UC Berkeley Year 2000 Information Departmental and Personal Computers: Find and Resolve Y2K Problems
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Macintoshes: Y2K Readiness Checklist

Summary
Hardware Go Apple Computer, Inc. ("Apple") claims that Macintosh hardware is Y2K compliant.

(Check PC add-in cards or PC "emulation" software, if any, for Y2K compliance.)
Operating System Go Apple claims that the Mac OS is Y2K compliant.

However, Apple has only tested certain "supported" Mac OS versions for compliance, although we have seen no third-party reports that any recent (System 7.5.5 and higher) versions of the Mac OS have known Y2K issues.

(Check other OSes, if any, for Y2K compliance.)
Application programs Go Check for Y2K compliance.
Data files & data sharing methods Go Check for Y2K compliance.

1. Hardware

[X] 1.1. Based on Apple's claims, you will not need to check Macintosh hardware for Y2K compliance.

Apple claims that Macintoshes (and compatible) computers are free from Y2K problems at the hardware level. 		Exceptions & caveats

Apple notes that it did not test "certain" 68000 processor-based Macintosh models. (Various 68000-based models were sold from January 1984 through approximately September 1992.)

More information

Apple's Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure: Hardware Products Go

[ ] 1.2. If a Macintosh unexpectedly reverts to a pre-2000 date, check its internal battery Go

The internal lithium or alkaline batteries which maintain the date and time in Macintosh computers when they are powered off typically have a lifespan of three to five years. A weak or dead battery can cause a Macintosh's system date to revert to 1904 or 1956. 		More information

Time to change your Macintosh's battery? Go
(article appearing in the Winter 1998 issue of Berkeley Computing and Communications Go)

[ ] 1.3. If a Macintosh has a PC compatibility card or PC emulation software, check it for Y2K compliance.

If a Macintosh has a "PC compatibility," "DOS compatibility," or "coprocessor" expansion card or is running PC "emulation" software, check this product for hardware-level Y2K compliance.

(PC compatibility cards and PC emulation software essentially place the equivalent of an industry-standard PC inside your Macintosh, allowing you to run application programs under such PC operating systems as DOS, Windows 3.x, and Windows 95.)

Important: very few Macintoshes on the UC Berkeley campus are likely to be using one of these products.

Many industry-standard (also known as "Intel-based" or "IBM-compatible") PCs have a hardware problem affecting their internal clocks: instead of rolling over normally from 1999 to 2000, these clocks will instead revert to a different year (such as 1980).

While this is generally of minor concern, an invalid date could nonetheless cause problems for certain application programs. A small fraction of these problems could potentially have serious impacts. As a result, it's preferable to find and resolve this problem before the year 2000 arrives. The Y2K Hardware Problem Affecting Many PCs Go describes how to do so. Here's a summary:

You can identify which PCs will be subject to this problem by checking with vendors or by using manual or automated software tests.

There are at least ten different methods you can use to prevent the problem from occurring on your non-compliant PCs. Among these:
  • Running an operating system, such as Linux and recent versions of Windows NT, that incorporates a date correction feature;
  • Leaving your PCs turned off over the century transition and using a specific procedure to manually set their dates when they are first started up during the year 2000;
  • Installing small software programs that automatically correct the date;
  • "Flash" updating the software in the BIOS chips in your recently-manufactured PCs to make these chips Y2K compliant;
  • Synchronizing your computers' dates over a network;
  • Upgrading PCs with BIOS add-in cards or other hardware.
Each of these methods has its own particular advantages, limitations, and drawbacks, which are described in the above document.

As a fallback, you can manually reset your problematic PCs to the correct date when the year 2000 arrives. After doing so, all (or nearly all) of your PCs should then continue to maintain the correct date throughout the year 2000 and beyond.

The Y2K Hardware Problem Affecting Many PCs Go

As noted below, at least some PC compatibility/emulation products for the Macintosh are not subject to PC Y2K hardware problems.

Checking PC compatibility cards

Apple states that its own PC compatibility cards will not be tested Go for hardware-level Y2K compliance.

In a February 1999 posting by an Australian consultant to a Y2K discussion mailing list, he cited his experience with a group of Power Macintosh 7200/120 PC computers. He found that if these were turned off over the transition to the year 2000, or were rebooted on or after January 1, 2000, the Mac OS appeared to correct any problems which may affected the PC compatibility card's date and time. This advice, if accurate, may or may not be applicable to other Macintosh models containing different PC compatibility cards from Apple.

