Out of about 4,000 consumer electronic products sold by Toshiba in the United States since the early 1980s, the company found just three videotape recorders that stumbled on the year 2000. The recorders, introduced in the early 1980s, will only fail when programmed in 1999 to record in 2000. After 2000, the recorders will work fine again. The Toshiba videotape recorders suffer from a year 2000 calculation error that is common in computer programs. But that type of error is relatively rare in consumer appliances.
Software is fraught with problems because the date is so widely used.
But it is also the easiest to fix, usually by just using newer versions that handle the date correctly. The problem is that a faulty computer could pass bad dates to the programs it uses, such as spreadsheets, databases, personal finance programs and the operating system. But Paxson added that if users are certain they use no date sensitive programs, they can survive even with an unrepaired machine. Contact the webmasters.