A Procrastinator's Guide to Y2K

Y2K is here. And, surprisingly to some, so are we and our computers. The dramatic meltdown didn't occur, but Y2K-related hassles are still a very real possibility. And even in Y2K's wake you still have time to protect your PC.

Your efforts needn't be as extreme as those of one young British boy, who reportedly cut the cables on his computer to prevent the millennium bug from crawling into his PC. Reuters reports the boy's valiant attempt to stop the Y2K bug was one of Britain's few Y2K problems on New Year's Eve.

PC manufacturers in the U.S. apparently had no problems with cut cables. A sampling we contacted report Y2K problems are few and far between, as do most software vendors and Internet service providers.

Cool, Calm, and Collected

The new century has, thus far, been smooth sailing at Dell Computer.

"It's been a pretty quiet holiday," says T.R. Reid, a Dell spokesperson. In fact, call volumes overall dipped.

America Online checked its member services on Sunday and did a quick canvas of call centers around the country. AOL experienced some calls regarding software compliancy, but overall, no real problems.

"We were able to maintain the integrity of our service," says AOL spokesperson Nicholas Graham. "Surely there are things we'll need to monitor through the year, but we've passed a milestone."

Earthlink had similar news, with no Y2K-related glitches or meltdowns to report. Kurt Rahn, an Earthlink spokesperson, was on call all night New Year's Eve and considered the monitoring process a great exercise.

"It was interesting for everyone here to pull together and work in concert even though nothing happened," Rahn says, adding that call volume on the fateful night was actually smaller than usual. "Everyone else was out doing fun stuff; it was quieter than normal," he says.

Working the Phones

Hewlett-Packard created a central command center to monitor the Y2K response of its tech support call centers around the world. The word on Monday: All was quiet. In fact, on Monday the command center was registering less than half the normal level of calls for a business day, says Brad Whitworth, HP's Y2K spokesperson.

HP scheduled 20,000 tech support personnel to be "on the job" or "on call" should problems arise. But the call volume was so slight, Whitworth says, the company moved the majority of those people to "on call" before the weekend was over.

"It was amazing. Some of our call centers didn't get a single call, Y2K or otherwise," he says. "It's not what we were expecting."

The lack of last-minute Y2K crises could be because most PCs made since 1997 are Y2K-compliant, and most manufacturers offer patches and fixes for older PCs.

And judging by the volume of calls, most users have already taken the necessary steps to prep their PCs for the new millennium.

"A lot of people did their homework," making sure their PCs were compliant before the rollover occurred, Whitworth adds.