Orange Micro Go Inc.'s PC compatibility cards obtain their "BIOS date information from the Macintosh" and hence are Y2K compliant at the hardware level, per a direct communication from that company.

Checking PC emulation software

Regarding two Mac OS products that use software to "emulate" PC hardware:

Connectix Corporation's Virtual PC Go is Y2K compliant at the (emulated) hardware level. According to a Connectix read-me file which accompanied the version 2.1.1 update, "Virtual PC Windows 95/98 integration constantly synchronizes itself to Macintosh time," as does Virtual PC for DOS when that program is launched. Two apparently cosmetic Y2K issues were fixed in this update (and presumably in the subsequent 2.1.2 update, as well): Virtual PC's emulated clock chip "now understands leap years," and Y2K programs which test the real-time clock (RTC) and BIOS now "report correctly."

Insignia Solutions Inc. claims that recent versions of its SoftWindows Go product are Y2K compliant at the (emulated) hardware level. However, Insignia notes that older versions of this product, as well as several predecessor products, are not compliant. 		Important

If a Macintosh has a PC compatibility card or PC emulation software installed, you will need to independently evaluate any Y2K issues which may affect its:
  • PC operating system(s);
  • Application programs; and
  • Data files & interchange methods.

[ ] 1.4. If a campus Macintosh has a LocalTalk network connection, migrate its connection to Ethernet.

If a Macintosh is connected to the UC Berkeley campus network via LocalTalk (e.g. "PhoneNet") cabling, you will need to change its network connection to Ethernet before the year 2000. In some cases, this may also require additional hardware or cabling for the Macintosh itself.

According to the Berkeley Computing and Communications article Campus LocalTalk support to end January 1, 2000 Go:
Beginning January 1, 2000, central support for campus LocalTalk connections will end. Departments with Apple Macintoshes and printers connected to the campus network using LocalTalk (e.g., "PhoneNet") cabling will need to convert those devices to use Ethernet connections.
While this is not, strictly speaking, a Y2K-related issue, you will need to address this issue to ensure that any Macintoshes with LocalTalk network connections can continue to access the campus network and Internet when the year 2000 arrives. 		More information

Campus LocalTalk support to end January 1, 2000 Go provides high-level instructions for migrating Macintoshes and printers from LocalTalk to Ethernet.

2. Operating system

[X] 2.1 Based on Apple's claims, you will not need to check the Mac OS for Y2K compliance. (However, consider updating to a "tested" and "supported" version of the Mac OS.)

Apple claims that Macintoshes (and compatible) computers are free from Y2K problems at the operating system level.

From Apple's Technical Information Library article, Mac OS: Year 2000 Frequently Asked Questions Go:
The Mac OS has always correctly handled dates between January 1, 1904 and February 6, 2040. The current Mac OS date and time utilities handle all dates between 30,081 B.C. and 29,940 A.D. All applications and system software which use the supplied Mac OS date and time utilities will have no problems with the year 2000. The only possible issues would come if an application does not use the routines supplied by the Mac OS for manipulating dates and times.
However, Apple has only tested certain "supported" versions of the Mac OS for Y2K compliance. To "ensure" compliance, the vendor suggests that you should update your system software to a tested and supported version of the Mac OS.

When we checked Apple's Web site on October 7, 1999, the vendor stated that:
Apple has tested the latest supported versions of the Macintosh system software; System 7.5.5, System 7.6.1, Mac OS 8.1, Mac OS 8.5, Mac OS 8.5.1 and Mac OS 8.6. If customers have earlier versions of Macintosh system software (eg. 7.5.3, 7.6, or 8.0) they should update their system software to one of these tested versions to ensure Year 2000 compliance. Updaters are available for free download from Apple Software Updates Go.

For customers with earlier versions of Macintosh system software (eg. 6.0, 7.0 or 7.1), System 7.5.3 Go and the software to update it Go to System 7.5.5 are available for free download from Apple Software Updates Go.

Information on upgrading to more recent versions of Mac OS system software is also available from the Berkeley Macintosh Support Web site's Mac OS home page. UC Berkeley-affiliated people may also download Mac OS software installers via this page.

Finally, several Mac OS system software installers, including the installer for System 7.5.3, are provided on the Internet connection kit for UC Berkeley-affiliated people, the Connecting@Berkeley CD Go.

