Y2K BUG FIX: Eliminates random jumps of the date on a PC

A major cause for concern is that system clocks may make random date jumps after January 1, 2000 because of the Crouch-Echlin effect. Y2K BUG FIX monitors and corrects your computers clock in the event that it jumps. Whether these inaccurate dates are a result of the Crouch Echlin effect or some other cause, such as a low battery or power surge, Y2K BUG FIX provides an inexpensive remedy.

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The Crouch-Echlin What?? The detailed info.

Anyone in charge of a date-critical computer installation has had a couple of year's warning to prepare for their system's inability to think in 4-digit dates. Most of the remaining consequences will be local, and merely annoying rather than disastrous. So, after January 2000, everything should be back to normal, right?

Well, not so fast. There is one gremlin who won't even show his ugly little face until after the turn of the century. Like all the most notorious gremlins, his appearances will be sporadic, unpredictable, and accompanied by selective chaos and mayhem. This gremlin is called the Crouch-Echlin Effect, after its discoverers, Jace Crouch and Mike Echlin. If you want to hear their story, a search of "Crouch-Echlin" on the web will keep you busy for quite a while. This gremlin will affect new machines and old, big systems as well as desktops, rich, poor and middle class. An Equal Opportunity Problem, you might say.

In a nutshell, Crouch-Echlin causes the computer, every once in a while, to power up with a bogus date, but it will only do this if the computer's date is greater than 1999. To explain why, we must get just a little bit technical. The problem involves the master clock chip on the computer's mother board, called the Real Time Clock or RTC. It also involves the BIOS (Basic Input-Output System), those hard-wired instructions the computer uses when it first wakes up, that give it enough wits to go fetch its Operating System from the disk. One of the things the BIOS does on start-up is to read the current date and time from the RTC, and store it in a certain memory location where the operating system can retrieve it.

Back in 1980 when the Personal Computer was invented, the BIOS programmers apparently realized we were at the beginning of A New Era. Just as our calendar is measured in the number of years since BC (Before Christ), the BIOS figures its dates by the number of years since 1980. We can call this "BB" if you like, for Before Bill (Gates). So far, this has been an easy calculation for the BIOS to make: just subtract 80 from the last two digits of the date. The BIOS manufacturers were among the first to realize they had a Y2K problem, because this calculation obviously doesn't work for dates 2000 and higher. They've had to add a little detour to the start-up routine, which says "If the date is less than 2000, subtract 80 but if greater, go to the NEW 4-DIGIT DATE ROUTINE". Or something like that.

Which brings us to the second part of the problem. The RTC updates itself once every second, and while it's updating, the date and time output from the chip is changing, and therefore is in an undetermined state. This is not a good time for the BIOS to sample the date and time.

Fortunately, the RTC has a little flag signal that says "I'm changing. Don't read me just now". The flag actually comes on 244 microseconds before the outputs change, so the BIOS has a little cushion of time to decide whether to take the sample right then, or to wait and try again.

Now, when the BIOS only had to subtract 80 to calculate the date, the whole operation took less than 244 microseconds, which is why the Crouch-Echlin effect didn't show up in this century. When the BIOS must go into its NEW 4-DIGIT DATE ROUTINE, it takes a little longer than 244 microseconds, which is usually OK. Every once in a while though, the BIOS will happen to check the RTC's flag just a few microseconds before it changes. It thinks everything is fine, but by the time it gets done calculating, the RTC outputs are in a state of flux, and the BIOS comes away with garbage. Voila, the operating system starts up with a phony date and time.

Should you be losing sleep over this? Well, there are cures for the problem. The most basic would be to change the way the BIOS calculates dates (don't hold your breath on this one). Or one could use an RTC chip that has a double-buffered output. That way, there is no danger of the outputs changing state while they are being sampled. Unfortunately, Crouch-Echlin is a recent discovery, and most mother boards are still being designed with unbuffered RTCs. If you thought your new Pentium system with Windows 98 was immune from Y2K problems, guess again.

Another solution is to manually check your system date every time you power up. You can change the date if needed, and it will stay accurate as long as the computer stays on, because Crouch-Echlin only occurs on boot-up. A bit of a nuisance, but it will work in most applications. You only need to do it for the next hundred years (just kidding).

Another solution is to buy a hardware card that changes the date for you. The problem is that its costly and requires technical knowledge of your computer. It also requires the ability to open your PC and install it. Furthermore, you have to wait for it to arrive in the mail and because its a physical item it is prone to break at any time. Another major flaw in most hardware cards, is that they can actually increase or cause the Crouch-Echlin effect in a system because they lack a double-buffered Real Time Clock.

As a PC owner, the easiest and most cost effective solution is to buy the Y2K BUG FIX. Because its software, its easy to install and can be working for you in minutes. Other solutions can take days or weeks. The Y2K BUG FIX not only handles the normal Y2K hardware problems but it cures Crouch-Echlin with the greatest of ease. Just install it and forget it.

Only $12.00