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Have you set your PC card up for the Millennium?

General

There are two issues when setting up the PC card ready for the millennium date change. Firstly from a RISC OS point of view that the PC card or podule is running the correct version of !PC so that the centenary date is available to the PC software. Secondly that the PC OS and software reads the centenary date correctly.

Help links

PCPro3 users Includes all RISC OS 4 users who should be using PCPro3.
PCPro2 users Includes all StrongARM users without RISC OS 4.
!PC486 and !PCx86 for RiscPC's with PC cards.
PC podules in older RISC OS systems. Revision 1 and 2 podules as well as the Acorn A4000 / A30x0.

PC OS and software. Most PC OS and software will need patches and upgrades.
Testing PC software.

An apology from Aleph One

If you thought you had done everything that was required and now have been told to return to these pages then you have our sincere apologies.

The Versions of !PC from v2.04 to 3.02d change Y2K 23 days early! The date becomes correct again from 1st jan 2000. You can workaround the problem until then by using the DOS date command, or Windows control panel to set the correct century, or get updates as described below.

The error is due to the method used for calculating when the century changes - the number of centiseconds since 1900, a very large number - and the number was simply slightly wrong. It's slightly problematic to calculate the number with normal tools as all the hex calculators we have available overflow, which is, I think, where the original error arose.
We do apologise for not having spotted this error beforehand - it astonishingly got through our testing, and that of our beta-testers without anyone noticing.
Wookey

PC OS and software

Most PC OS and software will need patches and upgrades; these will be available from the producers' Web sites.
A main one is Microsoft. This is a general point of access for mamy Microsoft products, but you still may need a search engine. In January 2000 issue of Personal Computer World
Andrew Ward writes about Windows NT and the Y2K compliance status that keeps changing as Microsoft discovers more Y2K related problems. Much of the information also relates to all Window users.

Testing PC software.

The easiest way to test the PC software will be to make backup copies of you working partitions. Then set the RISC OS clock to 1st January 2000 and run the PC card. This will show you what you have missed or what needs to be upgraded to read the centenary date correctly. The good thing is that if it causes a complete breakdown of your working partitions you can always delete them and copy the backups back to the working position. Then before you run the PC card again reset the RISC OS clock back to the current date.

PCPro3 users

All PCPro3 users should ensure that they are using version 3.03 or greater. You should have completed the Aleph One PCPro Registration form. Then you will be able to obtain the latest upgrade of PCPro3 by using the Aleph One PCPro3 Upgrades form.

PCPro2 users

Patches will become available on this page to upgrade PCPro2. Ensure you obtain the correct upgrade or patch for the version of !PC you are using. None of these upgades or patches will function with Acorn !PC486 or !PCx86 software.

Upgrade patch for !PC 2.13 This is a zip file the filetype should read archive when on a RISC OS formatted drive. Follow the instructions in the ReadMe file within. This just patches the !Runimage in !PC 2.13 making it version 213p.

Upgrade !PC 2.03 to !PC 213p This is a zip file the filetype should read archive when on a RISC OS formatted drive. Follow the instruction in the ReadMe file within. The update also contains.

BugRep. For reporting ALL faults.
Docs. Directory containing an updated Impression and text manual.
Misc. Directory containing updated and additional drivers.
Drivers. Copy of the Drivers Directory which should be on your C: drive.
!Boot. For updating !Boot.
!Freshen. For upgrading !PC 2.03 to !PC 213p

Thanks to David Pilling for his excellent !Freshen software to enable this update to be done over the net rather than sending in floppy discs.

Upgrade for !PC v2.02 to v2.03 just incase you still have a very old version of PCPr2. This upgrade will be required before you can upgrade to !PC 213p.

!PC486 and !PCx86

These are older Acorn software, there is no upgrade or patches availabe the only option is to obtain the current copy of PCPro3.

PC podules in older RISC OS systems

We continue to support older PC podules, and there are versions of !PC 2.06 for each of the revision 1 and revision 2 PC podules cards. We also have a version for the Acorn A4000 and A30x0 PC podule cards so that they too have the Y2K fix.

Last Updated: 2005.11.07

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