Michael Figueroa knows that all too well.

Since early June, Figueroa and about 10 colleagues from Rockville-based CTA Inc. have prowled through Los Angeles International Airport, tallying every electronic device they find, from escalators to the electronic signs telling travelers which luggage carousel has their suitcases. It hasn't been a quick job.

Consider a single elevator in the airport police station.

Figueroa and a co-worker, both wielding clipboards, show up at the station's lobby at 9 a.m. After a short wait they're admitted inside, only to find the door to the elevator control room locked. Time to call airport maintenance.

Fifteen minutes later, accompanied by an elevator technician, they're inside a closet-sized room in the building's basement. With the technician holding a huge flashlight, Figueroa inspects the blue, footlocker-sized box.

The elevator system, like millions of other mechanical devices, has microchips "embedded" in its circuitry. The chips perform a variety of computing-related tasks, from indicating when a unit needs maintenance to regulating the temperature inside the cab. The worry is that while some chips depend on dates, they don't understand the year 2000. If not fixed, machines could go haywire; some elevators, "thinking" that decades have passed since they were last serviced, could shut down.

"Looks like an Otis system, so the serial number should be back here," Figueroa mutters as he dusts off the surface of the control box. The number found, he then searches for the model number. "EM0M025," Figueroa reads, as co-worker David Belt jots it down on the Data Acquisition Form tacked to his clipboard.

And so the process goes, with the duo collecting a dozen more pieces of information, including the exact location and room number of the control closet.

A half-hour later they're done. They haven't opened the control panel and actually tested the chips, but what they know about other Otis elevators makes them pretty sure the elevator in front of them will work just fine in the new millennium. "I won't be afraid to get on this one in January 2000," opines Belt.

The form, however, still must be sent back to CTA's field office in the Mojave Desert, where workers will call United Technologies Corp., which makes Otis elevators, to inquire if model EM0M025 has any Y2K problems.

The CTA workers have filled out almost 1,000 forms – one for each unique electronic system. The team already has found some machines that won't cut it, including the cash registers at the parking facility.

"Imagine the chaos if cars can't exit the garage," said Fred Preller, who heads the CTA team. "And that's just what happens if one system goes down."

Technology specialists say only a tiny fraction of embedded chips – fewer than 2 percent, by some estimates – have a date problem. But identifying those is particularly difficult given that an estimated 7 billion embedded chips were shipped just last year.

Compounding the challenge is the fact that many corporate computer systems managers didn't consider embedded devices when they began pondering the Y2K issue. That's because security systems, elevators and automated manufacturing equipment don't fall under the domain of the computer department in many companies. The scramble to find and fix embedded systems has only recently begun.

"I don't think anyone realized the depth of this problem," said Kenneth P. Cohn, the general manager of computer services at the Potomac Electric Power Co. "In the beginning it was a propeller-head issue, not a power plant-engineer issue."

Pepco has found more than 2,000 different embedded systems that must be tested – and possibly repaired – including emission control units, temperature regulators and water-cooling pumps.

Once individual devices are repaired, experts recommend that firms roll the clocks forward on all their systems simultaneously to make sure they haven't missed anything. But for utilities, telephone companies and large manufacturers, that can be tricky. Pepco, for example, can only do it next spring, when one of its power plants will be shut down for routine maintenance.

Some embedded device manufacturers still haven't disclosed whether their products have problems, industry executives say. The situation is particularly dire in the health care industry, where a coalition that includes the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association took the unusual step last month of publicly rebuking the medical-device manufacturing industry for the slow pace of notification.

Even when manufacturers provide requisite information, many organizations – including the Los Angeles airport – plan to conduct some of their own research. "If it's something like runway lighting, it doesn't matter if the manufacturer says it's compliant. We're going to test it," said Anna Buichl, the airport's chief information officer. "We think it's better to be safe and go through all the trouble now than put things to chance."

Frank Goldenberg, owner of the Inner Ski Shop, will need to replace his 1985-era 286 computer and printer. (By Tom Allen – The Washington Post)

Small-Business Worries

Sure, the company that developed the software used to run his cash registers and track inventory notified him a few months ago that the application was not Y2K compliant. The company also told him that it would be six months before it could tell him whether it would create a version that works.

"I'm not a computer expert," said Goldenberg, whose store carries skis and other sporting goods. "It's a very hard concept to understand that all of a sudden your data becomes meaningless. I mean, what difference does it make if the computers think it's 1800 or 2100?"

Nevertheless, Goldenberg has set out to buy a new computer system. "I'm spending all my free time trying to learn about other systems on the marketplace," he said. "I'm starting to make calls to computer firms, stop in their stores, talk to other shop owners about the systems they use. It's a real all-consuming process."

The risk of Y2K disruptions and the effort required to fix the glitch can be, in relative terms, just as costly and labor intensive for small businesses as for large corporations. But technology specialists say that unlike Inner Ski, most small firms responded slowly.

A recent survey of 500 small businesses conducted by Wells Fargo Bank, for example, found that 20 percent of companies are not even familiar with the problem; among those aware of it, roughly half said they intend to do nothing.

Industry analysts raise similar concerns about foreign governments and businesses. In Europe, firms are struggling to convert their systems to handle the new currency called the euro; in Asia, the financial crisis has made it tougher for organizations to pay for needed repairs. "The greatest risks will come internationally and from small to medium-sized organizations," said John A. Koskinen, the White House's Y2K czar.

Even among large U.S. businesses considered to be aggressive in attacking the problem, most specialists say that it is unlikely that every manifestation of the glitch will be discovered and fixed. Still open to debate is whether the failures – in firms big and small, foreign and domestic – will cause anything more than minor annoyances for the public.

"There is," Koskinen said, "still a big uncertainty factor."

To combat that uncertainty, the U.S. government is pushing firms to be more candid about discussing their repair work, detailing the risks involved and sharing technical information with business partners – and even with competitors.

The Justice Department issued a letter in June stating that cooperation among industry rivals on the issue would not violate federal antitrust laws. The SEC on Wednesday decided to start forcing companies to file more meaningful disclosure statements about the costs and progress of their repair work. And on Thursday, the Clinton administration introduced "Good Samaritan" legislation to immunize businesses from lawsuits if they share information about the problem.

Many companies have resisted exchanging technical advice with one another because they worry about costly litigation if the information they provide inadvertently turns out to be inaccurate. Those concerns have been heightened by an initial flurry of class-action suits against software makers and by predictions that the costs of Y2K-related suits could reach $1 trillion.

In some cases, though, companies have no choice but to cooperate. Freddie Mac, for example, must exchange electronic data with hundreds of banks and dozens of securities firms. The company has shared much of its Y2K planning with those partners in an effort to spur their work.

Despite Freddie Mac's efforts, both internally and externally, there is apprehension. To prepare for the unknown, the company's managers have been taking part in military-style drills and simulations.

"It's January 3rd and one of our biggest banking partners is down, we've got a telephone problem, the parking gates won't open and there's a big snowfall forecasted for the next day," Censky said. "What would we do?"

"We're trying to stay prepared," he added, "because it's impossible to know what will happen."

Staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.

NEXT: Government precautions