Trefor is quite right there are likely to lots of PCs which will be less than 3 years old which are not millennium compatible. As far a AAH Meditel supplied PCs are concerned these all came from Dell or Compaq both of whom are able to provide flash BIOS upgrades for most if not all machines after 1/1/95 and have in any case been shipping Y2K compatible machines for quite a while. The problem is going to be greater with the no-name clones which are more likely to be non-compliant and less easy upgraded. 

The following are the possible problems and solution as far as Y2K compliance of PC hardware is concerned.

Will not roll over from 31/1/99 to 1/1/2000, but is fine once clock reset to 1/1/00.

Does not recognise 29/2/2000 as a valid date

Will not cope at all with dates with years 00 - nn (nn typically 8x)

A hardware fix is likely to involve one of the following:

BIOS upgrade - The BIOS is software which sits between the hardware and the operating system and controls system hardware (including the system clock)  and basic input output functions it is permanently stored on a memory chip in the PC. Sometimes this storage is in read only memory (ROM) and the only way to change the BIOS is to change the chip. In other cases the storage is on Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) which can be re-programmed by special software. Often described a flash BIOS upgrade.

If your BIOS is flash upgradable the software is often available free from the hardware manufactures web site and takes a matter of seconds to install (make sure you get the right version for your BIOS).

Chip upgrades are harder to come by but many manufacturers will supply them for a modest charge. Fitting them means opening up the PC unplugging the old chip and plugging the new one in (in the unlikely event that the  BIOS chip is soldered directly to the motherboard forget it). This takes about 30 minutes per PC if you know what your doing.

If a BIOS upgrade to provide Y2K compliance is not available you will ks, a bit of software that shows that your "out of date" computer is not
Y2K compatible would be very valuable to the average GP.

Please see www.medical-legal.co.uk/fraud.html for further details :-))))

.... and yet. Have we all been conned by clever software into replcacing
perfectly useful kit? I promise to keep a computer that is meant to be non
compat going with the 1998 software until after the millenium to see what
happens, I will keep GPUK  informed. It will not be networked (just in case).



Trefor

Dr Trefor Roscoe
Beighton Health Centre, Queens Road, Beighton, Sheffield S20 1BI
'Home of the Medical Spell Checker'
http://medical-legal.co.uk/dictionary.html
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