PC Plus SuperCD (UK) 1998 August

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ PC Plus SuperCD (UK) 1998 August / PC Plus SuperCD 50b Issue 142 (CD142b) (August 1998).iso / handson / HelpScrn / R-UTIL.EXE / lzh / R-Y2KFIX.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1998-03-31 | 14.1 KB | 301 lines

Copyright Rosenthal Engineering PO Box 1650 San Luis Obispo, CA USA 93406 Rosenthal Year 2000 Fix (tm) (And CMOS/Clock Battery Monitor) "One of The Rosenthal Utilities (tm)" Year 2000 Compliance is enforced each time system power is restored. Tests and adjustments are performed independent of ROM BIOS, Real-Time (hardware) clock or system (virtual) clock versions. Progression including leap years is verified and a millennium counter displayed. Your system's hardware maintains the real time clock even when the power is off using an internal battery. This battery powers not only the clock, but preserves the very important settings your system needs for its configuration set up data (CMOS non-volatile memory). R-Y2kFix monitors and displays a report about this clock and CMOS battery condition in addition to assuring proper calendar function beyond the year 2000. * * * FREE for Private Use * * * R-Y2kFix is provided as a FREE bonus to non-commercial private users just for trying "The Rosenthal Utilities (tm)". Please enjoy it with my compliments as thanks for all the encouragement and support users have shown over the years. Continued support by sharing and bringing my utilities to the attention of others is greatly appreciated. Thank you. - - - - - - - - - - - - Installation This couldn't be easier. Run R-Y2kFix and if it's not already on the drive your system boots from, it will add itself to your C: drive. If you have a preference for a subdirectory, just copy the files to that directory to begin with. Run R-Y2kFix and it will automatically make an entry as the first line of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file including information your system needs to run R-Y2kFix each time the computer is started. That's all there is to it! Your system is now "Year 2000 Compliant", and ready for the new millennium. The status of the internal CMOS/clock support battery will also be monitored. This program only needs to be active a few seconds at each start up, then exits and completely releases any memory or system resources it used (It's not a TSR or driver). R-Y2kFix is designed to be of continued use well past the year 2000. It will monitor clock interruptions and assure leap years advance correctly, but mostly to monitor the internal battery that supports the CMOS/Clock. If you do wish to remove this program, simply change file attributes, erase the files and remove the line from the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. - - - - - - - - - - - - The PC Year 2000 Millennium Bug When IBM introduced their first PC, it maintained a virtual clock based on an 18.2 Hz timer that only ran when the PC was powered up. The virtual clock is a program that runs in the background to keep track of the date and time. When the power was turned off, the virtual clock died and the date and time for these early systems was lost. Then in 1985 the PC-AT class computer was introduced which built on the existing technology, and added a battery powered Real Time Clock (RTC). The program hard wired into Read Only Memory (ROM), known as the BIOS, runs when your computer is powered up. The BIOS program sets the virtual clock by reading the digits from the battery powered real time clock. Today's new computers add additional features, while maintaining compatibility with predecessors much the same way. Obviously, a clock and non-volatile memory need to have a very low power drain so they can run from a battery when the system power is turned off. That early clock was based on a Motorola MC146818 CMOS integrated circuit containing both a battery powered real time clock and a small amount of memory. To maintain compatibility, today's systems still use a functionally equivalent circuit. The real time clock has seconds, minutes, hours, days months, years and can even adjust for leap years... but not centuries. The century counter is held in CMOS memory, but is NOT advanced by the real time clock. (The Dallas Semiconductor DS12C887 chip is an exception to this, but its use in PCs is not very common). When the virtual clock program is running, it uses the BIOS program to read the year rollover of the RTC and adjusts the century digit in CMOS memory to record it. Unfortunately, the virtual clock is a software program that only runs when the computer is powered, so if the computer is turned off, the century digit will fail to advance. Simply stated, the real time clock is a battery powered clock that's always running, and the virtual clock is done in software that runs only when the computer is on. The virtual clock knows how to advance the century, but only if it's running on New Year's eve. The program responsible for reading the hardware of the real time clock is the BIOS. The BIOS is hard wired into a ROM (read Only Memory) circuit supplied with the computer. It is designed to work with the motherboard of the computer it plugs into. The operating system (DOS, Win 3.X, Win 95 etc.) contains the virtual clock, and has no problem keeping track of time, and dates through 2099. The problem is that it depends on the BIOS to correctly report the date and time by reading the real time clock hardware, but the original BIOS and clock chips didn't provide for the advance century digits. Now comes the year 2000, and millions of PCs are facing replacement to solve this bug. Here are some solutions presented to users: 1) $$$ Replace the computer with a new one. 2) $$ Replace the ROM Bios or clock chip with a new one. 3) $ Adjust the system clock each time as needed. 