Senate Y2K Committee's 2/29/2000 Report - Rather Interesting! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Senate Y2K Committee issued a report summarizing events through 2/29/2000, you can find it at www.senate.gov/~y2k/documents/final.pdf

Since it does take Adobe Acrobat, I've copied the Second Appendix dealing with reported Y2K problems -

EXAMPLES OF Y2K GLITCHES

The full extent of Y2K problems will probably never be known because only a small fraction of the actual occurrences will be reported. There is no incentive for corporations or countries of the world to openly report computer problems. As with any internal problems, organizations will likely simply fix them and continue their operations unbeknownst to the general public. The problems listed below were compiled from a variety of public and private sources including news serv-ices. While the sources are considered to be reliable, the Committee was not able to verify each incident or specifically attribute it to Y2K.

Utilities:  Several electric utilities in North America have reported minor glitches with the synchronization feature of the clocks used in their energy management system computers  Seven nuclear power plants experienced minor Y2K glitches in non-safety systems and were quickly fixed  Hadley, MA: Software used to process data and create reports at the town's wastewater treatment plant has experienced a Y2K failure  Hundreds of Knoxville Utilities Board bills were printed with incorrect "pay-ment due" dates, either in January 1900 or January 2099.  The new Manatee County Public Works system was spitting out water, sewer and garbage bills with unrelated and incorrect data, but corrected utility bills are finally in the mail for 20,000 Manatee County (Florida) customers a month late after changes intended as Y2K fixes caused problems  A power outage in Carson City, Nevada for 30 minutes  Santa Fe water company experienced billing system glitches  Akron, Ohio water company sends out erroneous shut off notices to 3000 customers  Grand Prairie,

Healthcare:  Tissue processor medical device in VA hospital would not accept 2000 as a date to run on automatic, but would operate manually  Medical displays of Sera-520 model electrolysis analyzers have incorrect date stamp, but operation not affected  Florida and Kentucky reported Y2K-related problems with their unemployment benefits automated telephone call processing system. 100 claimants in Florida and fewer than 50 claimants in Kentucky were effected and the prob-lems were fixed  Guam implemented manual processing for several welfare systems that were not Y2K compliant  $50 million in Medicare payments were delayed 1 day because of a Y2K problem with the electronic fund transfer through a bank that handles such transactions  Medicare provider claims are being returned (rejected) because they are be-ing submitted with dates of 1900 or 2099. One contractor alone had received about 11,000 claims with these erroneous dates  Oregon had Y2K-related errors in systems used for Food Stamps, Child Sup-port Enforcement, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The problems were fixed, but a 1 day delay in some payments to clients resulted

Telecommunications:  Charlotte, North Carolina: 911 systems broke down Wednesday 12/29/99 during rounds of Y2K testing  Emergency telephones along Interstate 87 stop working  Long distance phone service was out in widespread parts of central Montana for about three hours  Cisco issues notices of router problems since rollover and for February 29  911 problems in Orange County Florida  911 system in the Minneapolis metro area experienced problems on January 30 th for several hours due to a system upgrade. Transportation:  Amtrak's Philadelphia Control Center system would not retain train symbols as the train progressed on the system  Two key FAA systems experienced Y2K problems that were quickly resolved: (1) the Low Level Wind Shear Alert System at eight sites, (2) Kavouras Graphic Weather Display System  Power Conditioning System Data terminal equipment in four cities displayed the date "1900" on rollover  ARINC Oceanic Display and Planning System printers in two locations failed the transition from 1999 to 2000. These are not FAA printers but are a redun-dant system used in the relay of data from ARINC communications centers to air traffic controllers handling oceanic traffic  I n Chicago, an airport wind-shear alert system had a minor glitch that flashed an error message at four smaller airports and railroad gates in Shiloh went down without reason and stayed down

Financial:  Bank credit card companies reported problems with merchants who did not install free upgrades to CyberCash, Inc. software; result was duplicate post-ings of charges  Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago reported glitch in transferring tax payments from customers of 60 financial institutions  Failure of overnight batch credit card settlement through Chase Merchant Services

