Year 2000 and its Impact on UVIC Microcomputer Systems

1. Year 2000 and its Impact on UVIC Microcomputer Systems Brenda Gerth Computing User Services University of Victoria

2. Millennium BugYear 2000Y2K • Hype? • Important Computer Issue?

3. Year 2000 - Multifaceted Problem! • Computers (mainframes, personal computers) • Mechanical devices (elevators, air conditioning systems, alarm systems, automobiles)

4. Potential Year 2000 Microcomputer Problems • Computer's hardware • Operating system • Software

5. Year 2000 Problems Compounded by • Numerous customized applications and user developed macros • Exchange of information to other systems • PC based systems located in obscure locations and undocumented (unforgotten)

6. What is the Year 2000 Problem? • Computer systems will not function properly when trying to store or manipulate dates beyond December 31, 1999 • Computers often store the year as 2 digits (typically MM/DD/YY) rather than as 4 digits (e.g. 97 rather than 1997) • The year 2000 is stored as 00 and assumed by the computer to represent 1900 rather than 2000

7. When do Problems Arise? • When an application processes a date on or after 1 January 2000 • When system date rolls over to 1 January 2000

8. Does a date of 01/31/00 represent January 31, 1900 or January 31, 2000? • This causes errors in date calculations such as number of years until retirement • Eligibility of mature student status • Arranging student records in date registered order • Receiving or transferring date information to or from external sources

9. Calculating Retirement Eligibility

10. Sorting Numbers

11. Calculating Leap Years Correctly • Leap years occur every year that is divisible by 4 and also by 400 if the year ends in two zeroes • Valid leap years include 1600, 2000, and 2400 but 1700, 1800, 1900, and 2100 are not • An incorrect calculation will skip the 29th day of February all together

12. Why Has The Date Problem Come About? • Data storage was expensive and cost of programmer time was minimal in comparison • Storing only the last two digits of the year saved memory and money • Memory became less expensive, but millions of programs were already written

13. Sharing data among computer systems perpetuated the problem • It was deemed too expensive to change the programs, therefore practice persisted • Longevity of hardware and software was significantly underestimated, along with the associated problems of storing years as only two digits

14. 1970 $3,200,000 1980 $64,000 1990 $120 1995 $30 1997 $5 The Cost of RAM (from Year 2000 Solutions for Dummies, KC. Bourne)Year cost of RAM per MB in $

15. Why is the Year 2000 Issue an Important Concern? • Less that two years to get ready • One deadline which cannot be deferred or postponed • Most data includes dates and are often hidden in data processing • If year 2000 dates are not processed correctly, erroneous or unexpected results • incorrect decisions and conclusions will be made

16. Where do the Date Problems Exist? • Determining expired or overdue status • Displaying records in date sequence • Entering and presenting dates • may not be possible to enter a date such as `01/01/00' because program doesn't accept dates before 1980 (00 < 80) • dates may be shown incorrectly on reports (1900 rather than 2000)

17. Two Digit Problems can be found in • Data • Computer hardware • Operating systems • In-house and commercial "off-the-shelf" (COTS) applications • spreadsheet and database systems • screens (data entry/display screens) • program code

18. Embedded systems • faxes • telephone systems • air conditioning units • security systems • elevators • nuclear power plants • water purification plants • medical equipment

19. Lets Go Searching at UVIC • Portable microcomputers • Old microcomputers stored for future use • Microcomputers locked away as print servers or consoles

20. What is UVIC Doing About Year 2000 Issues? • COUS is providing information and assistance to microcomputer users • Software Development has been working since 1996 managing year 2000 issues for administrative production systems such as accounting, payroll, and personnel records • If you have in-house information processing systems and require advice or assistance, contact Dr. Alan Tweedale, Assistant Director, Software Development

21. What could happen if there is a problem that is not fixed? • Erroneous data has the potential for misrepresentation and misinterpretation leading to incorrect decisions or flawed research conclusions • Microcomputers and other devices may not function correctly or not at all

22. What Might go Wrong on My Mac in the Year 2000? • The Mac hardware and operating system software has the ability to correctly handle the 21st dates until the year 2040 • Incorrect century interpretation using Excel for Mac Version 5.0 • Excel 98

23. What Might go Wrong on My PC • Files which are created or changed will have erroneous date information associated with them • May cause software with expiry dates to stop running • Programs (particularly database and spreadsheet applications) may compute erroneous values based on values provided by operating system or application software • incorrect century • non-recognition of February 29

24. Five Problematic Areas • Hardware • Operating System • Application Software • Data • Data Exchange

25. Hardware • RTC (real time clock) chip stores the date when computer turned off • RTC stores the date as CYYMMDD ( 9 99 12 31 and 0 00 01 01) • RTC passes date to BIOS losing the millennium digit • If millennium digit lost BIOS interprets date as 1980-01-04

26. Hardware Problems with PCs will Occur when Century Changes • Many versions of the BIOS will not be able to correctly increment the century to "20” • Will tell the operating system and applications that the date is "1900" instead of "2000” • This may cause an erroneous system date (e.g. 1980 or 1984) at the next boot

27. Operating System (OS) - DOS, Windows 3.1/ 95 /NT • OS gets the system date from BIOS at start-up time • OS provides the date to most applications • Some applications get the date directly from the BIOS • Most OSs can support a four-digit year • manually changed by their date and time commands • changed by the computer's setup program • Applications and OS rely on the BIOS, not the RTC so what BIOS does with the RTC date is what matters most to the PC

28. Application Software Problems • Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software • In-house developed or adapted applications (macros) • Often undocumented • Software may handle a four-digit year, users may have opted for a two-digit year to save file storage space and key strokes for entering data

29. Data Problems • Programs may accidently delete “old” 00 data relating to dates, incorrectly assumed to be in past • Incorrect data may appear to be correct when displayed on the screen • 00 displayed and processed as 1900, not 2000

30. Data Exchange Problems • Many PC systems exchange data with other systems • A non-compliant PC system receiving compliant data will interpret it incorrectly • A non-compliant PC sends noncompliant data to a compliant program will contaminate compliant system with bad data

31. Testing Microcomputer HardwareIt is necessary to test every microcomputer even if you have several microcomputers which are the same make and model and apparently contain the same version of BIOS. Some BIOS and motherboard manufacturers made changes to their BIOS without updating the BIOS version number and so it's necessary to test every microcomputer even it one microcomputer is apparently identify to another.

