computer failures are beyond the scope of this FAQ. What about my PC? Date Rollover On many PCs, the clock will go from 1999-12-31 to 1980-01-04. On some PCs, it may look like the clock rolled over correctly, but after you turn it off and back on, the date will be wrong. Most computers will remember the correct date after being manually set, although some older PCs cannot be forced into 2000 no matter what you do. DO NOT set your PC system date ahead without first taking safety precautions to protect your PC, software, and data. Leap Year 2000 is a Leap Year and there will be a February 29th, so there will also be 366 days in 2000. Some software does not recognize these days, and could cause a variety of problems; incorrect date rollover on 2000-02-29, 2000-03-01, 2000-12-31, and 2001-01-01; and day-of-week errors after February of 2000.Inaccurate Time-keeping A small number of PCs are unable to maintain the correct date and time consistently after 2000. A test to identify this defect, known as the Crouch-Echlin Effect, and a possible software remedy are being tested at this time. This FAQ will be updated as more information becomes available. Peripheral Devices There are no known Year 2000 problems with printers, modems, scanners, or other devices commonly connected to PCs. In some cases, driver software may have to be updated. Vendors generally provide information for specific models. How can I test my PC?Setting the system date ahead for testing may have adverse consequences; at worst, the PC may crash and become unbootable. Licensed software and passwords may expire; forward-dated records may be generated, or "too-old" records deleted. Processing centres should test on isolated systems. However, it is usually safe to test a stand-alone PC by booting to DOS from a clean system (bootable) floppy disk, and running no applications -- after making and testing a backup of the hard drive. There are a number of step-by-step ...