General Business:  Godiva Chocolates (parent company  Cambell Soup) experienced total sys-tems failure including cash registers in its New York store, but were back in operation within three hours.  Several news papers find problems with dates in online editions, but content was not affected  A small Portland trucking firm could not access any of its accounting informa-tion as a result of not installing upgrades to its BizWorks software  Incorrect dates appeared on office automation software for a small New Jer-sey trucking firm, but did not impact operations  Retailers that did not update their ICVerify systems could not do batch settle-ments after close of business; did not affect customer transactions, but could affect thousands of small businesses  Department of Defense Satellite-based intelligence system experienced a Y2K failure shortly after GMT in the ground station  The District of Columbia replaced its non-Y2K compliant system with a new financial management system late last year  & delays in full implementation are expected to delay some budget reports  Some driver licenses issued by the state of Indiana contained an incorrect expiration date due to a Y2K glitch. According to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, "Persons under age 75 received a driver license that expires in 2005, although state law mandates that a license is valid for four years. Mo-torists age 75 and older are required to renew a driver license every three years, but licenses issued since Jan 2 show an expiration date of 2004."  A Y2K problem caused Richland, Mississippi police dept. to sent out hun-dreds of incorrect letters demanding immediate payment for traffic fines, some of which had already been paid  The Navajo Nation Law Enforcement reported that seven of its eight com-puter- aided dispatch servers failed and a manual process was used until the servers were fixed on January 19, 2000  The security access system froze in an open position due to malfunction in clock system in a federal building in Omaha  Computers in three Hampstead county (Arkansas) offices have been bitten by the Y2K bug. The glitch in the program has halted work on payroll and claims  In Chicago, the city's Doppler radar system went down for about five minutes.  A computer-run energy-management system at a federal building in Chicago suddenly flashed the date Jan. 4, 1980  Redmond, Washington experienced problems with its city-issued fuel access cards, and the police department's computer-aided dispatch system found a minor Y2K bug

General Government:  800 slot machines in Delaware shut down after reading the current date as January 1, 1900  Highland Bank of Chicago experienced problems receiving and processing electronic funds transfer payment files affecting a Medicare contractor in California, Oregon, Arizona, and New York  Florida and Kentucky reported problems with unemployment insurance bene-fit systems that delayed individuals from filing claims  The Y2K bug caused a few minor malfunctions in Apple Computer Inc.s in-formation technology system.  Slot machines malfunctioned on December 31 st due to Y2K  U.S. Homecare had to create manual work-arounds for all basic functions, from billing to payroll because of Y2K glitches that struck shortly after the new year  Lamonts Apparel Inc., which operates 38 department stores in the Pacific Northwest, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company said that its cash flow had been squeezed by slow spring and summer sales and un-expected costs associated with fixing its Y2K computer problems The com-pany paid a combined $10 million to install new computerized registers and other hardware as part of its efforts to combat the Y2K bug  The government listings in the Milwaukee white pages are so riddled with er-rors that Ameritech Corp. has agreed to reprint that section and hand-deliver it for free to consumers next month. The company updated its software last year to make it Y2K-compliant. But the software had bugs and introduced the errors into the system  In Champaign, Ill., roughly 8,500 Illicall subscribers received their January 2000 long-distance statements; however, they appear to be a century old al-ready because of a Y2K glitch