 Exceptions & caveats

The current Mac OS Date & Time control panel constrains you to entering dates between 1920 and 2019, inclusive. Apple notes that this problem will be addressed in a future version of the Mac OS.


More information

Apple's Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure: Operating Systems Go
Apple and the Year 2000 Go

[ ] 2.2. (Optional, but recommended) Change the Mac OS's default date format to display dates with full, four-digit years.

Many personal computer operating systems are set "at the factory" to display dates with two-digit years, such as "05/13/29". These dates are century-ambiguous; they could reasonably be interpreted as falling within either within the 20th or 21st centuries.

It is usually beneficial to change your operating system's "short date style" to display dates using four-digit years, such as "05/13/1929" or "05/13/2029". When you do this, your application programs that use this display format will also start displaying dates with four-digit years. This can help you in three ways:

  • You can now see immediately, when you enter dates with two-digit years, whether your program has assigned these dates to the 20th or 21st century.

  • In some circumstances, this can help prevent dates with century-ambiguous two-digit years from being exported to text files or copied to the Clipboard.

  • With a few application programs, this may enable you to enter a wider range of dates.
For details, see Changing Your Operating System's Default Date Format To Use Four-Digit Years Go .

As a related measure, we also recommend that you follow the practice of entering dates with four-digit years, such as "05/13/1929" or "05/13/2029". For details, see Why You Should Enter Dates With Four-Digit Years Whenever Possible Go .

Here's how to change the default short date format in Mac OS 7.5 and later:

  1. From the Apple menu, open Control Panels.

  2. Open Date & Time.

  3. Click Date Formats....

  4. Under Short Date, make sure that Show Century is selected:

    Date & Time Control Panel

  5. If your department and/or those with whom you exchange data have standardized on dates which use leading zeros, also click Leading zero for day and Leading zero for month.

  6. Look at the bottom-most of the three date "Samples" at the bottom of the Date & Time control panel's window. (It will probably look something like "1/1/92" or "01/01/1992".) Make sure that your currently-selected short date format accurately reflects the date standard you wish to use.

Caveats

If you change your operating system's default date format to use four-digit years:

  • A very small number of programs could exhibit undesirable side effects.

  • You may encounter display and printing problems with certain programs and data files.

  • This could potentially cause problems when sharing data with other programs that aren't expecting to receive dates with four-digit years.

For details, see Changing Your Operating System's Default Date Format To Use Four-Digit Years Go .

More information

It is desirable that you and your department, as well as others outside your department with whom you share data, standardize on a common date format which uses four-digit years.

There are two primary standards you might consider using within your UC Berkeley campus department to represent dates with unambiguous four-digit years: mm/dd/yyyy (a de facto standard in the USA) or yyyy-mm-dd (an International standard, ISO 8601). These methods would represent May 13, 2029, respectively, as as either "05/13/2029" or "2029-05-13".

Nearly all programs should work well with either of these date formats. Nonetheless, there may be a few application programs which cannot properly handle dates entered in one or both of these four-digit-year formats.

Standards for Representing Dates Go

[ ] 2.3. If a Macintosh is running a non-Mac OS operating system, check it for Y2K compliance.

If any operating systems other than the Mac OS are installed on Macintoshes, you will need to check these OSes independently for Y2K compliance.

Important: very few Macintoshes on the UC Berkeley campus are likely to be running other OSes.

Some examples:

  • PC operating systems running via PC compatibility cards or PC emulation software.
    You will need to address Y2K compliance issues which may affect your PC operating system. See the Y2K Readiness Checklist Go specific to your PC operating system for instructions on how to do so.

  • Mac OS X Server (formerly Rhapsody).
    According to Apple's Developer Release Note on Implications of the Year 2000 Go, its core Mach/BSD foundation software "can represent times up to the year 2038."

  • UNIX, UNIX-derived, and Linux OSes.
    Tenon Intersystems asserts that its MachTen product Go is Y2K compliant. We do not know the status of MkLinux and LinuxPPC. For general information about Y2K issues affecting Linux, refer to the Linux Y2K Readiness Checklist.
Important

If a Macintosh is running an operating system other than the Mac OS, you will need to independently evaluate Y2K issues within the non-Mac OS operating system, including:
  • Application programs; and
  • Data files & interchange methods.

3. Application programs

[ ] 3.1 Check custom-written programs for Y2K compliance.

