Computer chips are as necessary to modern household electronics items as electricity.
There are concerns that appliances and electronic equipment will not work as of Jan. 1, because their imbedded chips will not recognize the two-digit shorthand of 00 as the year 2000. In general, household appliances and electronics will not be affected by the Y2K bug. The only ones that would be affected are older VCRs and televisions that note the year as well as the time and day. You can run an easy test by setting the date to Jan. 1, 2000. If all you use your VCR for is playing videocassettes, you do not need to set its clock.