out.
>
>         In Windows 95 I change the date to the year 2000 and the calendar can
> work
> with it.
>
>
>         I have a new Machine:  IBM Aptiva D91 with Pentium 200MMX.
>
>         So That means that Intel solve the "problem with the year 2000" ?
>
>
>         Thanks for your time.
>