International: Australia  Telephone outages in southern Australia  Payroll calculated from 1900 at Sybiz Software  PC problems reported by Microsoft Australia  Electric train ticket sales equipment in Sydney registered wrong date  Public transport ticketing system failed in Tasmania and South Australia Austria  City of Vienna EDP systems failures Belarus  Pension payment system problems Benin  Bank pension systems malfunction  Telecommunications switching problems  Maritime GPS equipment malfunction  Train telecommunication switch disruptions Bolivia  Failure in a customs system at Puetro Suarez  Land property registration glitches  Minor glitches at a public office in Cobija  Health diagnosis equipment failure  Accounting software (SINCOM) failure Botswana  Fax and telex system failures within government offices  Medical equipment failures at Athlope Hospital  Police department fax and telex system problems Brazil  Airport customs systems did not recognize receipts issued last year  Port customs system did not recognize receipts issued last year  Convenience store cash registers could not process receipts  Hospital appointment system failed  Toll booths unable to process receipts Bulgaria  Internet servers unavailable shortly after rollover Canada  Public school system payroll miscalculations  Prison door systems failed in British Colombia  Department of motor vehicle system malfunction  Failure of a switching station in Oshawa  Malfunctions on individual portfolios on the Toronto Stock Exchange website China  A few mid- to small-businesses financial systems failed  A QingDao hotel reported a problem in its control system for room assign-ments  Taxi meter failures reported in NanJing  ATMs would not dispense cash and had incorrect balance displays  Database problems at the Anning Printing Plant SENATE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON THE YEAR 2000 TECHNOLOGY PROBLEM  Savings bank electronic time keeping board malfunctions  Reporting/query system malfunctions at newspaper offices  Date display malfunctions at Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital  Halian Department Store system malfunctions  State Meteorological Administration computerizxed monitoring system failed  Peoples Bank internal and interbank e-mail and credit card system failures  Taxi meter failures Colombia  Social security systems date validation conflicts  Non-compliant maritime tank ship Costa Rica  Billing system problems at a petroleum refinery Czech Republic  Taxi meter failures  Land registry office system malfunctions Denmark  Second largest bank, UNIBANK, identified glitch in Unitel payment and infor-mation systems for about 20 corporate clients Ecuador  Internet server problems at the Ministry of Labor  System malfunctions at the offices of the Attorney General Egypt  Hospital dialysis machine failures France  Ground station communication problem relating to Syracuse II satellite  Finance, personnel, and production system malfunctions at more than 15% of the nations small businesses Gabon  Isolate incidents with some accounting systems Gambia  Miscellaneous air and sea transportation system failures  Custom service system failures  Miscellaneous tax service system failures  Unspecified power outages  Miscellaneous treasury department system failures Germany  Cash register failures  Berlins German Opera experienced payroll system anomolies  Cologne Bank on-line banking glitches Ghana  Bio-medical equipment malfunctions at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital  Telecommunications phone line malfunctions  Power system billing and equipment problems at the Dolta River Authority Greece  Problems with older model cash registers  Billing system date anomalies at Athens utility Grenada  Manual backup used in lieu of compliant customs service computer system  Payroll component of the National Water and Sewerage Authority, the sole provider of water in Grenada, was not compliant Guatemala  Miscellaneous system failures reported by several medium and small enter-prises Hong Kong  A local area network used by a training department contained incorrect date field  Instruments used by police department to conduct breathalyzer tests failed, but were fixed within 10 days  Improper calculations in Hong Kong Futures Exchanges options pricing sys-tem  Hospital blood sample analyzer equipment date stamp problems  Office automation problems within the Agriculture and Fisheries Department  Miscellaneous glitches reported by about 10 small businesses Indonesia  Bank of Indonesia command center computer malfunctions  Bank Niaga ATMs deny access to customers  Mobile phone billing system failures Iran  Blood gas analyzer failed in a Tabriz hospital Iraq  Oil export pipeline system clock rolled back Ireland  Eircoms automated balance system displayed incorrect date Israel  Miscellaneous minor problems reported by Defense, public and government institutions and banks Italy  Automated systems use by Naples and Venice courthouses failed  Bari Central Court system inadvertently erased 1999 data  Miscellaneous problems reported by 20 small town governments  Electro medical equipment malfunctions  Time card machines malfunction  Telecom Italia signaling and billing system anomalies Jamaica  8 traffic lights (30% of Corporate Area) went out Japan  Weather monitoring and reporting system non power related problems at Shika Nuclear Power Plant  Glitch in a system used to provide weather information for small airplanes  Japanese Railway ticket distributing system problems  Japanese electronics firms experienced 