XP and invalid dates

[Unnamed]

I have a laptop that has had the battery you use when not on wall power
stuff up and die. So I replaced it. Next, the HD did the same thing so I
bought one and put it in.

This morning I turn the laptop on and note that it says, in passing through
to booting, that the BIOS settings were incorrect and needed attention but
it continued on before I could stop it, anyway and I decided to let it go.
It got to where the pointer has JUST appeared in booting and then it stayed
there and wouldn't do a thing. So, I turned it off and on again and went in
to BIOS and noted the date said it was 0/0/2003 which is, of course,
impossible. I changed that to a valid set of numbers and XP booted fine and
normally.

So, my question is - with dates that are outside normal calendar ranges, how
does XP normally handle this? My take on it so far is that XP cant boot if
set as above. What about other dates such as the 31st of Feb which doesn't
exist or the 13th month for example? If they accidentally get set by some
stuffup, in BIOS, does XP sit and cogitate endlessly for those sorts of
things, too or only 0/0/2003 or any other valid year?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

If you are worried about your BIOS settings - on the next boot go back into the BIOS and use the 'Default' setting.

 

[Unnamed]

No......I was worried about what I posted, not worried about my BIOS
settings.

Eg, XP wont boot if date on BIOS is set at 0/0/2003. So will XP lock up
every single damned time the BIOS date is outside the normal calendar range
or just THIS particular date which doesn't exist, 0/0/2003?


Hi

If you are worried about your BIOS settings - on the next boot go back into
the BIOS and use the 'Default' setting.

 

[Alex Nichol]

So, my question is - with dates that are outside normal calendar ranges, how
does XP normally handle this? My take on it so far is that XP cant boot if
set as above. What about other dates such as the 31st of Feb which doesn't
exist or the 13th month for example? If they accidentally get set by some
stuffup, in BIOS, does XP sit and cogitate endlessly for those sorts of
things, too or only 0/0/2003 or any other valid year?

NOrmally it isn't possible to get such a date set in BIOS anyway, so the
matter should not arise

 

[Unnamed]

NOrmally it isn't possible to get such a date set in BIOS anyway, so the
matter should not arise

Alex,

Well you'll have to try better to answer THIS one mate because it DID arise.
My own BIOS stuffed up and set the date as 0/0/2003 and it is easy to
imagine that someone can write a virus/trojan/mass mailing WORM that
overwrites a BIOS. There already HAS been a virus years ago that trashed
BIOS on a lot of machines as it is.

It is a valid question, mate and a real worry, too. See, if someone DOES
write a nasty that sets the date incorrectly, there is going to be a lot of
grief around the world because it isn't normally apparent what has caused XP
to just stop loading at the point where the pointer JUST appears. It was
only just luck that I noted the bootup tell me the BIOS was corrupted at
that point because this had been happening a lot for days.

SOMEONE must know what happens when the BIOS date is set to some date
outside of a normal calendar range other than 0/0/2003 within Microsoft,
surely? So far, the invalid date I have found stops XP booting dead in it's
tracks. What about others? Surely Windows should have been programmed with
the idea that if the date is outside the normal calendar range, XP sets it
to a valid, if incorrect, date wouldn't you think - so it could continue to
boot? Well, so far, no it doesn't look that way and this is a MAJOR problem
for EVERY XP user, home, small, medium and LARGE business and could be a
VERY large problem if it extends to EVERY windows, not just XP.