Summary |
Hardware
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Many industry-standard (also known as "Intel-based" or "IBM-compatible")
PCs have a minor hardware problem affecting their internal clocks:
instead of rolling over normally from 1999 to 2000, these clocks
will instead revert to a different year.
There are a variety of methods available for finding and resolving this problem.
Windows NT includes integral features which should - to the extent that these features work as described by Microsoft - allow nearly all PCs with Y2K non-compliant hardware to nonetheless transition successfully to the year 2000. |
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Operating System
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All versions of Windows NT 4.0 have some Y2K issues, most or all of which are addressed by no-cost upgrades available from Microsoft. You have at least four courses of action in addressing these issues:
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Application programs
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Check for Y2K compliance. |
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Data files & data sharing methods
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Check for Y2K compliance. |
1. Hardware |
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).
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The following are three minor limitations of Windows NT's date correction features:
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2. Operating system |
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If the direct link to the Y2K Product Summary for Windows NT 4.0 should later be
moved or otherwise doesn't work, you should be able to navigate to this statement via
Microsoft's
Year 2000 Product Guide
On that page, scroll down to the subhead "Search for Microsoft Products." In the list of products below, scroll down to the category "Operating Systems". You may need to scroll down a bit further to see and click either "Windows NT Workstation" and "Windows NT Server", depending on which version you're running on your PC. Then click the "Perform Search" button. This will generate a list of compliance statements for various releases and language versions of Windows NT 4.0. |
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Before installing any updates or patches which may alter your computer's operating system
software or application programs, and before making any changes to your critical
documents (data files), be sure that you have a complete, current backup
of your computer's data.
For general backup advice, see the Berkeley Computing and Communications articles Ask Dr. Micro: How can I back up the files on my computer and Simplify your life with the UCBackup service .
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You have four options for addressing Y2K problems on your PC running Windows NT 4.0:
with a single Post SP3 Year 2000 Update
(which consolidates 13 separate fixes) and
additional Y2K fixes to other specific NT 4.0 components, as needed,
which in combination will leave your PC at Y2K "Compliant#" status
("Compliant#" means compliant, with acceptable deviations from
Microsoft's standard of compliance).
with a set of five individual Windows NT 4.0
post-SP4 Year 2000 updates and additional Y2K fixes to other specific NT 4.0
components, as needed, which in combination will bring your PC up to Y2K "Compliant" status.
with a set of two individual Windows NT 4.0
post-SP5 Year 2000 updates and additional Y2K fixes to other specific NT 4.0
components, as needed, which in combination will bring your PC up to Y2K "Compliant" status.
with additional Y2K fixes to other specific NT 4.0
components, as needed, which in combination will bring your PC up to Y2K "Compliant" status.
Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6. (This problem may have been resolved by
Service Pack 6a, but we encourage BFS users to hold off installing this
service pack until this is confirmed.)
Each of these options is discussed below.
If you're trying to decide between upgrading to SP4 or SP5 on the basis of Y2K considerations, Microsoft provides the following advice:
![[ ]](/computers/fixpcs/images/blank-checkmark.gif){kind=spacer}
1.1.
Find and resolve Y2K hardware problems in your PCs running Windows NT.
SP5 [Service Pack 5] contains known Year 2000 updates for Windows NT 4.0.
These Year 2000 updates are also available as separate
Web downloads that customers may apply to a Service Pack 4 system. Providing
this option gives organizations the flexibility
to choose which path is easier for them to address Year 2000
issues. SP5 is not a required upgrade for Year 2000 issues;
Microsoft recommends that each customer consult the
SP5 documentation and then determine whether to deploy it.
And if you're trying to decide whether to upgrade to SP6a on the basis of Y2K considerations, Microsoft provides the following, nearly-identical advice:
SP6a [Service Pack 6a] contains known Year 2000 updates for Windows NT 4.0.
These Year 2000 updates are also available as separate Web downloads that customers may
apply to a Service Pack 4 or 5 system. Providing these options gives
organizations the flexibility to choose which path is easier for them to
address Year 2000 issues. SP6a is not a required upgrade for Year 2000;
Microsoft recommends that each customer consult the SP6a documentation and
then determine whether to deploy it.
Microsoft states that it will maintain Windows NT 4.0 SP3 as Y2K "Compliant#" through January 1, 2001. (To read about the specific Y2K issues which will remain in SP3 even following the application of Microsoft's post-SP3 Y2K updates, see the compliance statements below.)
If you have chosen to run Service Pack 3, first check the Service Pack level your PC is running.
If it is
running a Service Pack earlier than SP3, you'll first need to
upgrade Windows NT to that Service Pack level. You can obtain SP3 from Microsoft's
Windows Update: Service Pack 3
page.
Then, to upgrade NT 4.0 SP3 to "Compliant#" status, you'll need to apply the
Windows NT 4.0 Post Service Pack 3 (SP3) Year 2000 Update
.
This Update consolidates 13 separate Y2K fixes to NT 4.0 SP3.
