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Tom Becker has written a program that lets you check your PC to see if it will survive y2k. In this posting, he responded to a question about test results of various machines' PC BIOS. (No, I don't understand this.) His answer is important: every manufacturer is different. But those people who assume that their machines will fail will be correct in at least 80% of the cases, he says.

Multiply this by, say, 300 million PC's. My conclusion: they aren't all going to be fixed by 2000.

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From: "Tom Becker" Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 18:33:06 -0500 Subject: Re: Compliance: database of compliant vs. non-compliance Reply-to: GTBecker@RighTime.com

> Does anyone know of a resource that lists BIOS test results by > manufacturer and version number?

We've seen a few attempts at constructing such a list, but none that I'm aware of has developed into anything of substance.

Such a list would be huge. Few organizations have access to any substantial variety of machines, so the list would need to be compiled from hearsay of testing by others; that's not a reliable methodology so the list would be largely questionable.

It would be academically interesting to see the reliable testing results of 1000 random machines in different organizations, but it is safe to know that most machines fail the 1999-2000 hardware transition. If you assume that a given machine fails you'll probably be correct better than 80% of the time; some put the rate at better than 90%.

FWIW, you might learn something about your AMI BIOS at http://www.ping.be/bios/numbersami.html, one of the links available through "BIOS Information" on our web page.

Tom Becker

--... ...-- http://www.RighTime.com The RighTime Company Vox: (+1305)644-6500, Fax: (+1305)644-6515, BBS: (+1305)644-6185 Air System Technologies, Miami Vox: (+1305)644-8898

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For a chuckle, be sure to click Tom's recommemded link. See what you need to know for one brand of motherboard, AMI. Don't spend a lot of time trying to figure it out, however.

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