UC Berkeley Year 2000 Information Departmental and Personal Computers: Find and Resolve Y2K Problems
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This page was last updated early during the year 2000 and some or all of its content may thus no longer be current or accurate.

Specific Y2K Issues

Recovering from problems

Recognizing and Recovering From Y2K Problems During the Year 2000 Go
Some Y2K problems on personal computers and workstations leave telltale signs that make them fairly easy to identify. Here are some common problems that you might encounter early in the year 2000, with suggestions for how you can resolve them.

Campus-specific concerns

Campus Researchers: Specific Y2K Computer Concerns Go
Y2K issues that may be of specific concern to campus researchers include statistics and mathematics programs and PCs integrated with or attached to research equipment.


Y2K Compliance Status of Selected Off-the-Shelf Applications Used at UC Berkeley Go
A summary of the Y2K compliance status (taken at various snapshots in time) of selected application programs in use on the UC Berkeley campus.

Hardware

The Y2K Hardware Problem Affecting Many PCs Go
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.


Making a Startup Diskette for a PC Go
When testing industry-standard PCs for Y2K hardware problems, it can often be necessary to start these PCs from a bootable DOS diskette. This summary describes several ways that you can make such a diskette.

Operating systems

The Windows Automation Libraries Determine How Dates Entered With Two-Digit Years Are Handled Go
Microsoft's OLE Automation Libraries tell the Windows operating system and many application programs how to interpret century-ambiguous dates with two-digit years, such as "05/13/29", as either May 13, 1929 or May 13, 2029. The date-handling behavior of these libraries has changed three times over the years. If you install a program that overwrites your current Automation Libraries files with a different version of these files, the way that Windows and many of your application programs interpret two-digit dates might suddenly change.

Application programs

Custom Applications: Finding & Resolving Y2K Problems Go
Custom-written application programs of significant size, whether created by your department or by an outside contractor, are at risk for containing at least some code which will not work properly in the year 2000. You can obtain guidance in finding and resolving such problems from the UC Berkeley campus's Year 2000 Departmental Customized Applications Subcommittee.


Commercial Off-the-Shelf Applications: An Overview of Y2K Compliance Issues Go
What is a "commercial off-the-shelf" application program? What's the difference between a Y2K compliant program, and one which is "compliant with 'minor issues'" or "non-compliant"? How do vendors assign their programs to these categories? And what percentage of your programs are likely to be "non-compliant"? This overview addresses these questions.


Commercial Off-the-Shelf Applications: Finding & Resolving Y2K Problems Go
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. There are tools and techniques that can help you identify which application programs are installed on your department's computers, which may have Y2K problems or issues, and what steps you can take to resolve these problems.


Commercial Off-the-Shelf Applications: Resources for Identifying Y2K Compliance Go
Resources to help you ascertain the Y2K compliance status of off-the-shelf application programs: vendor Web sites, other vendor contacts, software tools, summary lists, databases, and sources of peer help.


Y2K Compliance Status of Selected Off-the-Shelf Applications Used at UC Berkeley Go
A summary of the Y2K compliance status (taken at various snapshots in time) of selected application programs in use on the UC Berkeley campus.


Be "Y2K Savvy" When Using FileMaker Pro Go
A discussion of Y2K risks affecting FileMaker Pro, including a checklist of steps you can take to minimize these risks.

Data files & data sharing methods

Why You Should Enter Dates With Four-Digit Years Whenever Possible Go
It is preferable that you enter dates with full, four-digit years, such as 05/13/2029) into your spreadsheets, database files, and other such data files.

If you enter dates with two-digit years (e.g. 05/13/29), many application programs use a "windowing" technique to decide which century -- the 20th or 21st -- to which to assign these dates. This technique is essentially an automated method of deciding which century you "probably meant," but occasionally this technique guesses wrong. By doing so, you run the risk that your programs will assign some of your dates to a century other than the one you intended.


Data Files: Finding & Resolving Y2K Problems Go
Data files, including spreadsheets and database files, could in some cases present Y2K problems. The three primary areas of concern are date-related errors in custom programming within these files, such as user-written macros, scripts, and functions; the use of standard date-related functions which are known to have Y2K-related "usage issues," such as Microsoft Excel's =DATE(), Microsoft Access's =DateSerial(), and Lotus 1-2-3's @YEAR(); and "dates" stored as text or numbers in spreadsheet cells or database fields.


Data Sharing Methods: Finding & Resolving Y2K Problems Go
Data shared between application programs could in some cases present Y2K problems. Methods of sharing data which are at risk include the Clipboard; documents exchanged via disks, e-mail, and file servers; and programmatic data streams between programs. Most problems involve data which contains dates with century-ambiguous two-digit years, such as "05/13/29".

Date formats & standards

Changing Your Operating System's Default Date Format To Use Four-Digit Years Go
Data which which contains century-ambiguous two-digit years, such as "05/13/29", can present Y2K problems. Programs might variously interpret such dates as falling in either century, May 13, 1929 or May 13, 2029, potentially leading to corrupt data and faulty results.

Changing your operating system's default settings to display dates using four-digit years (such as "05/13/2029" or "2029-05-13") rather than century-ambiguous two-digit years can often be beneficial. Depending on how your application programs work, doing so might help prevent century-ambiguous dates from being stored in your files; help you view how your programs are handling dates with two-digit years, or even protect against dates inadvertently becoming changed when sharing data between programs.


Standards for Representing Dates Go
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.

Security issues

"Y2K" Viruses, Worms, and Trojans Go
There is speculation that writers of computer viruses, worms, and trojans might try to take advantage of general Y2K confusion to release "Y2K themed" versions of such attacks from December 1999 through the first several months of the year 2000. We offer links to resources for learning more about this issue, as well as to anti-virus software programs and updates for protecting your computer.


Some Web Browsers Will Display Security Certificate Error Messages After December 31, 1999 Go
Users of some popular Web browsers - Netscape Navigator and Communicator versions 4.05 and earlier and Microsoft Internet Explorer for the Macintosh versions 4.5 and 4.01 - will encounter "certificate authority expired" or "security certificate expired" error messages when connecting to certain secure Web sites on and after January 1, 2000. This is not a Y2K problem, but will also first occur around the time of the 1999-2000 transition.


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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.