Internet Beat

Barbra Peterson

YEAR 2000 PROBLEM - Part 2

How to check a personal computer for year 2000 readiness

The following steps are suggested to determine if a personal computer will roll over to the year 2000 correctly. The test presented here requires a bootable DOS floppy diskette. This is a safer method to test your PC's system clock because it leaves the data and programs on your PC's hard disk unaffected. If you boot to your C: drive, you may end up loading Windows® or Windows® 95 and other applications from your startup routine. Using a bootable diskette will ensure the integrity of the data and programs on your PC's hard disks. The test script presented here will check your PC's ability to transition to the year 2000 and recognize it as a leap year.

Do not perform the tests by changing your system's BIOS Setup screen.

1. Create a bootable test diskette.

· Insert a blank floppy diskette into the PC's A: drive.

· From a DOS prompt, type FORMAT A: /S.

· Or from Windows File Manager, click on DISK/FORMAT and check MAKE SYSTEM DISK.

2. With the bootable diskette created in Step 1 still in your PC's floppy drive, shut down your system (close Windows) and the power off your PC. Don't just hit the reset button or warmboot (CTL-ALT-DEL).

3. Turn the power on your PC, and allow the PC to boot from the diskette.

· After bootup, DOS automatically shows the current date.

· Make sure that the correct date is displayed. Otherwise, you may have to set the correct date on your PC's BIOS.

4. At the Enter new date (mm-dd-yy) prompt, type 12-31-1999.

5. After changing the date, the current time will be displayed. At the Enter new time: prompt, type 23:55:00.

6. Turn the power off on your PC and wait at least 10 minutes.

If you don't, DOS will appear to transition correctly to the year 2000. However, once you reboot the PC, it will display the incorrect date if your system's RTC has the flaw described above.

7. Turn the power back on and wait for the boot process to complete.

8. Type in Date at the ready prompt. If Sat 01-01-2000 is displayed, your PC's BIOS passes the test.

9. At the Enter new date (mm-dd-yy): prompt, type 02-28-2000. This will test your system's ability to recognize the year 2000 as a leap year.

10. After changing the date, the current time will be displayed. At the Enter new time: prompt, type 23:55:00.

11. Power off your PC again and wait at least 10 minutes.

12. Turn the power on the PC.

13. Type in Date at the Ready prompt. If Tue 02-29-2000 is displayed, your PC's BIOS passes the leap year test.

14. To conclude testing, at the Enter new date (mm-dd-yy): prompt, enter the correct date, e.g., 07-04-1997.

15. After changing the date, the current time will be displayed. At the Enter new time: prompt, type correct time, e.g., 06:00:00.

16. Remove the bootable diskette from the floppy and power off your PC.

USEFUL INTERNET SITES FOR Y2K:

The Internet has thousands of web sites dedicated to the year 2000 problem. Many sites have links to sources of freeware, planning tools, discussion groups, and so forth.

Here is a short list of useful Web sites.

http://www.sba.gov - The Small Business Association's Web site - very extensive Y2K article and complete checklist.

http://www.year2000.com - Peter de Jager's Web site - a good source of links to other sites

http://www.compinfo.co.uk/y2k/manufpos.htm - contains links to computer manufacturer's home pages where you can find Year 2000 compliance information

http://www.nstl.com/html/nstl_y2k.html - Y2K problem detection tools for the PCs.

Barbra Peterson is owner/manager of JPC Services, Inc. She can be reached at 372 2355 or 1-888-447-2355; bpeterso@jpc01.jpcservices.com or http://www.jpcservices.com.

Part 1of this article was published on January 13.

To contribute to the Internet Beat column, contact column coordinator Gloria R. Rivera at riverag@connecti.com; 303-4764; http://www.seguin.net.