However, after installing the Update, eight Y2K issues will remain with SP3, and will not be corrected.
These remaining, uncorrected issues are described in Microsoft's latest compliance
statements, below.
Finally, additional Y2K updates may also be required for other specific NT components. For details, see Microsoft's compliance statements:
Microsoft states that it will maintain Windows NT 4.0 SP4 as Y2K "Compliant" through January 1, 2001. To upgrade NT 4.0 SP4 to "Compliant" status:
Individual Y2K updates may first be required for other specific NT components. For details, see Microsoft's compliance statements:
If you have made the decision to run Service Pack 4, next check
the Service Pack level your PC is running.
If it is running a Service Pack earlier than SP4, you'll need to
upgrade Windows NT 4.0 to that Service Pack level.
You can obtain SP4 from Microsoft's
Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 Information and Download Site
.
Installing SP4 will, among its many
updates, apply a set of Y2K fixes to the base Windows NT 4.0
operating system.
Then you can install the six separate
Windows NT 4.0 Post Service Pack 4 Year 2000 Updates.
When we last checked Microsoft's Web site on December 10, 1999,
all six of these updates were listed under the section titled "Step 2" in Microsoft's
latest compliance summaries
for Windows NT 4.0 SP4:
Y2K Product Summary for Windows NT 4.0 Workstation (SP4)
Y2K Product Summary for Windows NT 4.0 Server (SP4)
Finally, Microsoft recommends that you "audit" the Windows NT 4.0 SP4 operating system and
its many components to ensure that all updates required for Y2K compliance have
been successfully installed. This process is described in detail in Microsoft's
latest compliance summaries
,
above.
Microsoft states that it will maintain Windows NT SP5 as Y2K "Compliant" through January 1, 2001. To reach this level of compliance:
Individual Y2K upgrades may first be required for other specific NT components. For details, see Microsoft's compliance statements at:
After doing so, you can then install Service Pack 5 (SP5) which,
among its many updates, will apply Y2K fixes to the base Windows
NT 4.0 operating system. SP5 incorporates fixes for all
four of the remaining Year 2000 (Y2K) issues at
the previous Service Pack level, Windows NT 4.0 SP4. These issues are described in the
Windows NT Server Service Pack 5 FAQ
.
You can obtain SP5 from Microsoft's
Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 5
page.
Then you can install three separate
Windows NT 4.0 Post Service Pack 5 Year 2000 Updates.
When we last checked Microsoft's Web site on December 10, 1999,
these updates were listed in Microsoft's
latest compliance summaries
for Windows NT 4.0 SP5:
Y2K Product Summary for Windows NT 4.0 Workstation (SP5)
Y2K Product Summary for Windows NT 4.0 Server (SP5)
Finally, Microsoft recommends that you "audit" the Windows NT 4.0 SP5 operating system and
its many components to ensure that all updates required for Y2K compliance have
been successfully installed. This process is described in detail in Microsoft's
latest compliance summaries
,
above.
Service Pack 6a (SP6a) "provides the latest updates to Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0, Windows NT Server 4.0, and Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition." Microsoft states that it will maintain Windows NT 4.0 SP6a as Y2K "Compliant" through January 1, 2001.
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As of November 8, 1999, if you are using the
Berkeley Financial System (BFS)
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do not install Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6.
As Elena Knox of UC Berkeley's Central Computing Services (CCS) wrote on November 5, 1999:
One of the problems that impacts BFS users is a change that was made to TCP/IP that
affects products that use PORTS, which includes the Citrix ICA client. If
Service Pack 6 is installed on a user's workstation, when the user tries to
connect to BFS the following error message is displayed: "Cannot connect to
the Citrix server. No buffer space is available." This error condition does
not affect users who have administrative rights to use ports. Citrix is
aware of the problem, and is working on a solution. Their recommendation at
this time is "do not install Service Pack 6".
This problem may have been resolved by networking changes in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a. This is a revised version of Service Pack 6 which was issued by Microsoft in late November 1999, one month after the original SP6 was released. Until this is confirmed, however, we suggest that BFS users continue to hold off on installing Service Pack 6a. |
Individual Y2K upgrades may first be required for other specific NT components. For details, see Microsoft's compliance statements at:
If you have made the decision to run Service Pack 6a, next check
the Service Pack level your PC is running.
If it is running a Service Pack earlier than SP6a, you'll need to
upgrade Windows NT 4.0 to that Service Pack level.
You can obtain SP6a from Microsoft's
Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a
page.
Installing SP6a will, among its many
updates, apply a set of Y2K fixes to the base Windows NT 4.0
operating system.
Following installation, Microsoft recommends that you "audit" the
Windows NT 4.0 SP6a operating system and its many components to ensure that all
updates required for Y2K compliance have been successfully installed.
This process is described in detail in Microsoft's
latest compliance summaries
,
above.
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.
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If you change your operating system's default date format to use four-digit years:
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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
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3. Application programs |
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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:
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4. Data files & data sharing methods |
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.
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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
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