MovieChat Forums > Y2K (1999) Discussion > Did ANYBODY experience actual Y2K proble...

Did ANYBODY experience actual Y2K problems?

posted 19 years ago by BennyM
14 replies | jump to latest

I sure didn't. Though I don't use them on a daily basis anymore, I still have a 1995 PC and two 1991 Macs sitting around (yeah, I know, my wife tells me to get rid of things, but you never know when they might come in handy), and they work fine. Does anyone here have personal knowledge of Y2K bugs? (and please don't give me urban legends of utility company computers crashing and needing billions of retrofitting dollars - I want first-hand accounts)

[–] shawn_allen 18 years ago

Actually, I didn't experience a problem on New Year's Eve, but there was a problem on the following leap-year day. Feb 29th, 2000 apparently wasn't accounted for, since 00 years are only leap-years when divisible by 400, not just 4. I was at work in the computer center when stuff started alarming out and giving all kinds of weird alerts. It wasn't until everything calmed down that we realized about the "extra" day that hadn't been counted.

[–] BennyM 18 years ago

But apart from programmer panic and alerts, did it cause anything to malfunction or crash? That's what all the fuzz at the time was about.

[–] wearetheborg-1 18 years ago

The only problem that I've heard about were problems with some slot machines that shut down.

But I found a more exhaustive accounting of Y2K problems that occured, which can be found here:

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/01/01/y2k.weekend.wrap/

I'd still like to see this movie so I can laugh at it. :)

[–] tec-8 17 years ago

Just stumbled onto this board but yes, our company had a major problem. A voicmail system we sold, which we were told was fine turned out to no longer switch from Day, Night and Weekend mode. While it doesn't sound serious, we had hundred of these things out in the world and had to end up upgrading every one of them at a loss. Also about a week after Y2K I got a resturant receipt with the correct day and month but the year was like 9000 and something.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] PigsCanFlyday 16 years ago

I would have kept that receipt...forever! :D

[–] pdoc33 13 years ago

Well, I didn't get an error, most likely because this computer was made after 2000. And, it was at 9000 or something? :O Omg... what did that do?
I bet all current Windows 98 and lower computers think it's year 9011 or something. :O

[–] ben1_7 17 years ago

I still have an Amiga A500 and it still works fine. The first, and as far as I'm concerned, the only real problem the Y2K bug was older computers mixing up the dates. Therefore reciepts printed from an old pc would be declared void.
This movie is on tv right now and I can't believe how bad it is.

[–] PigsCanFlyday 16 years ago

It's on TV?! What channel was it on?

If anyone knows when it comes on again, let me know!!!

[–] trevor1001 16 years ago

This movie's kind of obsolete, huh?

"It makes me want to engage in an involuntary protein spill!" ~ George Carlin, R.I.P.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] JoeLoebner 15 years ago

Nope. no problems.

[–] morley962 15 years ago

I know people who furnished their houses and sent their kids to school, off the back of the so called panic over Y2K. Software engineers and IT guys mainly.

The reality of the situation is that everyone knew about this for years before it happened, and companies got their software sorted out well before the date.

Some of these guys earned a ton of money doing this, I can tell you. And of course the whole thing about what would happen if they didn't do it in time just led to more panic, more companies employing IT engineers and therefore more cash rolling in.

I was working for a corporate bank at the time, and I worked on 1st of Jan 2000. We had hourly conference calls with people from all round the world to monitor any problems or effects...and it soon became obvious there were none. In the end, people virtually started making things up just to try and justify the expense of having all these people at work on a Bank Holiday...for nothing.

"Ummm...it's a little cold in my office today...not sure, but maybe the heating is not working right. Prett sure that's Y2K related..."

[–] HeyRick 11 years ago

Yes.

I think the truth of the matter was there were a number of small scale problems, but nothing massive like nukes launching themselves (although Sarah Chalke playing a Russian chick in the other Y2K was kinda cute).

What happened? I had an old 386 box with a lame BIOS that reverted to something like 1980. I didn't notice for days because I was mostly using RISC OS then. I also received a number of till receipts dated 19100 (19+100, duh!) due to extremely poorly written software. And some cash machines died on Feb 29th because Wikipedia didn't exist (shock! it was launched in 2001) so inept programmers couldn't look up the complete list of clauses to determine whether or not a day is a leap year.

Oh yeah, and a nuclear power station exploded, wiped out half the planet, the world is currently being run by Ainu and Inuits thanks to the ongoing nuclear winter, etc etc. Gee, wouldn't that make a great plot for a movie... <smirk>