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68k Macs & "2038 Bug"

I did a test on my Macintosh IIsi to see how many years the operating system can handle prior to year 2038. To put it in simple terms, the 2038 bug means any non 64 bit CPUs can handle years on or close to year 2038 because of the way the computer processes mathematics like years and days.


The Mac runs OS 7.1, and the d-day is December 31st. 2019! In less than 5 years, this particular Mac will fall back to 1920 and dates forward.


My questions to the old timers are:


What Macs are impacted by this "2020 bug"?

What CPUs (the processor) are impacted?

What operating systems are impacted?

Are all Power PC-based Macs can be workable for date records up to 2038? (my B/W G3 can run up to December 31st, 2037)

If there is a limitation to all, what Macs starting with OS and systems capable of handling dates to that year?


I do know that G5 Macs, Intel Macs, apps written in 64 bit and OS X 10.5 forward are capable of recording dates after 2038 as they are 64 bit based systems.

Posted on Feb 17, 2015 11:25 AM

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2 replies

Jun 11, 2015 6:54 PM in response to stevena1

Actually the Mac can count past 2019 but the control panel just picks the 100-year date range from 1920 to 2019. As you mentioned the Mac can handle up to around 2040. If the clock is already set it'll keep running. If it isn't and you need to set it to that future date there's a control panel floating around somewhere on the Internet that uses the SetDateTime() Macintosh Toolbox call.


The Date & Time control panel constrains user entry to dates between January 1, 1920 and December 31, 2019. This feature was added for compatibility with the original Macintosh System 6 General control panel, which limited dates so there would be no ambiguity about a 2-digit year (which was all that was normally displayed on a US system). The Date & Time control panel uses the Script Manager function

ToggleDate
.
ToggleDate
was enhanced in 1989 to have an option that limited dates to the 1920-2019 range so that it could be used by the General control panel and other control panels that wanted to have a date widget that operated in the same way. You can set a date beyond 2019, up to the year 2040, by using the Macintosh Toolbox call SetDateTime().


...from http://www.fenestrated.net/~macman/mirrors/Apple%20Technotes%20(As%20of%202002)/ tn/tn1049.html

68k Macs & "2038 Bug"

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