Viasoft Inc. BIOS Fix README Function -------- BIOS Fix is a Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) program to correct Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) date management deficiencies, for dates in the Year 2000. Many Personal Computer (PC) BIOSs cannot correctly handle the century rollover from December 31, 1999, to January 1, 2000. In most cases, installing OnMark 2000 BIOS Fix software corrects this problem and ensures that Year 2000 system dates will be correctly set. BIOS Fix will correct the clock upon reboot and during operation of the PC. (See "Firmware Situations That Cannot Be Corrected" below for information on PCs that cannot be fixed.) The BIOS Fix can be installed as part of your normal CD-ROM installation of OnMark 2000 Assess, or the sub-directory with the BIOS Fix can be copied to diskette, and installed separately on systems without a CD-ROM. The following sections detail the installation BIOS Fix from diskette. Installation on Windows 3.x Systems (From diskette) ------------------------------- To install BIOS Fix into a Windows 3.1 or Windows 3.11 system, follow these steps: 1. Start Windows. 2. Insert the "BIOS Fix" diskette into drive A: (or B:). 3. From the Windows Program Manager, select FILE > RUN. 4. In the Command Line box, type A:SETUP (or B:SETUP). 5. Press [ENTER]. A greeting screen is displayed. 6. Read the license agreement and click Yes if you agree to the terms. 7. The setup program will guide you through the installation of BIOS Fix. Installation on Windows 95 Systems (From diskette) ------------------------------- To install BIOS Fix into a Windows 95 system, follow these steps: 1. Start Windows. 2. Insert the "BIOS Fix" diskette into drive A: (or B:). 3. Select Start > Run... from the taskbar. 4. In the Open box, type A:SETUP (or B:SETUP). The Install Wizard appears. Click Next to continue. 5. Read the license agreement and click Yes if you agree to the terms. 6. The setup program will guide you through the installation of BIOS Fix. Installation on DOS Systems - (Need to copy the diskette first) --------------------------- BIOS Fix must be manually installed on DOS systems from 3.5 inch installation diskette. 1. Copy BIOSFIX.EXE from the installation diskette to the C:\DOS directory. 2. EDIT C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT to add, at the beginning, the line: @if exist C:\DOS\BIOSFIX.EXE C:\DOS\BIOSFIX.EXE -A +R +T BIOSFIX.EXE is best executed at the start of the AUTOEXEC.BAT to protect all following applications from bad dates. (The @ character prevents display of the line when AUTOEXEC.BAT executes.) Operation of BIOS Fix --------------------- BIOSFIX is initiated at the beginning of AUTOEXEC.BAT, installing a TSR that monitors the BIOS date functions. This TSR will immediately correct an erroneous century rollover. If the PC is off during the critical period, BIOSFIX will correct the system date immediately after Reboot. Parameters ---------- BIOS Fix operation is governed by three command line parameters. These parameters are A, R, and T and are turned ON or OFF with the use of a plus (+) or minus (-) sign: +A Requests that the Alarm Timer be used to help manage date rollover. -A Requests that the Alarm Timer not be used to help manage date rollover. This is the DEFAULT setting, since the Alarm Timer is a single hardware resource. +R Requests that references to the Real Time Clock monitored. This is the DEFAULT setting, since it ensures that a date will be corrected prior to any use. -R Requests that the Real Time Clock monitoring not be used to correct an erroneous system date. +T Requests that the clock is monitored through a standard clock tick interrupt which occurs many times a second. This is the DEFAULT since it ensures that the date will be corrected as soon as it might change. -T Requests that the periodic clock tick not be used to monitor and correct an erroneous system date. The default command line invokes BIOSFIX.EXE with the parameters: -A +R +T The installation program only provides a user with the ability to specify the Real-Time Clock Tick (R) and Time of Day (T) corrections. AUTOEXEC.BAT must be manually edited to change the Alarm Timer (A) parameter. This ensures that a BIOS Fix user will not unknowingly consume the Alarm Timer resource. De-Installation of BIOS Fix (this applies to all systems) --------------------------------------------------------- EDIT C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT to change the line: @if exist C:\DOS\BIOSFIX.EXE C:\DOS\BIOSFIX.EXE -A +R +T to: @REM if exist C:\DOS\BIOSFIX.EXE C:\DOS\BIOSFIX.EXE -A +R +T Reboot your PC. This will turn the invocation of BIOSFIX.EXE into a comment, and it will not be executed at boot time. Restoring BIOS Fix operation is done by deleting the "REM " string from the line. The user can also di-install by simply renaming or deleting the BIOSFIX.EXE program, since the "if exist" line will prevent execution errors. Firmware Situations Which Cannot be Corrected --------------------------------------------- If the PC BIOS can support holding a Year 2000 date, BIOS Fix will be able to correct erroneous dates. However, certain BIOSs simply assume the century is 19, and thus cannot hold a date with a century of 20. It is recommended that OnMark 2000 BIOS Test is run to determine if the BIOS can support a Century 20 date, or if the BIOS must be replaced. For more information about potential PC problems with the Year 2000, please feel free to contact Viasoft at: Web: OnMark.Viasoft.com Copyright (c) Viasoft Inc. 1997, 1998. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. An unpublished work.