50 different problems in various busi-ness and plant computer systems  Bicycle parking lot machines malfunction  Fire and emergency systems failures  Government vehicle tax computers malfunctioned  Government residency computers malfunctioned  JR Sakaide Station entrance gate system did not recognize employee passes  Noise monitoring system at New Tokyo International Airport lost data  Tokushima Universitys bone density measuring device miscalculated patient ages  Sewage works device malfunction  NTT Mobil Communications phones deleted messages  Matsu@#%$a Communications registered mail software malfunctioned  IDO Corp. mobile phones do not display dates  Hokuriku Electric Power Companys emergency data transmission system malfunctions  Tokyo Electric Power Company experience problems in data storage and processing systems, detectors, position control rods, and test radiation analy-sis system  Toyota Motor Company navigation devices malfunction  10 banks and credit cooperatives experienced bankbook date and ATM data display problems  Onagawa Nuclear Plant electric substation failure  Rokkashomura Nuclear Waste Storage Facility management and monitoring system date malfunction  12 small brokerages experience glitches in record keeping systems  Tokyo Stock Exchange experienced errors in back office system  Tohoku Electric Power Co. jauge to measure sea water problems failed Kazakhstan  Manual operation employed to overcome computer system problems at Eki-bastuz Hydroelectric Power Station-@  Kazakh Railway Co. personal computer problems  Systems used to control air conditioning and elevators in government build-ings failed because Johnson Control Company upgrades not installed Latvia  Incorrect date stamps on systems at Riga City customs office Malawi  Hotel booking system failed and lost registrations Malaysia  Failure of a building automation system at the Sibuand Muar Hospitals  CTG machine at Tung Shin Hospital experienced date stamp problem, but continued to operate  Failure of patient registration system at Machang Hospital  Ultrasound machines at Sultanah Aminah and Muar Hospitals experienced date problems  Blood gas analyzer at Alor Setar Hospital had date stamp problem  Blood Pressure monitor at Bintulu Hospital had date stamp problem  Several land offices experienced problems in billing system software  Several gas pump display panels displayed wrong dates  Penang province satellite television went out Mali  Systems used to monitor the transport of merchandise and dispense tickets for a Mali ferry systems broke down Mexico  Some medical equipment such as ultrasound, X-ray, and clinical analysis ma-chines experienced date stamp problems Moldova  Transports and Communications Ministry experiences date malfunctions Mongolia  A few railroad ticketing systems experienced problems, but were fixed the same day Namibia  Database used by Ministry of Works, Transport, and Communication did not correctly recognize year 2000 dates  Channel 7 radio stations advertising scheduling system failed; manual opera-tions were employed  Bank of Namibia ATMs had difficulty detecting bar codes Netherlands  Miscellaneous failures in on-line banking systems New Zealand  Mobile computer units in ambulances failed  Auckland University database could not be reset  Unspecified water pumping station problems  Miscellaneous minor power outages in Invercargill and Alexandria  Police computer system outage  Air traffic control system radars were operating, but inter connections were down  Bus pass validating machines would not accept passes  Auckland Airport website date anomalies Nicaragua  Minor glitches reported by Supreme Court and Ministry of Agriculture  Date problems in ultrasound and dialysis machines reported by Ministry of Health  Unconfirmed reports of glitches in 800 medium sized companies  Nueve Segovia Local System of Integral Health Statistics failed  Ministry of Agricultural Development and Forestry reported miscellaneous system failures Nigeria  Port Harcourt refinery maintenance and material management system prob-lems was fixed within 3 hours  Non-compliant telephone companies were intentionally disconnected to avoid problems Norway  Cash register failures at 7-Eleven stores  Isolated ATM failures  Hospital X-ray machines malfunction Pakistan  Computer system malfunction at the Karachi Development Authority  Electric power authority experienced cascading failures in transmission lines in Multan, Faisalabad, Tarbela, and Mangla  Date malfunctions at the Islamabad Stock Exchange Palestinian Authority  Miscellaneous failures in government systems Philippines  Several date stamp problems reported in fax machines and other non-critical electronic equipment  Philippine Rural Bank declared holiday to curtail massive cash withdrawals Portugal  Minor Y2K glitches in hospital payment and admissions systems  Miscellaneous problems with government Ministerial databases and payment processing systems Republic of Korea  Heat and hot water loss in an apartment building  Medical device used for density measurement failed  Various problems at an aluminum manufacturing plant Russia  Nuclear power plant management system malfunctions  Government system e-mail disruptions  Telephone switch failure in the central Sverdlovsk region and the city of Orenburg  Boiler pump failure caused 8900 people in the far east to lose heat  Operational control system malfunction in Lenergo Powers central control room Rwanda  Operating system for customs computer failed Saudi Arabia  Medical equipment such as electrocardiogram, ultrasound and