32. TEST2000.EXE Test2000 is a free, simple and complete PC hardware year 2000 date compliance utility. This utility performs two tests, a real time BIOS 1999-2000 transition test, and a BIOS date retention after reboot test. http://www.rightime.com/

33. If a microcomputer passes these two tests, the microcomputer hardware is year 2000 compliant. This does not necessarily mean that you might not have other problems associated with your operating system or your applications but only that your BIOS will provide the correct year.

34. First Test2000 Outcome • The outcome you are hoping for is "1999 to 2000 Transition test PASSED" and "BIOS Date Retention Reboot test PASSED" • This means your microcomputer hardware will correctly handle the century change from the year 1999 to 2000 and remember the century date the next time the computer is rebooted

35. Second Test2000 Outcome • If your microcomputer fails the 1999 to 2000 transition test, but passes the BIOS date retention reboot test, you will need to manually correct the date ONCE on 1 January 2000

36. Third Test2000 Outcome • If your microcomputer fails the 1999 to 2000 transition test, and does not retain the BIOS date upon reboot, you will need to manually correct the data every time you restart your computer or you can purchase a product such as Y2KPCPro

37. Running TEST2000 • Type C:\TEST2000 at the DOS prompt • Test2000: To proceed press 'Y', or any other key to quit... to initiate TEST2000 • Read results of the Transition Test, then Press any key to continue • Read the results of the Reboot Test, then Press any key to continue • Read the TEST2000.TST, test summary file saved in the root directory, C:\ • Reboot your system

38. Correcting DOS Operating System Problems • MS-DOS displays a 2-digit day in response to the DIR command. The year 2000 is shown as MM-DD-00 • Although the year 2000 is shown as MM-DD-00 it collates properly in DIR displays • Files with a year 2000 date are displayed following files with a year 1999 date

39. MS Windows 3.1, 3.11 and Windows For WorkGroups • It is important to change the display of the year from two to four digits: • Control Panel • International • Date Format • Century

40. MS Windows 95 • Explorer displays an incorrect date if the file is created with a date of 01-01-2000 or later • Microsoft provides an update file • It is important to change the display of the year from two to four digits • Control Panel • Regional Settings • Date • Short Date Style • Change the short date style from M/D/YY to M/D/YYYY

41. Windows NT • It is important to change the display of the year from two to four digits • Microsoft Corporation confirms that Windows NT version 4.0 does not recognize 2000 as a leap year, resulting in February 29, 2000 being recognized as March 1, 2000 • The next Service Pack should contain a fix to this problem

42. Testing Purchased or In-house Developed Applications Software • Have you or anyone else written applications (programs, batch files, macros) which run on your computer? • Do the spreadsheets or databases contain date fields that are not year 2000 compliant, for example the date fields do not contain the century (97 rather than 1997)? • Are these date fields used for calculations?

43. If the answer is YES to any of these questions • Identify all applications that use dates • Determine whether dates are stored as two or four digits • Modify all date field definitions to include four digits of the year

44. Check the logic of the program or macro to ensure year 2000 dates are processed correctly • Revise input forms, screens and reports to display all four digits of the year • Test all programs when changes have been made • Change the default settings of software to display all four digits of the year

45. Confirmed Software Problems • Windows NT Server version 4.0 does not recognize February 2000 as a leap year Article ID:Q175093 • Excel Win, Win 95, NT, Mac 5.0 and Win95 7.0 inserts wrong century for dates >99 in user created macros Article ID: Q182766 • Excel 97 (Win95) and Excel 98 Mac does not recognize February 28, 2100 Article ID: Q179545 • Works for Win 2.0, 3.0 assumes incorrect century for dates > 99

46. With just less than two years until the Year 2000, is there plenty of time to address whatever difficulties may arise? • The answer to this question is NO! • It is the responsibility of each department on campus to address year 2000 issues in their own areas

47. What Should You Do Now? • Become informed about year 2000 issues • Examine your hardware, operating system, and applications for correct year 2000 operation • Contact Software Development if you have in-house information processing systems and you require assistance

48. Contact the Computer Help Desk if your require advice or information on assessing if your microcomputer system will operate correctly in the year 2000 • Many users will be able to make this assessment themselves. Refer to the Help Desk Web Site at http://helpdesk.uvic.ca/ for information as it becomes available on how to go about performing this assessment

49. The problem takes effect as soon as your system has to process a date in the year 2000 or beyond; that may well be long before the year 2000 • Until you carry out an assessment of the potential impact on your system, how do you know how long the fix will take? • What if you discover that your system is beyond repair? How long will it take to specify, purchase, develop, test and implement complete new systems?

50. Let's try to Summarize - Mac • Macintosh microcomputers will handle the 1999-2000 date rollover • Macintosh operating systems will correctly handle dates in the year 2000 and beyond • Some Microsoft applications for the Mac will not handle dates correctly in the year 2000