Get Smart! Control Your Y2K Chaos

Hardware Diagnostics

About Time Group EZcheck2000

The only stand-alone Windows-based hardware diagnostic we reviewed, EZcheck2000 will issue a warning if your CMOS rollover fails the program's simple tests. As explained previously, this is probably an irrelevant issue that you can most likely ignore. To the program's credit, it states only that your software is not "totally compliant"; but it still recommends that you purchase the company's program, PCfix2000, for $30.

Accute Y2K Super Test

This DOS-based diagnostic (which comes with a Windows-based installation program) thoroughly explains all of the seven tests it performs. But its wealth of documentation--a ten-page instruction file and a warning that you should read it--might intimidate nontechnical users. Nonetheless, once you've slogged through the manual, performed the tests, and read the detailed descriptions of the results, you'll have an accurate (if overly meticulous) assessment of your system.

Micro 2000 Centurion Year 2000 Test

Micro 2000 gives this program away, but with a hidden agenda. If your computer fails Centurion's real-time clock test--and virtually every PC will--the software recommends that you buy the $70 Centurion Y2K Card to fix the problem, despite the fact that a Y2K-noncompliant real-time clock will not adversely affect most PC users. Worse, this DOS-based program can be dangerous. Centurion makes it too easy to set your clock date forward and then reboot to Windows--a potential disaster because certain programs (especially personal information managers and vertical applications) delete data or uninstall themselves if they load with a date too far ahead of the real one.

NSTL YMark2000

If this program were a little friendlier, it would better rival OnMark. YMark2000 runs all the vital tests, and it doesn't try to sell you anything. But it hits you with unnecessarily long and intimidating instructions and explanations. For instance, you don't really need to know that "This test ensures that the date and time indices are compatible to the MC146818 and the data is in packed BCD format."

Viasoft OnMark 2000 BIOS Test & Fix

OnMark's setup is a model of simplicity: You download and run a Windows program that installs a DOS-based test onto a floppy disk; then you reboot and read the plain-English results. Whether the program tells you that your system "fully supports the century change" or warns you that it will fail come New Year's Day, you know exactly what it's talking about.