Year 2000 - Important Hints


  IBM and the Year 2000 - Y2K

- IMPORTANT - IBM is providing this information to assist you in understanding and addressing Year 2000 challange.

By providing this data, IBM is not performing a Year 2000 assessment or conversion.
You are solely responsible of your Year 2000 project and IBM does not guarantee your results.

We have made a firm commitment that as of year-end 1996, the most recent version/release of current IBM software products will support year 2000 and beyond.


On IBM PC models introduced before 1996, the century digits of the hardware clock must be reset manually
(i.e., from "19" to "20") after the new century occurs.
We are leading the industry in developing methodologies and tools you can use to successfully prepare for the Year 2000.


WHAT YOU SHOULD DO to ENSURE READINESS

At a minimum, all businesses must take the following steps to prepare for the Year 2000:

Inventory your business environment including computer systems, software programs and other equipment that uses embedded chips such as elecators, environmental control systems, etc.

Determine a strategy for fixing each element in your business environment, and then carry out the strategy.

Test your business environment after making your Year 2000 Changes

Contact your suppliers and customers to understand the Year 2000 Readiness of their business

A supply Chain kit developed by D.H Andrews Group helps small businesses manage
critical interdependencies with other trading partners

Contingency Planning for the Year 2000: A whitepaper, developed by D.H Andrews Group,
helps small and medium businesses think about what their most critical business processes
are, where they might be susceptible to disruption, and what kinds of "Workarounds"
they might put in place in advance should disruptions occur.


HINTS & TIPS -- Testing your PC Hardware 

             Manual Tests
             Hardware's Real Time Clock with system left on
                       1.  Set the date  to 12-31-1999.
                       2.  Set the time a minute before midnight (23:59:00).
                       3.  Keep the system running for that minute.
                       4.  Reboot the system.
                       5.  Check the date again.
                           It is recommended that manual tests be performed by booting
                           a standalone DOS diskette.
             Hardware's Real Time Clock with system powered off.
                       1.  Set the date to 12-31-1999.
                       2.  Set the time for a minute before midnight (23:59:00).
                       3.  Turn the system off for that minute.
                       4.  Reboot the system.
                       5.  Check the date again.
                           It is recommended that manual tests be performed by booting
                           to a standalone DOS diskette.
             BIOS Timer Service (INT 1Ah)
                       1.  Set the date to 1-1-2000
                       2.  Reboot the system
                       3.  Check the date again.
                           It is recommended that manual tests be performed by booting
                           to a standalone DOS diskette.


Can I get by without a flash BIOS upgrade?

The definitive answer is - maybe. IBM has developed IBM Year 2000 Device Drivers to support several operating systems and is an option for you only if your PC is running one of those operating systems.

Device drivers for DOS, Windows 95, OS/2 and Windows NT can be found at:

http://www.pc.ibm.com/year2000/driver.html


Where can I get a flash BIOS upgrade if I absolutely need it?

IBM offers on-line technical support via



Details are also available on the IBM Personal Systems Group Year 2000 website at

http://www.pc.ibm.com/year2000

The process for downloading a flash BIOS upgrade can be found at

http://www.pc.ibm.com/year2000/bios.html

Flash BIOS upgrades are also available to IBM Dealers via the GENIE Notes database in the PC SERVICE Information folder.


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