For what it may be worth to PC owners, including business owners:

The following is a portion of a post to the c.s.y2k newsgroup. It deals with the marketing of a solution for time dilation, otherwise known as the Crouch Echlin Effect in PCs. Jace Crouch first determined that -- on his PC -- when the machine was set to 2000 and was not reset -- but was left running for a few weeksthe date advanced. A com port was also disabled. Archieved posts concerning this effect may be read at:

http://www.elmbronze.demon.co.uk/

This effect was verified by Mike Echlin. Several others were able to verify the effect in their machines. The effect seems more prominant in older machines (386, 486) and less prominant in Pentiums -- although it has been noted in Pentiums.

In spite of several attempts made to discredit Crouch and Echlin, research was picked up by Digital Equipment Corp, now a part of Compaq, with the result being the following post. PC owners may want to contact the parties referenced below:

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From: Barry Pardee Subject: Crouch Echlin Effect: TD Tools Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 15:59:46 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0

We at Compaq and Digital have confirmed that the Crouch Echlin Effect, also referred to as Time Dilation (TD), is real and is a potential threat to PCs, servers, and embedded systems that use unbuffered real time clocks.

Although we have not seen any TD symptoms on any Compaq or Digital PCs, many of our Customers have a mixture of various brand PCs that should be checked. Also, the use of non-manufacturer parts for repairs or upgrades may introduce potential TD problems into any PC.

Hundreds of requests for the TD Tools (as described at the following URL) have been received by Compaq/Digital, along with reports of similar Time/Date anomalies, during post Year 2000 testing.

http://www.nethawk.com/~jcrouch/dilation.htm

We have made the decision to resell the TD Tools. TD Tools was developed by Mike Echlin of Yeovil Systems Research and Development Inc. of Canada in conjunction with Jace Crouch, to test for and fix Time Dilation, or the Crouch Echlin effect, a newly discovered, little known problem with the interaction between the RTC/CMOS, BIOS, and Operating System, mainly occurring on the IBM Compatible PC or its derivatives.

Delivery of the TD Tools, including software, documentation, and licenses, will be via email.

No. of Licenses Price (US$)

50+ " = $32.00 each 100+ " = $20.00 each 500+ " = $12.00 each 2000+ " = $ 8.00 each 5000+ " = $ 4.00 each 5000+ " = $ 3.00 each

The Compaq/Digital order contact is Tanya Bellamy,

Email charge card orders with type of card, name as it appears on card, card number and expiration date to: tanya.bellamy@digital.com (include TD in the subject line).

Fax Purchase Orders: 518-452-7291

Mail Purchase Orders to:

Tanya Bellamy Compaq Services Corporate Plaza East 240 Washington Ave. Ext. Albany, NY 12203-5401

Orders for less than 50 units can be ordered through Elmbronze Ltd at the following URL.

http://www.elmbronze.demon.co.uk/products/TDtools.htm#World

The TD Tools software package includes the following programs:

TD Tools Overview TD Tools consists of three components which can be used independently of each other. The first is TDTEST which tests whether a PC is susceptible to TD (Crouch Echlin Effect) or not. You don't have to set the date forward on the PC to use this test - that is unnecessary. If it fails, it does not necessarily mean that the PC will fail with TD on or after 2000-01-01. TDFIND is a more elaborate version of TDTEST, and produces a more detailed log and error report for the serious investigator. TDFIX is a program which will sit in config.sys, and correct for the error which is the cause of TD; tested by Yeovil on an increasing number and variety of PCs, which so far have shown no further trace of TD.

Thanks,

Barry

Barry Pardee Americas Year 2000 Expertise Center Manager Compaq Computer Corporation

-- DeAlton Lewis (delewis@inetone.net), October 18, 1998

Answers

I have a few of questions:

1.) Has anyone here been able to reproduce TD on a PC?

2.) Has anyone here used TD Tools?

3.) If yes to #2, did you find any RTCs which might be susceptible to TD?

4.) Does anyone know of a Compaq/Digital TD Tools web page? I was unable to find one searching either site.

-- Mike (gartner@execpc.com), October 18, 1998.

Actually, Mike, the first questions to ask are, "Does anyone here know anything about TD?" and "Has anyone here actually tested for it?"

It's not too well known, and I guess it doesn't occur in every computer.

-- rocky (rknolls@hotmail.com), October 19, 1998.

rocky:

I've read almost everything I could find on the web about TD. I haven't looked at the Year 2000 software news group lately, but can't remember seeing anything there a few months ago. (Not enough time to read everything lately.) I also played around with an old 486 I have at home, but saw no problem with the clock. TD Tools looks interesting, but this is such a newly documented problem with so little publicity, that it's hard to tell if it's worth the effort or the cost. Besides, since this mostly seems to effect pre-Pentium boxes, I have even less reason to be concerned. Our last 386 at the office was taken out of service 3 years ago, and we only have a couple of 486s left.

Here's something interesting - I got one of those "card pack" mailings at work today. There was a card in there from Micro 2000 (www.micro2000.com) who have a card called the Centurion. It's a hardware fix for non-compliant RTCs. Nothing too unusual about that, but under the features they say "Centurion uses a "double-buffered" RTC clock - the only device proven to survive the year 2000 problem and the attendant Crouch-Echlin post-Y2K time dilation effect." That really jumped out at me. I've seen almost nothing about TD aside from a few references to it on the Internet.

BTW, the front of the card says: "The Year 2000 doesn't have to be the end of the world..." Let's hope not!

-- Mike (gartner@execpc.com), October 19, 1998.

Mike, the people who wrote the card just don't understand the problem.

If the Year 2000 was going to be the end of the world, who cares what happens next? No world? Well, no worries, mate; as the Aussies might say!

The problem is, we may end up wishing it WAS the end of the world.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 19, 1998.