FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 019 (20/08/96)

YEAR 2000 CRASH

I heard that a lot of PCs won’t be able to cope with the date change in the year 2000. How big a problem is it likely to be? Can I find out if my machine will be affected, and if so, can it be fixed?

B.R., London  

A

Doomsday merchants have been predicting everything from a world-wide stock market crash to the failure of millions of accounting, payroll and stock control packages. It’s a major headache for a lot of companies, especially those who rely on mainframe computers, using software code written a decade or more ago and it’s going to cost billions to put right. But what about your PC? Some estimates reckon that as many as seventy-five percent of the IBM and compatible PCs in use today will have some sort of difficulty with the changeover. Apple Macs and most PCs built after 1994 are (or should be...) year-2000 compliant.

You can find out if your machine is affected with a ‘Y2K rollover’ test. Reset your computer’s hardware clock (RTC or real-time clock) to 22.57, 31st December 1999. You may have to read the manual to find out how to do it, but on a lot of IBM and compatible PCs you can get into the BIOS system set-up by pressing the delete button, immediately after switch-on. (Don’t tinker with any other settings!). After you’ve saved the changes switch the machine off.  Wait five minutes then turn it back on again and check the date. If it has changed to January 1st 2000 you’re okay, but a lot of PCs, and in particular 286, 386 and some 486 models, may register the year as 1980, the year the MS DOS operating system was created. At the very least this will cause the machine to apply an incorrect date-stamp to files stored after the 31st of December 1999, at worst it will play havoc with time-sensitive DOS-based applications.

The extent of the problem will depend on the machine, and the software it is running. There are a variety of ‘fixes’, and if you’re running Windows based software, simply changing the date on the Control Panel on January 1st 2000 may get you out of a hole. Obviously a lot of affected machines will have been replaced by the year 2000 but plenty of businesses will continue to depend on pre 1994 PCs and software, so now is a good time to start thinking about what you’re going to do about it; there are only 1228 days to go! For a more detail explanation of what can happen, plus help and solutions, check out the Year 2000 Web site. It can be found at: http://www.year2000.com/cgi-bin/y2k/year2000.cgi

POWER PERILS

I’m alarmed by the warnings on re-chargeable batteries for my mobile phone and laptop PC. One suggests it could explode if mistreated, another says it contains poisonous chemicals, and must be disposed of safely. Precisely how dangerous are they?

L.T.T.

A

All batteries, re-chargeable or not, contain a variety of noxious and caustic chemicals. The individual cells in a battery are sealed metal containers, that can burst if they’re incinerated. There are other hazards. Alkaline cells contain mercury, which is highly toxic, as is the cadmium in nickel cadmium cells. Nickel metal hydride cells can vent super-heated hydrogen gas if they’re short-circuited so never carry charged battery packs in pockets containing keys, coins or other metallic objects. It’s a good idea to separate used cells and batteries from normal household rubbish. Most local authority amenity tips have a battery collection point, where -- in theory at least -- they will be sent for recycling.