Actually, I made up that cave thing. But this is, indeed, my Y2K column. And its message to you PC owners out there is: don't panic. Most of you won't have any significant Y2K problems with your PCs, and fixing any that do arise will be fairly simple - or at least as simple as anything else you do with your PC. It won't be nearly as hard as it has been to fix the big mainframe and server computers that companies and governments must overhaul for the Year 2000.

Still, a Y2K problem could screw up your PC, or your data. If your PC thinks it's 1900 instead of 2000, some calculations and other operations could be badly thrown off. And in some rare cases, especially with older PCs, your machine may fail to start up, or data could be lost. So here's a Y2K primer for owners of consumer PCs. It covers four sections: hardware, the operating system, software programs and your personal data.

Hardware: Apple says its Macintosh computers have always been able to handle Year 2000 dates. Windows PCs made before the past couple of years, however, may not be so hardy.

There are two obscure, hidden hardware components that keep the date in a PC and pass that date on to the software. One is called the Real Time Clock, or RTC. The other is called the BIOS. You can test both with a free, downloadable program, called YMARK2000, from a testing lab called NTSL, at www.nstl.com/html/nstl_ymark2000.html. Unfortunately, running this test requires a little knowledge of the old DOS operating system. So you may want to buy a $45 utility program from Symantec, called Norton 2000, that does the test process from Windows.

If your PC flunks, you should check the manufacturer's Web site. In some cases, PC makers suggest workarounds like manual resets of the computer's clock after the new year, or downloadable software utilities called drivers that can compensate for any clock errors. Or you may have to physically upgrade the affected hardware.

Operating System: Apple's Mac operating system is said to be compliant, but Microsoft's Windows may have some very minor problems. Only the latest version of Windows, called Windows 98 Second Edition, is fully Y2K compatible, according to Microsoft. However, Don Jones, a Microsoft Year 2000 expert, says Windows Y2K problems are so obscure that most consumers will never encounter them. One example: The little-used phone dialer utility may incorrectly record the date of some phone calls.

Still, to be safe, you may want to upgrade your version of Windows. You don't have to buy new software to do this. Microsoft has available free Y2K updates for both Windows 95 and Windows 98. These can be found at the company's Y2K Web site or on a free CD-ROM you can get by calling 1-888-MSFT-Y2K. You can also find detailed information about the Y2K problems for all of the company's operating systems. Microsoft plans to make an instructional videotape available for free rental at Blockbuster stores.

Microsoft warns consumers not to believe a myth circulating on the Internet that you can ward off any Y2K problems merely by changing the "short date style" specified in the "Regional Settings" control panel so that it includes a four-digit representation of the year. This is merely a cosmetic setting, controlling how dates are displayed, and it has no impact on how Windows computes dates under the hood. Changing this setting is a good idea just for clarity at the turn of a century. But it doesn't solve underlying problems.

Software: Most of the software programs you use probably don't depend on getting the date right. But some do, especially personal finance programs like Intuit's Quicken or Microsoft's Money. You'll have to check with each company whose software you use for details, and read very carefully - some say that software is "compliant," but they really mean it's compliant if you download a patch or update.

There are some shortcuts. Microsoft has a free product analyzer that scans your PC for Microsoft programs and prints a report on their Y2K compatibility. Norton 2000 does the same kind of scan, only it looks for software from many companies. Microsoft says all versions of Money are Y2K compliant. Intuit says Quicken 2000 is compliant, and so are Quicken 98 and Quicken 99, as long as you have Revision 4 of those earlier programs. People with older versions can upgrade, for free, to Quicken 98.

Data: Some people have date-sensitive data files, such as spreadsheets and databases that perform calculations using dates. It's wise to comb through these and change two-digit years to four-digit years. Microsoft offers a free "wizard" that will do some of this automatically for Excel spreadsheets if you have Excel 97 or later.

Even if you do none of this stuff, odds are you'll be OK. But it's probably worth spending a few hours to be safe, even if you don't have a cave stocked with beef jerky.