Svoboda's Home and Small Business Review
The Computer Contrarian
September, 1998

Looming 2000 Computer Doom? Part III

by Wm. R. Stocking

YEAR 2000 PC FIXES for PC's

If you've read my first two articles on the year 2000 computer problems then you SHOULD be thinking: "Ok, my business probably has some year 2000 PC problems that need to be taken care of and I want to start now because I know these things can take longer than anticipated. (You grimly remember the accounting system that you thought would be running smoothly in three months; the accounting system that actually took seven months before all the bugs and training issues were ironed out. )

YOUR 2000 PLAN

Here are basic steps needed by most businesses, (some of this is summarized from our July article):

TRIAGE - Decide what computer controlled operations are most necessary to the functioning of daily business. In most businesses this will be the accounting system run on a PC or PC network. However, there are other items in your business that can be affected by the "millennium bug - machines that may have internal "embedded processors such as check verification and charge card machines, copy machines and postage machines.

TEST PC HARDWARE - You must test EVERY machine! Don't make the assumption that just because you bought your PC in the last year you don't have a problem! One of the members of a year 2000 E-mail discussion group that I belong to tested 2500 machines for year 2000 compliance, many of them recently purchased. This was the result:

Machines purchased before 1997 = 93%
Non-compliant Machines purchased in 1997 = 36%
Non-compliant Machines purchased in 1998 = 10% Non-compliant

Sometimes identical models from a manufacturer would test differently even when the "exact same chips were use inside! The moral of this information is that you can't trust the manufacturing date or manufacturers specifications for compliance assurance. YOU MUST TEST EVERY UNIT and every system from end-to-end! This has been emphasized over and over by both 2000 consultants and companies such as Microsoft and IBM.

If you desire technical information on why this is so visit the following link on the website of Dallas Semiconductor:

http:/www.dalsemi.com/TechBriefs/tb8.html

HARDWARE TESTING SOFTWARE - There are many testing programs available for downloading from the Internet which can evaluate the status of your PC's RTC, (Real Time Clock), and BIOS. Most testing programs are giveaways so that perhaps you'll buy the fixing program from the same manufacturer.

One neat testing program called "Killer is supplied free by an English company who encourages the redistribution of this tester. (I have tried it and it worked fine on my machines.) FREE TESTER: If you'd like to check your own machines, just E-mail me a request with "2000 tester in the subject area of the message and I'll reply with "Killer as an E-mail attachment and instructions on how to use it.

There are two or three different approaches to fixing hardware: The simplest solution is to use one of many TSR programs now available. This type of software fix is a simple little program that is launched into memory just before the main part of the autoexec.bat file and Windows loads. This solution works on PC's with DOS, Windows 3.11 and Windows ‘95, ‘98(?) and OS2. The newer the PC, the better the chance of it working properly.

Some of the fix programs are shareware and it's safe to say that for around $30 per machine or less the hardware clock problem can be evaluated and fixed. One of these fixes is "freeware from Doren Rosenthal that can be downloaded from: http://slonet.org/Ædoren/. I tried this program on one machine and it works fine, but I'd not guarantee that any of these "fixes will cure all machines. One company that will allow you to download a test and fix program for single machine use at no charge is Viasoft who distributes the highly praised "OnMark 2000 software for networks and software scanning. Their address is:

http://www.onmark.viasoft.com/fix-it/ .

Also, as of August 1st both Symantec (Norton) and McAfee have year 2000 "find and fix software that runs about $50 at your local retail computer store. The Symantec program is a repackaging of On-Mark's single user program with modifications to include a software compliance database and simple data scanning. The McAfee software is also a repackaging deal.

There are some limited cases when the software fix is not enough - the bios will need to be totally replaced, a plug-in bios fix board installed or the motherboard replaced. I would suggest that ALL file servers be equipped with a hardware fix instead of software fix.

The simplest of the true hardware fixes use a plug-in board. Two vendors of such boards are Micro Firmware at http://www.firmware.com/ and Award Software. The price of the Award unit is around $75 if you can obtain one.

Example: Microsoft doesn't say it directly, but it appears that their NT server program reads the date and time directly from the RTC and therefore cannot be "fixed by one of the simple TSR programs I have just written about. (It can be made compliant by use of special device driver software some other experts contend, but thus far I haven't had experience with that type of solution.)

OPERATING SYSTEMS and APPLICATION SOFTWARE - Now that I have addressed the PC hardware problems and given you some suggestions for starting that remediation process, we will go on to assessing your other 2000 PC problems. Please remember, that hardware problems probably represent only 10% of the total problem. And, the problems with operating systems, Win 3.1, 3.11, ‘95, ‘98 and NT represent only the tip of the software iceberg!

For each of the Microsoft operating systems there are replacement files that will need to be downloaded and applied to your computer to make the operating system totally 2000 compliant. And, it doesn't end there: Even with the software patches you will need to go into the Windows Set-up dialog box and change the Regional short and long dates to four digit years. This will force the default years when dates are used in applications such as Excel, Access and Word to become full four numbers. Warning, there is a downside to doing this: Other applications that can display only two digit years may now display the number "19 for the year when they should be displaying "98!

When it comes to Microsoft's operating systems there are other "got-ya's that we don't have the space to cover here but you can get more information regarding these and other software problems at our website:

http://www.firstbiz.com/2000

Or, go directly to Microsoft's site and get their official jargon on each of their programs:

http://support.microsoft.com/

OFFICE SPACE - While this is getting off our main subject for the month, I think it is necessary to talk about it as soon as possible. Office PC's and other computers are not the only machines possibility affected by the changing century. If you look at your total office environment you need to consider elevators, security systems, heating and cooling systems, etc. Yes, many if not all of these items also have "imbedded processors and silicon "clocks as a part of their control mechanisms.

If you rent office space then you need to be diligent in finding out what your building owners and managers are doing to insure that you will be renting space in a fully functioning building on Jan. 3, 2000. (Needless to say, these same questions need to be asked about your personal living space, particularly if you live in a high rise apartment or condo.)

Remember: time won't just march on at the turn of the century, it will positively trample businesses not prepared for it! Meanwhile, you can get additional 2000 information at our website:

http://www.firstbiz.com/2000

William Stocking is President of First Business Systems, Ltd. an information management consultant to businesses of all sizes. He can be e-mailed at wrs@firstbiz.com. Visit the Web site at http://www.firstbiz.com.