Home Largely Immune to Millennium Bug

The image of the year 2000 computer glitch is of a widespread infection that hits not only the most complicated computer systems but also all the little pieces of technology strewn through everyday life that rely on internal clocks--such as videotape recorders, pagers, automotive controls and coffee makers. The question of how these items will weather New Year’s Day has become one of the basic fears of the year 2000 problem.

The home has been a source of anxiety, apart from the potential for widespread catastrophe, because of the investment homeowners have made in expensive electronic equipment and the disquiet of having familiar and comfortable devices behaving oddly.

But as it turns out, the testing of tens of thousands of products by consumer electronics companies, from digital thermostats to automatic coffee makers, have turned up a surprisingly small number that will be affected by the year 2000 problem, also known as Y2K, or the millennium bug.

The one major exception to this is the personal computer, which has an endless potential for Y2K problems.

While a variety of problems may surface after Jan. 1 because of the oddities of the millennium bug, from power outages to broken traffic lights, the home will remain an island of calm largely because the electronic appliances and devices there are too simple and ignorant, in the electronic sense, to fret about the year.

Out of the 7,000 products Sony Electronics Inc. has made since 1972, only one sold in the United States, a video camera made in the late 1980s, has any 2000-related problems.

Matsushita Electronics Corp., makers of Panasonic products, turned up just three video cameras from the mid-1980s that will have some Y2K problems. They will display the date incorrectly but otherwise work just fine.

Rain Bird Sprinkler Manufacturing Corp. of Glendora has tested more than 70 electronic controllers for automatic lawn sprinklers and has found no problems at all. “By virtue of being stupid, they comply,” said Richard Macy, Rain Bird’s year 2000 compliance manager. “Yes, we’re improving the world through lower technology.”

The readiness of the home for 2000, of course, will mean little if there are disruptions to banks, power utilities, telecommunications companies and government agencies. If the power fails, no one will care much if their coffee machine is Y2K-ready.

But if these critical services hold up through the new year--and most indications are that they will--the home will have little problem weathering the technological storm.

The problem itself is a simple technical issue that stems from the long programming tradition of abbreviating years to two digits, such as “99” for “1999.” The system has worked fine, but in 2000, some chips and software controlling electronic devices could become confused by the two-digit year “00,” which could be interpreted as either “1900” or “2000.” The ambiguity can lead to malfunctions, miscalculations and the shutdown of some devices.

For the manufacturers of the devices, the possibility of a year 2000 malfunction can be a significant issue. Macy, of Rain Bird, said every digital controller the company has ever made was tested, in part, out of fear of legal action if a sprinkler system went on at the wrong time and caused property damage or personal injury.

“Our biggest exposure is liability,” he said. “If we irrigate on the wrong day and something happens, like somebody slips and falls, there could be a suit.”

The vast majority of devices in the home, like most furnaces, stoves and ovens, are mechanical and so are naturally immune to the Y2K problem.

But over the years, the idea of keeping digital time has gradually worked its way into a variety of devices. The glow of digital clock readouts has now become a common feature in homes, emblazoned on everything from coffee makers and telephones to microwave ovens and thermostats. The saving grace for most of these home appliances is that they make little or no use of the year. Most work in simple cycles of 24 hours or seven days. The year means nothing to them.

Digital home thermostats, for example, can be programmed to turn the heat on at certain times of the day or shut down on weekends, but they do not use the year or month for any functions.

Automobiles, which have many computer-controlled parts, also are largely protected for the same reason. General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Honda and Toyota have done extensive testing on their vehicles and have so far reported no year 2000 problems.

A variety of devices in the home do display the year, the most popular being videotape recorders, video cameras, facsimile machines, home security systems and pagers. But just having the year in a display is not a sure sign of failure.

Honeywell, for example, makes several home security systems that display the year and date. But in those systems, the date is only displayed as a convenience, a little electronic calendar that has nothing to do with the internal workings of the device. The important parts of the security system--those that control the house lights or monitor security--work on the usual 24-hour or seven-day cycles, said Bruce Addleman, a senior product manager for Honeywell’s fire and security products.

For a system to fail, it has to use the time and date in some type of calculation, which can be as minor as determining the order in which TV programs will be videotaped.

Even among these devices that use the year for internal operations, the rate of failure is minuscule.

Out of about 4,000 consumer electronic products sold by Toshiba in the United States since the early 1980s, the company found just three videotape recorders that stumbled on the year 2000. The recorders, introduced in the early 1980s, will only fail when programmed in 1999 to record in 2000. The reason is that the device compares the years “99” and “00” and assumes that it had already recorded the program.

After 2000, the recorders will work fine again.

By far, the most sophisticated electronic device in the home is the personal computer, and it has numerous year 2000 issues involving chips, software programs and operating systems.

Software is fraught with problems because the date is so widely used. But it is also the easiest to fix, usually by just using newer versions that handle the date correctly.

The computer hardware can actually function fine after 2000 even if some parts are faulty, since the time has little to do with the machine’s internal workings, said Mark Paxson, the manager of design verification for the National Software Testing Laboratory.

The problem, of course, is that a faulty computer could pass bad dates to the programs it uses, such as spreadsheets, databases, personal finance programs and the operating system.

But Paxson added that if users are certain that they use no date-sensitive programs, they can survive even with an unrepaired machine. “No computer is going to catch fire or anything. If you’re not concerned about the date, then don’t worry about it.”

Y2K AND STATE COMPUTERS: The state has completed 75% of its Y2K computer repairs but warns of major hurdles. A3