4) Run "Rosenthal Year 2000 Fix (tm)" (and battery monitor). Obviously replacing the computer for this feature alone is not very cost effective. Even if you have a year 2000 compliant system, it's still a good idea to run R-Y2kFix just for the battery monitor. Replacing the BIOS is also expensive, and may cause more problems than it solves. Not all ROM BIOS chips are interchangeable between all the different system motherboards. The manufacturer of your computer selected the correct BIOS version for the hardware at the time your system was build. Replacing the clock/CMOS chip with the Dallas DS12C887 may not be that easy, and you'll need to restore the CMOS system settings. If it works, don't fix it! Experimenting by swapping BIOS and clock chips is not recommended. Adjusting the system clock each time as needed requires operator involvement. There's always a chance to make mistakes, and introduce new problems. Installing R-Y2kFix in advance of the millennium will relieve technical support people of the added responsibility and tedium later. The BIOS is nothing more than a program stored in a ROM chip that understands how to talk directly to your system's hardware. R-Y2kFix is a program that also knows how to talk directly to your hardware to bring your system into year 2000 compliance, independent of the original BIOS. Your computer measures all time from Tuesday, January 1, 1980. The millennium will roll over at midnight Friday December 31, 1999. Unless the system is powered up at that time, only the real time clock will be running as the old century rolls over from 1999 to 2000. Unfortunately as the real time clock can't advance the century on its own, the day will change from Friday to Saturday, but the year will report January 1, 1980. Recall the system is turned off now, so this is still done inside the battery operated clock. The first day of the new millennium you turn on your system, the first thing it will do at power up is run the BIOS program stored in ROM, then any ROM bios extension boards you have plugged in (that's how your video board displays its message for example), then it reads your operating system from disk and begins the boot sequence. All this time the system still thinks it's Saturday January 1, 1980 even though 1980 was long before the system was even built. The operating system (DOS, Win 3.x, Win 95 etc.) now establishes the virtual clock and sets it using the BIOS to read the current real time clock and the century, but the old century number is not advanced. The operating system evaluates the date reported by the BIOS, and (this part is VERY clever) quickly calculates it can't possibly be Saturday January 1, 1980. Obviously that's impossible, so something is wrong. Either it's not Saturday, or it's not the first of January 1980.... so it reports the date as Friday January 4, 1980. The CMOS/Clock battery monitoring feature of R-Y2kFix should prove more valuable than year 2000 compliance long after New Year's eve 2000. It's trivial to insure year 2000 compliance by simply adding R-Y2kFix and have the added feature of monitoring the CMOS/Clock battery etc. - - - - - - - - - - - - Testing Your System There are a number of year 2000 test programs that identify problems with clocks and BIOS calls not correctly advancing the century digits. These may be helpful to identify systems that require attention, but they can't verify the correction. R-Y2kFix normally only runs during the start up sequence. Obviously the only valid test requires the system to be powered off in the old century and restored in the new century to verify any over all correction has been effective. Any valid test must restart the system from a cold power up condition. Here's a simple test to try yourself. If you're connected to a network, unplug the network cable. 1) Set your systems time and date to December 31, 1999 11:55pm. 2) Shut everything down and turn off your system power. 3) Wait at least six minutes before turning the system back on. 4) Now check the system date. - - - - - - - - - - - - Other Options Once you've had a chance to try R-Y2kFix you may want to examine a few of its options. These options are provided for advanced users only and are not required to benifit from R-Y2kFix. To view screen displays for demonstrations enter "R-Y2kFix /DEMO" For a list of additional options enter "R-Y2kFix /?" - - - - - - - - - - - - Program Requirements R-Y2kFix will work on any PC-AT compatible from the earliest 80286 through the most current. It runs under DOS, Win 3.x or Win95. The CMOS/Clock battery monitor will work on both compliant and non year 2000 compliant systems based on the Motorola MC146818 or equivalent (including the Dallas Semiconductor DS12C887 circuit.) - - - - - - - - - - - - CD-Rom, Magazine and Book Publishers Publishers are encouraged to include "The Rosenthal Utilities (tm)" as shareware with CD-Rom collections, books and magazines etc. Be sure you have the latest version available from http://slonet.org/~doren/ All programs and documentations must be included, complete, unmodified, and my not be disrtibuted with registration numbers. - - - - - - - - - - - - Help, Technical Support and Updates Technical support is available by e-mail at doren@slonet.org and updates can be obtained on-line. Be sure to check the www url at http://slonet.org/~doren/ periodically for updates and new products. See the last line of the RU_ORDER.FRM file for version numbers. This program was independently tested on over 4,500 systems before release. - - - - - - - - - - - - Software License agreement R-Y2kFix may only be offered as part of the complete "Rosenthal Utilities (tm)" package, and is not available separately. You are encouraged to copy and distribute this software provided it remains unmodified, complete in its original form, and no fee (other than a nominal copy charge) is required. You may not make any changes or modifications to the software, and you may not decompile, disassemble or in anyway reverse engineer the software. This software is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. Responsibility rests entirely with the user to determine its fitness for a particular purpose. ROSENTHAL ENGINEERING SHALL NOT IN ANY CASE BE LIABLE FOR SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT OR OTHER SIMILAR DAMAGES ARISING FROM ANY USE OF THIS SOFTWARE. Some states may not allow these limits on warranties, so they may not apply to you. In no case shall Rosenthal Engineering's liability exceed the license fees paid by you to Rosenthal Engineering for the right to use the Licensed Software. Use, duplication, or disclosure by the U.S. Government of the computer software and documentation in this package shall be subject to the restricted rights applicable to commercial computer software as set forth in subdivision (b) (3) (ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at 252.227-7013 (DFARS 52.227-7013). The Contractor/manufacturer is Doren Rosenthal, Rosenthal Engineering, P.O.Box 1650, San Luis Obispo, California 93406. This constitutes the entire agreement and understanding between the parties and supersedes any prior agreement or understanding whether oral or written and may only be modified in writing. R-Y2kFix is included FREE to private and non-commercial users just for trying "The Rosenthal Utilities (tm)".