By now, every one has heard a lot about potential problems with computer dates when the year 2000 rolls by. Unfortunately, very little specific information has been provided in the popular press on exactly what could happen on the typical home or office PC utilized by attorneys. In a nutshell, attorneys should test all programs for year 2000 problems. Most PCs (other than Apple Macintoshes) built before 1997 are likely to have at least a small year 2000 problem, which probably can be remedied.
THE INTERNAL COMPUTER CLOCK
There is a clock in your PC running all the time. This clock, the "real time clock"(RTC), keeps the time and date but only the last two digits of the year. If your computer is turned off, the RTC continues to work with a battery or by continuing to draw a trickle of current if the PC is plugged in. A read only memory chip (ROM) stores the century and other information not pertinent to this discussion. That chip is also powered by the battery or trickle of electricity from a computer plugged in but powered off. Software called the ROM BIOS controls the operation of this chip.
How your computer handles the year 2000 depends in part on how the ROM BIOS is programmed. Early ROM BIOS did not even worry about the year 2000: the software provided no way to change the century. Later ROM BIOS allowed the century to be changed, but with one flaw. When the time changes from one second before midnight on January 1, 2000 to midnight, the older ROM BIOS software will not change the century stored on the ROM. In general, ROM BIOS written after 1996 has additional code to solve the rollover problem. Some manufacturers are warranting "year 2000 compatibility" for recently manufactured computers.
If the computer is on when the century changes, it may appear as if the century has changed on a software clock. When you turn the computer off, the century stored in the ROM may be "19". Upon restarting, the computer may display an incorrect date. Operating systems use the RTC and ROM, which are controlled by the ROM BIOS, to initialize the operating system time. In some cases, the ROM BIOS will assume 1900 is a bad date, and will start at a later date but not the correct one. A common starting date is January 4, 1980 -- the date given by our Compaq Prolineas (manufactured in 1993) after we tested a year 2000 rollover and rebooted the computer. Microsoft's operating systems, such as DOS, Windows, and Windows NT, handle the rollover just fine -- assuming they are started with the correct time.
SOLVING THE CLOCK PROBLEM
If your ROM BIOS does not have proper coding, probably all is not lost. Fortunately, all you have to do in most cases is manually reset your clock. In DOS, just type DATE="01-03-2000", followed by TIME="08:00:00" (assuming you come in by 8 a.m. on the Monday after the century changes). You can also reset the time and date in Windows control panels.
If you have a client server network, the date on your local computer may be reset automatically at the time you login according to the time on your server. But, your server may have the 2000 problem even if your local computer does not, and the date may need to be reset on the server in order to solve the problem on your local PC. Systems in which this is the case may be the luckiest, since only one resetting at the server may be necessary.
Testing for the clock problem is wise -- and probably can be done at no cost. There is a lot of software available to test for the year 2000 problem and to fix it (see boxes on Internet locations). In many cases, there are free patches from computer manufacturers that correct the ROM BIOS. These are fairly easy to load on your computer. One point to keep in mind when testing is that certain programs have licenses that expire and thus become inoperable after a certain date. If you have such software, test the computer without such software on it. Purchasing software to solve the ROM BIOS problem is probably not necessary for most typical small computer operations, since the clock simply has to be reset with operating system commands.
DATA ENTRY AND YEAR 2000
Just because your computer clock problem is solved is not the end of possible year 2000 problems. Attorneys particularly will want to test calendaring and billing software to make certain that once the internal clock problem is resolved there is no lingering problem with their other software. Time sensitive functions may be buried in unexpected places. For example, if you have remote backup of all computers on the network, such software does certain tasks based on time.
Much of the publicity regarding year 2000 problems has focused on the 2 digit scenario. Your favorite program may require entry of only two digits for a year. Will the program treat "00" as 1900 or 2000?
Many programs have an option that let you choose a century start date. These options will let you choose the earliest date to be represented by two digits. For example, if the century start date is 1950 (as it was on our accounting system) then you can use the two digit format until 2049. By adjusting the century start date, you can use such software until 9999.
Take note that programs without a century start date may require replacement or reprogramming to work correctly. We were able to reprogram our databases by inserting a common function that runs whenever a two digit date is entered.
In short, remember that thorough analysis of all programs that could be affected is important.
TEST YOUR SYSTEM
The year 2000 poses real computer problems, but panic is not necessary. Testing is the only way to be certain how your computer system will react to the year 2000. It is not enough to test only one computer if you have many different models or if your components were purchased at different times. Talk to your computer professionals if you have any question about your firm's readiness for the year 2000.
Websites for major manufacturers that address year 2000:
Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/cio/year.asp
Compaq http://www.compaq.com
Dell http://www.dell.com
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