http://www.abqjournal.com/news/3news02-01-00.htm

Tuesday, February 1, 2000

Computer Glitch Stops MVD Traffic

By Michael Coleman Journal Capitol Bureau SANTA FE -- The Motor Vehicles Division was open for business across New Mexico on Monday, but its computers weren't.

An early morning state government computer glitch crippled operations at MVD field offices and other state agencies Monday. The problem hadn't been fixed when offices closed for business late Monday afternoon, said general services spokesman Mark Moores. Moores said a device called a router, which allows computers at state offices around New Mexico to communicate with a mainframe computer in Santa Fe, was malfunctioning.

The state Engineer Office, Treasurer's Office, Risk Management Office, the Records and Archives building and welfare offices in Clovis and Raton were also affected, Moore said. Other state offices are served by separate routers and were unaffected.

"Some of the high-profile offices, like the MVD, are experiencing communication problems," Moores said. "We will continue to work on it throughout the night. We want to make sure it's fixed and fixed right." Moores said he hoped the problem is fixed by the start of business today. But he suggested anyone needing to conduct business at the MVD or other state agencies call to check on the status of the computers before traveling to those offices today.

MVD Spokeswoman Victoria Bransford said the agency's field offices were unable to process vehicle paperwork throughout most of the day Monday, resulting in a rash of angry customers.

Long lines at MVD field offices, coupled with a registration sticker problem, have led to increasing criticism from legislators and the general public. MVD has no automobile registration stickers to distribute to drivers wanting to re-register their vehicles for the month of February.

The company MVD hired to manufacture the stickers has run out of supplies and won't be able to deliver new stickers until Feb. 11.

Bransford said most MVD field offices remained open Monday and staffers tried to explain the computer glitch to the public. But the agency finally closed its offices at Winrock and Cottonwood malls in Albuquerque about 3 p.m., Bransford said. "We were not able to process any transactions," she said.

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 01, 2000

Answers

This is about 50/50 y2k-related. Routers blow up all the time. On the other hand, many older routers were said by the manufacturers (e.g., Cisco) not to be y2k-compliant.

Interesting!

-- Bud Hamilton (budham@hotmail.com), February 02, 2000.