arterial blood gas machines experienced date function problems  Locally designed software had problems in comparing Muslim to western dates  University student transcript system anomalies Slovakia  Incorrect date displayed on bank webpage  Incorrect date displayed on weekly magazine webpage  Hydrometeorological Institute system malfunctions South Korea  Graduate certificates dated 1900 at Korea University  Video rental store computers could not accept 2000 dates  Hotel reservation systems malfunction  Production control data exchange problems at Changwon Industrial Complex aluminum manufacturing plant  Bone marrow equipment and patient registration systems malfunctioned at Ansan Severance Hospital and Dongshin Hospital  Automatic broadcast system failed at Bukshim Cable TV requiring manual intervention  Apartment building heat and hot water system failures  Trial summons dated 1900 at Provincial Court Spain  Two nuclear power stations reported problems with non-critical computer systems Sri Lanka  A Holter ECG Monitoring Units failed at Shri Jayawardenepura Hospital  Blood gas analyzers and intensive care unit equipment failed at Kandy Hos-pital  Supermarket point of sale electronic funds transfer system malfunctioned Sudan  Interbank communications in two banks delayed by two days Sweden  Isolated glitches in healthcare and hospital admissions systems  Parking meter problems  Cash register failures  Computerized entry to sport center not working  Control and surveillance system problems in a water plant  Hospitals experienced problems with kidney dialysis equipment and electro-cardiograph machines  Ikea store card system rejected cards as out of date  10% of customers report internet banking problems Taiwan  Blood pressure measuring machine and hospital registration problems in Taoyuan County Tajikistan  Miscellaneous government computer system failures Tanzania  Zanzibar reported television transmission problems Thailand  Meteorological Department satellite date anomalies  Unspecified computer system failures at Loei Hospital  Power plant date malfunctions  Analysis tool displayed erroneous date at Rama Hospital  Tele-banking and cash management system data feed problems at Siam Commercial bank Turkey  Minor glitches reported in biomedical equipment at a few hospitals including blood sample analyzing machines, patient monitoring equipment, ultrasonic devices, tomography devices and dialyses machines  Miscellaneous Y2K glitches experienced by several manufacturing companies including Akin Tekstil, Arcelik, Emsan Besyildiz, Emsan Paslanmaz, and Erci-yas Biracilik Uganda  Non-compliant computers at examinations authority forced manual work-arounds  Nakawa Inland Port billing system failure  Education facilitys academic test processing system required manual work-around Ukraine  Nuclear power plant system failure caused a 45% reduction in power genera-tion United Kingdom  Welsh Tax Office had forms dated 1900 returned  English Registry Office system erroneously recorded 1900 on birth certificates  Surveys show that about 5% of private firms experienced computer failures  Sainsbury Superstore had point of sale equipment failures  Two nuclear power stations had malfunctions in monitoring systems and data transfers  Date malfunctions at the Oldham Chronicles website  BBC had unspecified system malfunctions  Accounting systems malfunction at the Portman Building Society  Racal/HSBC point-of-sale terminals would not accept cards Venezuela  Shutdown of biomedical equipment laboratory analyzer optic reader  Temperature monitoring system at a major aluminum manufacturing facility shutdown and required manual intervention to sustain operations Vietnam  Isolated telephone switching problems  Small and medium sized enterprises experienced problems with Novell Net-ware 4.1 operating system Zambia  Telecommunications interruptions between Zambia and Malawi  Financial management system software used by all government ministries experienced problems that caused incorrect calculations Zimbabwe  City of Harares financial system failed causing delays in billings for water  Town of Ruwa reported that their financial and billing system went down  Central Mechanical Equipment Departments computer system crashed  Ministry of Mines experienced office automation problems

Non magna loquimur, sed vivimus - We do not talk great things, but we live them

-- cheryl (lookingup@go.com), March 05, 2000

Answers

The interesting thing to me is the actual problems reported with utilities compared to the predictions before the rollover. The most optimistic I read were the "three day storm" scenarios.

I never really followed any of the Y2K boards on the net before the rollover because I was just too busy working on the problem. When I did first come to TB2000 on January 2, I was flabergasted to read some of the predictions by people who were apparently being accepted as experts. We had been telling people since September of 99 that we were compliant and didn't expect any problems. I can only assume that a lot of people who were preparing thought we incompetent, liars, or worse.

On reflection, one of the lessons learned has to be that we need a better way to communicate technical information to the general population. I think the lawyers had a lot to do with making our public statements look mealy mouthed and that probably contributed to the doubt by some. OTOH, it seems as if the vast majority of the population must have believed us since everyone didn't stock up on candles and generators.

-- Jim Cooke (JJCooke@yahoo.com), March 06, 2000.