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Y2K and Your PC Hardware

We know that many computers and software programs are simply not yet ready to correctly display and use the date after we move from the year 1999 to the year 2000. The reason for this problem lies in the history of computing. Forty years ago, a computer filled a large, air-conditioned room, and every component was extremely expensive. Computer time was expensive, computer memory was expensive, and programmers worked for low wages.

To stave off the purchase of additional memory, businesses and universities taught their programmers to write extremely efficient code. One of the efficiencies was the use of two digits for the year, rather than four digits.

Because the old cost-cutting technique of coding the two-digit year was used far too long, our older personal computers and some of our software may not handle year 2000 dates well. We should all test our computers. Luckily, we can get a free software download from Symantec. That software will test the computer BIOS without making any changes to your computer. To start to download, enter this Web address in the Address field in your browser:

Link removed December 8, 2001, because it is no longer current or of interest.

Your browser will immediately start to download a 1.290 Megabyte file, nbfixall.exe. Note where you save the file. After the file has been downloaded, install the program by clicking on Run in your Start menu or by double-clicking on nbfixall.exe in Windows Explorer.

After installing, go to your Start menu and choose Symantec - Make BIOS Test Disk. The program will ask you for a blank floppy disk. Place a disk in the floppy drive and press the Enter key. The program will create a test boot disk for your computer. When you see Verification Complete, check the Exit button.

After you have made the boot disk, keep that disk in your floppy drive and reboot your computer. That is, go to the Start menu, choose Shut Down, then choose Restart the computer.

You will see a blue BIOS Test window which tells you whether your computer operating system passes the year 2000 test. Then you can choose to test the leap year calculation for the year 2000. After you see the results in the blue window, you have completed your test. It's time to get back to work, so remove the disk from the floppy drive and press Enter to reboot your computer.

~ Virginia Lawrence, SPAWN's Webmaster and Technology Editor, is an Information Architect who publishes both in print and online.

She can be reached at virginia@cognitext.com or at her Web site, http://www.cognitext.com.

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