Newton y2010 bug bobs back up in 2025

From the NewtonTalk list there many on January 1, 2025 who found their Newtons with 2.x all showing a date from December 1990.   At current there is not a solution, but we do have one promising comment:
"Regarding the current issue, I think it is actually the Y2010 bug, the safe time window has come to an end: I set the fixed start date in the 711000 patch to Jan 1st 2008. Jan 4th 2025 (or to be more precise, 536870911 seconds later) things start to go wrong. In typical programmer fashion, I got this off by one, it wasn’t 2026 when the new patch is needed, but 2025.

I need to put the tools together to update the patch to pick a new safe start date (and set a reminder 17 years from that date). Hopefully that will do the trick, keeping fingers crossed it’s not a separate problem." Eckhart Köppen, writer of the 711000 patch.

"Things start to look better 🙂 I have been able to update the patch for the next cycle, and it seems it’s doing what it should do. I still want to test this more, since patches can’t be uninstalled easily, and bricking Newtons is definitely a risk with patches.

I’m also as usual reporting my doings here: 40hz.org/Pages/mottek/index.html

Eckhart"

So here it is for the brave among you: 40hz.org/Pages/newton/patches/patch712000/

In case anybody feels comfortable testing the updated patch for the Y2010 problem, and has ways to recover a bricked machine (swap the ROM board with an eMate one, or a German MP2100), would be great if we could get some testing out of it.

I recommend also installing the contained Y2010 Diagnostics package to clear the Alarm soup from the nightly todo-rollover alarms before installing the patch.

The Patch can be installed on a blank (717006) or patched (711000) US MessagePad. I hope to get to German MessagePads and eMates next if everything goes well.

The patch doesn’t have much safeguards against installation on anything else than a US MessagePad 2x00! It can be by the way installed in Einstein, but Einstein has a different approach to dealing with the Y2010 problem, which needs likely a different fix.

That said, I really hope this is now it, and look forward to reports. I’ve updated two Newtons here, and so far it’s working.

Eckhart

PS: This patch will expire 2040. That’s also when the lower levels of the NewtonOS will run into more serious issues...