Y2K PC Info

Year 2000 Compliance Information for PC Systems

How to Perform Y2K Compliance Testing

Computer Hardware

As described in the Real-Time Clock (RTC) of PC document, the Real-Time Clock has a century byte such that it is possible to have 4 digit year representation. But, some older models of PC may not have the capability to set or roll over the Real Time Clock beyond the year 2000 because the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) is unaware of the century byte. Therefore, it is mainly the problem of BIOS which introduces Y2K problem on your system.

Simple Guidelines

WARNING: Before carry out any testing, read Precautions on Performing Y2K Compliance Testing first.

To perform Y2K compliance test on PC's BIOS manually, 2 tests will be required:

Rollover Test

Some computer systems fail to handle the rollover of year from Year 1999 to 2000 and will end up with incorrect date/time setting (such as treating Year 2000 as 1900). To perform Rollover Test on a PC, follow these steps:

Create a bootable floppy diskette (DOS) by:

Insert a blank/erasable floppy disk into drive A
At DOS prompt, enter the command (indicated in red):

A:> FORMAT A: /S
Wait until the format command is completed (when prompted for volume label, you may press Enter to ignore it)

Close all active applications (if any).
Shutdown system by switching off the power (not by pressing Reset button).
Insert the bootable floppy disk (created in previous step) into drive A, switch the power on (then the system will boot from the diskette automatically).
Press the Enter key to ignore DOS' date/time prompts (if any).

Note:

not

At DOS prompt, enter the following commands (indicated in red):

A:> DATE 12-31-1999
A:> TIME 23:59

Power off PC immediately, wait for 2 minutes, then power on PC again (remain the boot diskette in drive A) to boot it to DOS.
Press the Enter key to ignore DOS's date/time prompts (if any).
At DOS prompt, enter the following command (indicated in red):

A:> DATE

Up to this point, if the year information shown by the DATE command indicates Year 2000 then your PC has passed the Rollover Test.
If you are not going to perform other tests, use the DATE command to resume normal date/time settings of your PC.

Leap Year Test (and Set Date Test)

Some computer systems fail to recognize Year 2000 is a leap year and will end up with incorrect date/time setting (missing the day of 29/Feb/2000), whereas some other systems even fail in accepting year data in 4-digit format (set date problem). To perform Leap Year Test together with Set Date Test on a PC, follow these steps:

Create a bootable floppy diskette (DOS) by:

Insert a blank/erasable floppy disk into drive A
At DOS prompt, enter the command (indicated in red):

A:> FORMAT A: /S
Wait until the format command is completed (when prompted for volume label, you may press Enter to ignore it)

Close all active applications (if any).
Shutdown system by switching off the power (not by pressing Reset button).
Insert the bootable floppy disk (created in previous step) into drive A, switch the power on (then the system will boot from the diskette automatically).
Press the Enter key to ignore DOS' date/time prompts (if any).

Note:

not

At DOS prompt, enter the following commands (indicated in red):

A:> DATE 02-28-2000
A:> TIME 23:59

Power off PC immediately, wait for 2 minutes, then power on PC again (remain the boot diskette in drive A) to boot it to DOS.
Press the Enter key to ignore DOS's date/time prompts (if any).
At DOS prompt, enter the following command (indicated in red):

A:> DATE

Up to this point, if the year information shown by the DATE command indicates Tue 02-29-2000 then your PC has passed the Leap Year Test (as well as the Set Date Test).
Use the DATE command to resume the normal date/time setting of your PC

Utilities for Y2K Compliance Testing

You may also perform further Y2K compliance testing on your PC hardware by using some special programs. Here is a list of this kind of shareware utilities:

ami2000.exe:

AMI BIOS

Create a bootable floppy diskette (DOS) by :

Inserting a blank/erasable floppy disk into drive A
At DOS prompt, enter the command (indicated in red):

A:>

FORMAT A: /S

Wait until the format command is completed (when prompted for volume label, you may press Enter to ignore it)
Copy ami2000.exe to the floppy disk
Close all active applications (if any) and shutdown your system. Switch off the power. Don't just hit Reset button.

Insert the bootable floppy disk (created in previous step) into drive A, switch the power on, the system will boot from the diskette.
At DOS prompt, type AMI2000 and press enter key.
The program will then perform year 2000 rollover test and leap year test on the BIOS. The results (Bios is year 2000 compliant, leap year compliant or not) will be indicated on the screen in highlighted format.
Remove the floppy diskette from the drive.
Re-boot your PC by pressing RESET button or by power off and on your system, so as to resume your PC to normal operation.

2000.exe:

NSTL

lease note that this program must be run under DOS and can only be used to check Real-Time Clock and BIOS but NOT your operating system or applications. Detail testing procedure is as listed or you can click README.

Create a bootable floppy diskette (DOS) by :

Inserting a blank/erasable floppy disk into drive A
At DOS prompt, enter the command (indicated in red):

A:>

FORMAT A: /S

Wait until the format command is completed (when prompted for volume label, you may press Enter to ignore it)
Copy 2000.exe to the floppy disk
Close all active applications (if any) and shutdown your system. Switch off the power. Don't just hit Reset button.

Insert the bootable floppy disk (created in previous step) into drive A, switch the power on, the system will boot from the diskette.
At DOS prompt, type 2000 and press enter key.
Press "Y" when prompt for asking to accept the terms of agreement.
The program will then perform real-time clock compatibility test, year 2000 rollover test and leap year test on the BIOS. A summary will be displayed on the screen in highlighted format, which indicate the system correctly supports year 2000 or not.
Remove the floppy diskette from the drive.
Re-boot your PC by pressing RESET button or by power off and on your system, so as to resume your PC to normal operation.

ctbios.exe :

Create a bootable floppy diskette (DOS) by :

Inserting a blank/erasable floppy disk into drive A
At DOS prompt, enter the command (indicated in red):

A:>

FORMAT A: /S

Wait until the format command is completed (when prompted for volume label, you may press Enter to ignore it)
Copy ctbios.exe to the floppy disk
Close all active applications (if any) and shutdown your system. Switch off the power. Don't just hit Reset button.

Insert the bootable floppy disk (created in previous step) into drive A, switch the power on, the system will boot from the diskette.
At DOS prompt, type ctbios and press enter key.
The program will read the following information from BIOS :

Computer ID
BIOS Date
AMI-BIOS found
Version
Board
Codename
OEM
URL

Write down the information of BIOS Date (BIOS release date), Version (BIOS version), Board (model of motherboard) and OEM (motherboard manufacturer) on a paper.
Remove the floppy diskette from the drive.
Re-boot your PC by pressing RESET button or by power off and on your system, so as to resume your PC to normal operation.

If you have BIOS information of your PC hardware (as got from running ctbios.exe), you can then check from Y2K Compliance List of BIOS/PCs to see whether your BIOS or motherboard is Y2K compliance.

Summary

If your PC can pass both the Rollover Test and the Leap Year Test, then there is a high possibility that your PC hardware system is Y2K compliance. Otherwise, you may need to upgrade your PC's BIOS to a Y2K compliance BIOS (if available from vendors), or have your PC upgraded to higher model.