Custom-written (or "customized") application programs have been written "from scratch" or else extensively modified to perform a customized set of tasks for a specific customer. Some campus departments are running such applications, which typically have been created by departmental programmers or outside consultants. Often, these programs were built using programming or scripting languages, database management systems, or client/server tools.

Custom-written programs are at considerable risk for Y2K problems. Some of these programs may not work properly in the year 2000, or may encounter problems when handling dates from the year 2000 and beyond. If one or more of these programs are of significant importance to your campus department, it is essential that you find and resolve their Y2K problems. It is also imperative that you begin your work as early as possible, as the process of identifying, fixing, and testing fixes to custom applications can often be very time consuming.

Custom Applications: Finding & Resolving Y2K Problems Go can direct you to resources to help you find and resolve Y2K problems in custom applications. In particular, you can obtain a great deal of assistance from the Web pages of the UC Berkeley campus's Year 2000 Departmental Customized Applications Subcommittee, which has identified a phase-by-phase process that can guide you in carrying out this work.

[ ] 3.2. Check off-the-shelf application programs for Y2K compliance.

It appears likely that most commercial off-the-shelf application programs will work fine in the year 2000. However, some application programs are known to have Y2K problems or issues, ranging from minor to severe. If some of these application programs are important to your department or to your own research or instructional work, you'll need to resolve their Y2K problems before the year 2000 arrives. To do this, we suggest that you:

Off-the-shelf application programs on the Macintosh

The most comprehensive list we've seen of Mac OS application programs known to have Y2K issues is The Macnologist Not So Compliant List Go, which is accessible via the Macnologist Y2K Resource page Go.

How likely is it that any particular Mac OS application program might have Y2K issues? One perspective appeared in the applelinks.com Web site's initial "Y2K Tip Sheet" article Go of March 3, 1999. This article quoted Jeff Tupper of Pedagoguery Software, author of the Y2KSA tool Go (which scans disks to identify and provide Y2K compliance information for Mac OS application programs), as stating that:

... on our last inventory of our Y2K database, 4 percent of Mac apps had Y2K issues. ... most, although not all, Mac software that is in our database that has Y2K problems does have patches / work-arounds available.

4. Data files & data sharing methods

[ ] 4.1 Check data files for Y2K compliance.

Data files, including spreadsheets and database files, can harbor Y2K problems. If some of these files are important to your department, or your personal research or instructional work, you'll need to resolve their date-related problems before the year 2000 arrives.

The Berkeley Computing and Communications article Checking your data for Y2K problems Go provides a overview, and the document Data Files: Finding & Resolving Y2K Problems Go describes in somewhat more detail how to check your data files to find and resolve Y2K problems. The following are some key points mentioned in both of these documents:

The primary areas of Y2K-related concern in data files are:

  • Custom macros, scripts, and user-defined functions.

    Some spreadsheet and database files may incorporate custom-written macros, scripts, or user-defined functions which improperly handle dates.

  • Standard date functions.

    Many spreadsheet and database programs provide standard date-related functions which are known to have Y2K-related "usage issues." Examples include Microsoft Excel's =DATE(), Microsoft Access's =DateSerial(), and Lotus 1-2-3's @YEAR().

  • Dates stored as text or numbers.

    Dates stored in spreadsheet cells or database fields as text (e.g., "02/21/15") or integers (e.g., "990405"), may present risks when these values are converted to dates, or when they are compared or sorted.
In addition, we encourage you to take four specific steps to help keep Y2K problems out of your data files Go in the future.

[ ] 4.2. Check data sharing methods for Y2K compliance.

Data shared between application programs could in some cases present Y2K problems. You can find guidance on finding and resolving these problems in Data Sharing Methods: Finding & Resolving Y2K Problems Go .

Methods of sharing data which are at risk include documents exchanged via disks, e-mail attachments, and file servers; data copied and pasted via the Clipboard; and programmatic data streams between programs.

To find situations where you'll need to check your data sharing methods for potential Y2K problems, ask yourself three questions:

  1. Do you export data containing century-ambiguous dates, such as "05/13/29", from any of your programs?

  2. Do you import data containing century-ambiguous dates into any of your programs?

  3. Do you share any files (such as spreadsheet or database files) containing dates stored as text or numbers, rather than as dates?


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This site is provided by the campus Year 2000 Departmental Computers and Administrative Equipment Subcommittee at the University of California, Berkeley.

Copyright 1999 by the Regents of the University of California.
Disclaimer: The University assumes no liability if the information on this page is used for other than University purposes.